Reseller Interview: Espresso Workshop

The country of New Zealand is famed for its relationship with coffee. Not only does it have a world-famous cafe culture and heralds itself as the birthplace of the flat white, but it also reported that over 70 percent of its population enjoy at least one coffee drink daily.

Espresso Workshop is a coffee roastery based out of the major North Island city of Auckland. Over 15 years, the business has expanded from a small roasting business to three busy locations and a verified reseller of Acaia products. This month, we spoke with owner and founder Andrew Smart about the roasting business, where he predicts the local scene is heading, and the importance of relationships in the coffee industry.

This interview has been edited for clarity.

After selling my juice bar in Central Auckland, I found myself frequenting espresso bars. I began immersing myself in coffee culture. I loved the vibe and was very curious about the flavors that coffee produced. I found my way into a role at a local roastery, and after a couple of years in coffee. I started developing a coffee-roasting business concept. The concept focused on single-origin coffee and tailored blends. It featured single-origin coffee as a new approach and a point of difference. We found a cool spot in Parnell, Auckland, to launch our coffee business. In September 2007, after a modest refit of the premises, the Espresso Workshop journey kicked off.

Most other coffee roasters were producing blends during the early days of Espresso Workshop. But we wanted to roast single-origin coffee featuring the origin characteristics. We didn't want to hide them with a blend of 4/5 origins. We wanted to inform coffee drinkers the same way the wine industry does its customers. Wine consumers recognize and know the background of their bottles. Many who enjoy wine are knowledgeable about specific grape varieties or regions. I wanted our consumers to connect with the terroir, regions, and varietals of their coffee. I elevated the experience by offering single-origin options and higher-quality coffee.

We may see another wave of specialty coffee in the near future. During Covid, we saw the local specialty scene retract. Operators restricted their offering and we saw many tighten their belts due to economic uncertainty. The economic uncertainty is still with us, but we are now seeing people recover their pre-covid lifestyle choices. There is more certainty about patronage and café customer numbers building back up. I can see more specialty and micro lot coffees going back on espresso bar menus. After three years of fewer choices. We’ll see more choices and increasing specialty options. 

At Espresso Workshop, coffee is not just a product but an experience. We focus on sourcing quality specialty coffee and roasting to unlock the full flavor potential of the coffee. Coffee should be traceable and transparent. We want to be knowledgeable about our range of coffees and able to pass on the key information of each coffee. Details include the producer, methods of growing, processing, and other harvest information. All this history makes a coffee special. Relationships are crucially important in coffee. Strong, long-term relationships produce a better product.

We recently purchased a stunning natural-processed Colombian Microlot from Gaitania village in Tolima. It’s a fruit bomb with tropical flavors of papaya and mango and lovely orange acidity. It's not without some fantastic sweetness that resembles golden syrup. I’ve been drinking it by Moccamaster or our shop batch brewer, but have also been brewing the occasional v60 as a treat.

We have a great relationship with Fazenda Jaguara in Brazil. We have visited them on a couple of occasions and had the opportunity to immerse ourselves in coffee with them on the farm. In recent years this has allowed the producers Natalia and Andre to better understand the coffees we are looking for. They can adapt processing methods and ship coffee to us that suit our style of flavor profile.

Our standard use of Acaia is to have Pearl placed alongside our espresso bar grinders. We check the weight of our dosing to ensure our shots are consistent. Taking the next step in quality assurance, we ensure a Lunar is on hand at our espresso bars to weigh the output of our shots.  Any espresso bar serious about quality needs the tools that Acaia provides. They ensure brewing recipes are adhered to and taste results are consistent.  Pearls are also used for our soft brewing, generally v60 or Chemex. The reality is that weighing tools are a constant need in any coffee operation to offer high-end service. Acaia produces premium weighing tools that come in a range of models. They are custom designed for the specialty coffee industry.

One thing I’m proud of is our recently launched 100% paper recyclable retail coffee bags. We spent months working on the best way for our customers to act more sustainably with regard to packaging. What we came to realize is that only a small part of the customer market will compost or send bags to soft plastic recycling. But everyone has easy access to paper recycling, we have no bits or pieces to remove from the bag. It's just a case of placing the whole bag in your paper recycling… easy!

Find the official Espresso Workshop Coffee Roasters website here.