Business Central September 2020

82 | Volume 5 | Issue 3 RETAIL » Emporio Coffee Emporio - a roastery with a difference Eric and Miriam Heycoop founded the Emporio Coffee roastery in Wellington 20 years ago. Richard Loader E S T W E L L I N G T O N 2 0 0 0 Espresso Ninja - the Wellington Region's leading espresso equipment repair and sales specialists since 2007. Our team specializes in all domestic and commercial servicing, repairs, and sales. With our 300m 2 workshop and showroom conveniently located in the north end of Wellington City, we have everything you need to ensure your espresso equipment pulls those sweet shots- keeping you happily caffeinated! Our large workshop is purpose built for all machinery repairs including servicing, repairs, and comprehensive rebuilds (or even that customization you've always dreamed of!) And, when you've finally made up your mind to splash out on only the best espresso gear - come and see Wellington's largest range on display for you to try! 04 974 8982 espressoninja.co.nz 3B/33 Kaiwharawhara Rd, Wellington Packaging Products are proud to be associated with Emporio Co ee I t’s 1pm on a sunny Wellington afternoon when I chat to Eric Heycoop, who co-founded Wellington roastery Emporio Coffee 20 years ago with his wife Miriam. Eric has been roasting coffee all morning and tells me he could not be in a happier place. “Coffee is fascinating to me because it’s always evolving, you’re forever learning, and it’s surround- ed by very cool people,” says Eric. Roasting coffee, the delicious, almost dreamy aromas and the people are a passion for Eric and Miriam who have made their lives about good cof- fee and customer service, firstly as the creators of a very successful café in downtown Wellington, then Emporio’s journey. Over the twenty years Emporio Coffee has been in business it has steadily built an iconic reputation as a roastery, supplying coffee to a loyal follow- ing of cafes and offices throughout the Wellington region, Wairarapa, Central Otago and down to Gore. “A lot of our biggest cafes are in the smaller towns like in the Wairarapa, Queenstown and Wanaka and as far south as Gore. “But we have an ever growing internet order going out to people at home who want good plunger or stove top coffee and if they have their own grinder even better.” A roastery with a difference - Emporio Coffee has a very cool little espresso bar right at the front of their Abel Smith Street premises - a popular rendezvous of many a Wellingtonian throughout the day and typically more than once. Eric tels me that he and his team roast the beans so that when you finish your first cup the answer is always ‘yes please’ when asked if you would like another. A well-equipped espresso training school has also been added - open to budding baristas, the “Coffee is fascinating to me because it’s always evolving, you’re forever learning, and it’s surrounded by very cool people.” trade and public - with the goal of teaching the finer art of making good coffee. Emporio’s new American built Loring Kestral Roaster is Eric’s pride and joy—Emporio Coffee’s pièce-de-résistance. “It has an in-built after burner which burns the smoke as it leaves the roasting chamber so we put nothing into the atmosphere. “It’s all computer controlled and when it doesn’t need the full amount of energy to roast it just shuts itself down—so as well as using a huge amount less energy it puts virtually no emissions into the atmosphere. “Once we’ve worked out our roasting profile, it’s ‘locked and loaded’ so we can guarantee 100% consistency and to a café that’s the most important thing—to have a natural product that is 100% the same every week.” Reflecting on Emporio’s successful journey over 20 years, Miriam says their focus has always been the customer. “Because we came from the cafe industry having owned our own cafe we understand how cafe own- ers tick - their ups and downs. That makes it easier for us to give them the very best service we can. “Throughout the Covid lockdown we understood what it was like for cafes to close their businesses down. Now that we can all open up again we can understand their excitement about welcoming customers back to their cafes.”