L’affare makes good coffee

words by niall roeder

Coffee culture in Wellington is more than alive and well, it’s going off like a fist-pumping frog in a sock. Welly folk have taken to the cafe scene like a duck to water and now the city has established quite a name for itself amongst the greater caffeinated community. Leading the espresso charge is L’affare – a born and bred Wellington coffee business, who have been there from day dot.

The gang at L’affare love coffee and love New Zealand. They made it their mission to scour the globe for the best and freshest coffee to bring back to their fellow New Zealanders. And they succeeded in that mission.

They’ve been pouring delicious single origins, blends and fair-trade hot chocolates at the L’affare cafe on College Street for the past 27 years, and in that time they’ve built a legion of local and international fans.

Besides providing the people with quality roasts, L’affare have also covered themselves from an ethical standpoint. Their products carry the globally recognised Fairtrade mark – meaning they support and empower the coffee farmers, workers and local environments in countries like Ethiopia, Guatemala, Ethiopia, Colombia and Peru.

Recommended blend: Primo
Primo is L’affare’s signature blend and is New Zealand’s most popular coffee. It’s a full-bodied and complex combination of beans sourced from Africa, Central and South America. For the coffee snobs out there, expect “notes of rich molasses, plum with a shortbread finish.”

For those wanting to pick up what these grind merchants are putting down, Caffe L’affare is open seven days a week and in addition to heroic cups of black gold, they dish up a mean feed, like buttermilk and ricotta pancakes with grilled banana, blueberry compote and mascarpone; and venison loin with root vegetable pave, turmeric cauliflower purée and berry chocolate jus.

Otherwise, feel free to visit Hippopotamus at QT Museum Wellington – it’s our coffee of choice… we swear by it.