Media release                                                                                                                                                                             31 August 2010

Caffeine Celebrated at Auckland Museum Coffee Festival

Short, tall, black, white and everything in-between — indulge your coffee obsession at the inaugural Auckland Museum Coffee Festival as part of the popular Kai to Pie: Auckland on Your Plate exhibition.

 All things caffeine will be celebrated at the dedicated one-day Coffee Festival next month. Explore the many ways to enjoy coffee from the Ethiopian coffee ceremony to affogato; listen to music from DJ Selecta Sam and jazz-funk band Foghorn while you caffeinate yourselves; enjoy latte art, talks, samplings and fluffies for the kids.

Coffee has played an important role in society throughout history. In Africa and Yemen, it was used in religious ceremonies and was banned in Mecca in the 16th Century. It arrived in New Zealand with the earliest European colonists. However, it wasn’t until the influx of American soldiers during World War II that Aucklanders truly began to embrace coffee.

The Auckland Museum Coffee Festival showcases the glorious history of coffee in Auckland The exterior and Atrium of the festival will be free to visitors, who can also view the Kai to Pie exhibition at the same time, and features a 27-metre coffee cup merry-go-round, a Stonka external coffee roaster, real coffee plants and their New Zealand cousins, in addition to a giant mosaic of the Museum composed of 3,000 coffee cups.

The public will also be able to access the Museum’s spectacular upper levels ($10 for adults), which gets visitors into a series of coffee-oriented films, a panel discussion on the social responsibility of the coffee industry, and coffee and conversation with Craig Miller of Miller’s Coffee fame.  

Free cups of espresso coffee will be available, delivered from some of Auckland’s best coffee proponents including Altura, Toasted Espresso, L’Affare, Barista Empire, Atomic, Gravity, Kokako, Espresso Workshop, Coffee Supreme, Alt Ice, Coffee Lab, and Columbus. 

What:               Auckland Museum Coffee Festival

When:              Sunday, 19 September, 10am-4pm

Where:            Auckland Museum

Cost:                $10 for adults, children free

ends 

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