New Zealand Listener – August 24, 2019

AUGUST 24 2019 LISTENER 33

Which is?

Great flavour, length of flavour, a rounded

balanced flavour. Some of the new kids on

the block are roasting very light – so light

that the coffee is sour and not very palatable.

You want to be producing a good cup of

coffee so people will go, “That was good.

I’ll have another one.”

How does a cup of coffee end up costing about

$5 for a flat white?

There is a lot of hype and headlines about

the cost of a cup of coffee. When you look

at the price per pound that it trades at on

the New York exchange, that is a long way

from the cost of shipping it, roasting it,

shrinkage, packaging and advertising. And

then it gets into a cafe and there is GST and

tax. Rents are steep. Margins might look

high but the cost of getting coffee to the

table is extraordinary.

You can pluck at the heart strings of

consumers and say, “You are paying too

much for your coffee”, and in some cases

you are, because it is not worth drinking.

The sooner the consumer distinguishes

between a good cup of coffee and a bad

cup and votes with their feet, the better.

There is a difference between the McCafés

and the independent cafes that care about

their coffee, have well-trained people, use

the right milk and give some service. But

everyone is charging about $5.

The latest report of the Intergovernmental Panel

on Climate Change recommends moving from

meat and dairy to more plant-based foods. What

are the implications for coffee drinkers who like

their coffee with cows’ milk?

Look, I’ll go to dinner with people, have a

meal and when it’s 8.30pm and we’re offered

a coffee, they’ll say, “I’ll have a latte”. How

can you drink a latte after you’ve just had

a meal? It’s not right. The consumption of

these large-volume dairy drinks is uncon-

scious, it’s habitual. In Europe, if people

are young enough to tolerate milk in any

quantity, they will have one café au lait or

a latte or a cortado in the morning and,

if they want coffee in the afternoon, they

drink it black. It makes sense; it becomes a

smart drink that gives you a lift rather than

being food.

Where are your beans from and are they ethically

sourced?

They’re from Colombia, Brazil, Guatemala

and Indonesia. Ethical sourcing is a massive

subject. What precisely does it mean and

whose ethics? We deal with very reputable

exporters – we go to Bogotá, for example, and

deal with people we trust and whose values

we share. People need to trust us and believe

in what we do. We created our own [ethical]

mark – we don’t want a third-party endorse-

ment. We go to the plantations, check the

picking regulations, how they look after any

migrant workers, whether doctors and den-

tists are provided on site, whether there is

good housing – we do our own assessment.

Ethical trading doesn’t stop at source; it’s

also about how you treat your employees

and it must run through the whole organisa-

tion. We have 1000 relationships with 1000

businesses. Our ethical trading is not third

party – we know these people.

Have we reached peak coffee?

We’re innovating and have a couple of new

products in development – a ready-to-drink

can and a convenient roast and ground

pour-over sachet. We’re going to explore

different ideas around an espresso tincture

that you could split with sparkling water or

gin, or make an espresso martini with.

What’s the connection between Allpress Gallery

in Auckland and the coffee business?

The gallery is a little bit self-serving. We had

this space and we wanted to attract different

tribes, and support the arts as well, so we

make that space available free of charge to

young emerging artists and some well-estab-

lished artists, such as Lisa Reihana, Grace

Bader, Ben Young and Ken Griffen and to

Auckland Studio Potters and Monmouth

Glass Studio.

What’s your philanthropic focus beyond the

gallery?

We’ve become conscious of our ability to

influence. Our reusable replica of an Allpress

takeaway coffee cup is an alternative to the

typical single-serve paper cup. It’s made with

plant-based plastics, not petroleum. We are

redesigning our packaging, conscious of the

materials we want to use yet still needing to

protect our fresh product. Allpress can’t do

everything so, with me having been a surfer

and a sailor and coming from New Zealand,

the ocean is our philanthropic focus. We

are backing one or two big global initiatives

rather than doing a bunch of random stuff.

A final word on coffee – what’s your favourite

brew?

I built this company on espresso. At home

I grind the coffee just before I brew it, using

a filter cone. I make quite a large, strong pot

that I drink while I read the paper and clear

the emails. That’s my morning ritual. l

1. Michael Allpress as a child. 2. With friend
   Charlotte Long and his Sealegs boat. 3. A surf
   board designed by Allpress. 4. Allpress Espresso
   Tokyo. 5. Beans going into a grinder. 6 & 7.
   Allpress pictured this week.

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