Our guest blogger Tina is German but lives and works in New Zealand. She enjoys the coffee culture in New Zealand and is sending posts of her espresso sojourn.
Flat White at The Back Porch Cafe
Coming from a country where it is common to have ‘coffee and cake’ at around 4pm in the afternoon, I still haven’t managed to adjust to the fact that most cafés down here close just around that time, if not earlier. I suppose Kiwis prefer an early Saturday morning coffee break so they can spend the rest of the day surfing, hiking, kayaking, paragliding, fishing or sailing.
Since my perfect Sunday involves sleeping in, having a late breakfast, browsing through a book or magazine for a while, taking a long shower and then heading to town to stroll around the little shops, by the time I enter one of the cafés, most of the other people have already left.
The same happened on Saturday afternoon a couple of weeks back, when I walked into The Back Porch Café, a neat little place between a strip of shops on the road towards Mt Maunganui. I asked whether their kitchen was still open, and the lady behind the counter said it wasn’t, but that they would make me something anyway. So I took a seat on the back porch (of course), and minutes later she brought me a big plate of bacon and eggs, with a warm slice of salty buttered baguette, a bottle of water as well as a creamy flat white, which is what lattes are called here in New Zealand. And while I was eating up what tasted absolutely homely and delicious, I could hear the chef cleaning up the last pans in the kitchen, happily whistling a tune.
The coffee they’re offering at The Back Porch Cafe comes from a small Auckland brand, Velvet Coffee Roasters. And that name alone makes me crave another flat white right now, while I am typing this.
