Golden Coffee Beans

Golden Coffee Beans

Pete Davies of Underground Coffee Company, turned his fair trade organic beans to gold over labour weekend at the inaugural BP New Zealand Coffee Festival and Awards held in Taupo.

Teams of judges led by the Chairman of the World Barista Championships, Instaurator, judged five categories of freshly roasted coffee - espresso, plunger, flat white, organic, and decaffeinated. It was the organic 1st prize that went to Pete Davies using his Trade Aid sourced green beans from Sumatra, Nicaragua and Ethiopia.

Underground Coffee Company began experimenting with the fair trade organic beans several months ago and perfected the gold winning blend in August of this year. Always committed to providing an exceptional product Pete Davies says “from the outset we have embraced a philosophy of honesty and integrity and aligned ourselves with environmentally sustainable practises, we see organic fair trade as a critical factor in portraying and promoting this commitment and are very excited by the speed and intensity of its growth within New Zealand”

Pete, Caren Butler and Jules Mark, all locals in the Cashmere area set up Cup, winner of Canterbury Café of the Year 2004, and then later opened another café at the South Christchurch library red. The prize winning fair trade organic coffee can be purchased at both these locations.

Trade Aid Communications Manager Michelia Ward, is excited by the award “which emphasises the quality the consumer receives when making a decision to buy coffee for which a fair price has been paid to the coffee farmers who are so often abused by the large coffee corporations”. Fair trade coffee has been available throughout Trade Aid stores since 1980 and currently demand is surging as more and more customers learn about and support ethically sourced products.

Judging from independent research on consumer responsibility and the popularity of organic and fair trade products in the UK and Europe, Underground Coffee Company is in vogue in its effort to show the consumer what it is the business cares about.

With a gold result for a company that Pete Davies says is “still in its infancy” the future of fair trade organic coffee looks assured in the New Zealand café scene.

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