2022 is done and for many it’s been another dumpster fire of a year. With COVID, riots, wars, cost-of-living crisis, the Black Caps losing, the ever present threat of climate change - it can seem all doom and gloom.

He did not abide by the results of the poll…

But it’s not! For The Magic Roast, it’s been our biggest year yet - with more stories, more shares, more comments and more fun than ever.

That all comes down to you! Your support keeps me going.

Here’s a few of my highlights from 2022.

Top stories on The Magic Roast in 2022

Review: 2022 NZ Aeropress Champs

This one was published back in February and has been chugging along quietly to become the most viewed and re-viewed post of the year!

Includes interviews with the winner Alex Escobar and bronze medalist An Nguyen.

Both of these legends went on to compete in the World’s and did New Zealand proud!

The Perfect Day out in Auckland

Back in July we welcomed The Magic Roast’s European Correspondent Matty Sime to the fold, where we promptly forgot the assignment and did a review of the Auckland coffee scene.

This is a cracker of an introduction to the blog and we are blessed to have Matt filing great yarns on the regular (including ‘Forty hours of long-laul and heartbreak - better with coffee’ - a cracker of a yarn).

It sucks that this coffee sucks

This one struck a nerve, and that was reflected in the views, comments and DMs that I got.

It sparked a conversation that has been subsequently picked up by others like The Drumming Barista and was tangentially talked about on episode 9 of The Home Barista Podcast.

This story one includes my favourite quote of the year, from an anonymous coffee roaster:

“By roasting out some of the character of a high quality Gesha, you get to sell the Gesha brand, look like you’re buying from a recognized estate or farmer, get to share a slightly more interesting coffee with your large customer base and get to look like you are one of the cool kids.”

Trade School Kitchen - my love letter to the best cafe in Wellington

I only published this one a few weeks ago and it went gangbusters.

It’s popularity had nothing to do with my writing and everything to do with the awesomeness of Trade School Kitchen.

Trade School Kitchen was the last cafe I went to in Wellington before we left, and it still sings to me. Even on that wet, gloomy day, we were welcomed with a warm embrace, and some hilarious banter - which was shouted out across a busy cafe:

Unnamed TSK legend: “I think cascara tastes like sacks. No, not that type of sack, coffee sacks!”

If you haven’t been there yet, what are you doing with your life?

Coffee - coffee facts from a 9 year old with a punishing Dad

Rounding out the top five is the debut of my sweet daughter Melody, who put on her investigative journalism hat and came up with some cracker coffee facts.

Did you know coffee helped the Olympic athletes? Brazil couldn't afford to send its athletes to Los Angeles for the 1932 Olympics, so the government loaded them in a ship full of coffee which was sold on the way to finance their trip.

I’m so proud to see this post go off like Phil Goff!

Support The Magic Roast and buy me a coffee! Your support is greatly appreciated and it allows me to try awesome new coffees and share the experience with you!

Buy me a coffee!

Coffee of the year

2022 was shaping up to be a bit of an average year for coffee, with a lot of what I tried, and a lot of what was hyped up, not really raising the roof.

There were some really good standouts however, including Hammerstone Coffee, Chilled Out Coffee Roasters, Silverskin Coffee, C4 Coffee, and Firsthand Coffee, and of course the ones I covered in the Bean of the month series.

But there was only one that made my year.

Honey Anaerobic Castillo

This coffee made me rethink what coffee could be. It was the Honey Anaerobic Castillo by Leonid Ramierz, roasted by Frank’s Coffee Roasters in Wellington.

As I mentioned in episode 4 of BOTM, this one was mad. Proper mad. Strawberry icecream sort of vibes. Something I never expected to taste in a coffee. It fact, it didn’t taste like coffee - if this had been presented as a non-coffee drink, I would have believed it.

I’m down to my last few grams and I am so sad to get to the end of the bag. Out of all the coffee this year, this one was THE ONE that made me grateful to the coffee gods.

The Drumming Barista’s top six of 2022

I chose one coffee and Sean chose six (greedy) in his recent blog post. It’s worth checking Sean’s top six out.

I can definitely vouch for his 2nd favourite, the Nectario Zuniga from C4 Coffee in Christchurch - it was a banger.

Coffee toy of the year

Unusually for me, I didn’t purchase many new coffee toys this year. My wife will be absolutely stoked about that, as I already have quite the collection and I sort of dominate the kitchen cupboards.

THEY ALL GET USED (well, mainly).

But there was one toy that I purchased that I was somewhat skeptical about but presently surprised - the Kruve Sifter.

I’ll do more of a write up about this one in a future post but I really love using the Kruve.

The Kruve Sifter has two sieves in it that lets you remove the coffee grounds that are too small (which can make the coffee too bitter) and too big (which can make the coffee too sour) - leaving you a very consistent and uniform set of grounds that make a very delicious coffee.

The fun with this toy comes in when you experiment by purposely adding back in the small or big grounds to change the way the coffee tastes.

Magic stuff and I love it. More to come next year.

We’re done now - go have a sit down

That’s 2022 done. Time for a wee sit down and a cuppa so we can be re-energised for 2023.

Next year look out for a more toy reviews like the Kruve, a book review (yes, I read!) an insight into new varieties of coffee that might just save the coffee industry, interviews with your 2022 NZ Barista Champs, a tour of the Tauranga coffee scene and more great fun!

Thanks heaps for your support over 2022 - I can’t wait for 2023!

The Magic Roast

A huge 2022 - thanks totally to you