Kawatiri Coffee Roasting

Kawatiri Coffee roasting is the West Coast's coffee roaster and offers fresh, flame-roasted Certified Organic and Registered Fairtrade coffees, both whole bean and ground.

All Kawatiri Coffee's roasting equipment was conceived and constructed right here on the Wild West Coast of New Zealand's South Island.

A self-confessed 'coffee snob', roaster/owner Tater Coppernoll's earliest memories are filled with the aroma of roasting and brewing coffee. Her father, a pioneer and gold miner in the wilds of Idaho, roasted his coffee in a cast iron frying pan, brewed it in a syrup tin, and drank it hot enough to "scald the hair off a black bear". The 'sourdoughs' as men like Tater's father were known, liked their coffee strong and would often keep the same brew going for several days, occasionally adding fresh ground coffee and creek water.

Tater became passionate about Fairtrade and Organic coffees when an Ethiopian friend explained how coffee farmers often live in poverty. Tater currently buys Fairtrade green coffee beans from farmer co-operatives in Ethiopia, Nicaragua, Guatemala, East Timor, Papua New Guinea and Ache Province in Sumatra.

Fairtrade helps economically disadvantaged farmers get a fair price for their coffee and other products. Often the farmers receive only about three cents for every shot of espresso purchased by consumers. A fair price for the coffee may mean better health care and educational opportunities for farmers' children.