A sum of all the parts
Coffees that have shaped The Magic Roast
Over the last few months, The Magic Roast has grown a heck of a lot (thanks
!). I’ve had an explosion of new subscribers, including new paid subscribers (looking at you Tom!) . Every time someone signs up to read the words I write, I am humbled. Thank you for your support!Given there’s a bunch of people who are new, I thought I’d take the time to reintroduce myself, by focusing on some of the great coffees that have shaped The Magic Roast (in part inspired by the great
).While I may be a fiend now, coffee wasn’t always a big part of my life. It’s something that has come slowly at times, and incredibly fast at others.
Following on from the Google Photo driven reminder of COVID-19 lockdowns, I went deep into the machine and was surprised that many of my foundational coffee memories lived not only in my brain, but also in a server somewhere in America.
Here’s a few of the great memories that stick in my mind, and have helped shape The Magic Roast.
I’m keen to hear about any amazing coffee memories that you have - chuck em in the comments.
The coffee that kicked off the obsession - Starbucks, Trump Tower, New York
Yeah, the coffee that got me really hooked on caffeine, was a sugar laden, cream filled moccafrappesomething in New York. It was day 1 of a trip with my wife and some mates - I was jetlagged, tired and had a full day of exploring to do.
I was 25 and up until this day, I hated coffee.
While my wife got some much needed sleep, I left the cozy hotel room to meet up with TMR contributer,
. He suggested that the thing I needed to fuel a day of adventuring in the Big Apple, was Starbucks.We stumbled into Trump Tower on 5th Avenue, to Starbucks (which has recently left the building) and ordered. As a coffee noob, I didn’t want anything to ‘coffee like’, so the frappe was the ticket. It was equal parts gross and amazing. I never looked back and Starbucks will always have a special place in my heart.
RIP Starbucks Trump Tower.
Hipster to it’s core - RIP Lamasons
Not long after the New York trip, my coffee addiction was really starting to flourish.
I was into the long blacks (with sugar - sorry to let my comms and coffee mentor (and TMR paid sub) Jacqui M down…) thanks to having a Mojo at the bottom of my building.
And while that was enough to get me going, down the road there was something that would open up new corners of possibility.
It was a grey day, typical for Wellington, when I had taken a long lunch with two of my dear friends, Matt and Craig. The Dockside brews had inspired us not to rush back to the office (again, sorry Jacqui, and Anna… I was a great employee), but we needed something to take the edge off. I’m not sure who mentioned Lamasons (it must have been Matt), but I’m glad they did.
Lamasons was one of the first Wellington cafes to have a siphon bar - equal parts coffee wizardry and entertainment. That first siphon melted my brain (and burnt my tongue) and was my first introduction into the hipster Wellington coffee scene. The Magic Roast was born in places like Lamasons.
I own a siphon but I don’t use it nearly as much as I should. I shall fix that, stat.
They don’t make em like they used to
Coffee Supreme Woodward St was a massive part of my specialty coffee education. The manager there, Bridget, saw me coming and before long my cupboard was stacked full of gear.
In 2013, they rolled out the first geisha I had ever tried. It was the very first coffee I had where I could really taste the tasting notes. It was expensive, and a limited run, and I blasted through it with my Swiss Gold in the cold corner of the Justice Building before I really knew what was going on.
The following year, 2014, they released another one - the Panama Hartmann geisha. I remember it like it was yesterday - apricot pie. Full on apricot pie, with the shortcrust pasty and everything.
For many years, it was the best coffee I had tasted.
In the years following, geisha coffee really took off and became super popular, but, in my opinion, the quality dropped off. It’s only in really recent years that the geisha variety has, in my eyes, matched the highs of 2014.
After the amazing experience I had with this coffee, I hit up Coffee Supreme and asked for an interview. Their head roaster at the time, Justin McArthur, spent over an hour with me just chatting about coffee. You can check out that interview, from 2014, below. It was my first interview for The Magic Roast - I was such a noob.
2019 New Zealand AeroPress Champs
I have literally thousands of coffee photos, but this is my favorite.
It’s from the 2019 New Zealand AeroPress Champs, hosted by Coffee Supreme in Auckland.
It was the first coffee comp I had been a part of, and I had such a massive time.
The photo represents the thing I love about coffee the most - community (and I look kind of crazed, like maybe I should be focusing on the brewing and not the selfie).
Despite being constantly feed beers by the Coffee Supreme crew, I managed to blag my way through the first round, beating some proper coffee pros along the way.
Coffee comps are so much fun, and since 2019, I’ve competed in another 2AeroPress Champs, 2 Allbrews throwdown (placing 2nd in 2024) and a V60 comp (quarterfinals baby).
And in July is the 2025 New Zealand AeroPress Champs in Wellington. I better get myself a ticket when the go on sale next week!
Side bar - the event was held in a tennis and squash club - they had some wicked pics on the walls.
There you have it
A small insight into the coffees that have shaped not only my coffee life, but maybe even my world view.
Share your favourite coffee memory below - I’d love to hear it.
I can’t pick a favourite but I can remember the ‘gateway’, my progression and some notable moments. Like you I wasn’t a coffee drinker. I didn’t hate it and I do remember enjoying iced coffee as a teenager that I used to make at home in a Nescafé shaker using milk, ice, Blend 43 instant, sugar and occasionally some Milo if I felt like it. But then I just stopped drinking coffee altogether as I didn’t really like hot drinks of any kind. If I was ever somewhere cold and felt the need I just went with black tea. But a few years into my 20s I went rock climbing in the Port Hills with a friend visiting from Sydney. He wanted a coffee on the way and when I didn’t get one he basically asked me what was wrong with me. 🤣 It stuck in my brain and it just so happened that at the time I had some Robert Timms coffee bags at home that I’d received as a gift in a Christmas hamper. I was curious so I tried them and was surprised to find I liked them. I tried a few different coffees over the following weeks and quickly worked out I liked strong black coffee, usually with one or two sugars. So for the next few years it was long blacks or strong filter coffee made at work on the old filter machine with cheap, shitty coffee and always two sugars. I became a regular at a couple of cafes and got to know staff on a first name basis. At one cafe in particular I didn’t even need to order - I’d walk in, join the queue and my coffee would be ready by the time I got to the cash register. Sadly Cafe Metro was a victim of the quakes. The next stages were actually driven by family. The birth of my daughter made me think I needed an espresso machine at home (correct). Then our move to Auckland got me drinking milk coffees as the water there was worse and black coffees just not as nice. Roasts were generally darker too due to the flat white being so prominent. And once I was firmly a cappuccino drinker I started realising I didn’t really need sugar. It wasn’t until we moved back to Canterbury in 2012 that things really got out of hand and I quickly got into single origins, machine refurbishing and then filter brewing. I’ve had lots of amazing coffee over the years but one that really sticks in my mind as a turning point that got me drinking more filter coffee was a Kenyan Nyeri that I had at The Hangar the morning after the GnR concert at the Caketin in 2017 (in the middle of a cyclone). I’d been drinking filter coffee for a few years already but it was the best I’d had to the point and definitely a turning point. Other memories include being runner up in the 2015 Regional Home Barista champs at the old C4, and competing in both regional Aeropress competitions in Christchurch, making the quarter finals once. It’s been fun.
And you were a great employee, particularly for bringing the lolz on the daily 😁