Welcome back to Bean of the Month: a monthly-ish review of coffee I think you should try.
2024 brings a different kaupapa to BOTM. This year, my goal is to showcase coffee from roasters I haven’t tried before, or haven’t had in a while. I want to lift my gaze above the regular roasters I drink, and explore the wonderful roasters we have across Aotearoa.
This month I’d like to introduce to you: Rocket Coffee
Rocket Coffee
It was September 2016 and TMR European Correspondent Matty Sime and I had spent the best part of five days kayaking around the motu. A hoon down the beautiful Tongariro River, and a day at the Vector Wero White Water Park in Auckland had filled our cups. But we were itching to leave the heckers rivers behind us in search for a wave.
It was about 3pm on a sunny Monday afternoon that we were driving down State Highway 1, heading south away from the hustle and bustle of Auckland for the more serene vibes of Raglan.
Our kayaks sat proudly on top of a late model Toyota, securely tied down to the Daihatsu roof racks. While the yaks were nice and secure, we were about to find out that the racks were not [something something Toyota’s and Daihatsu’s arent the same car"].
If you have driven with anything on your roof, you’ll be familiar with that noise - a constant whistle and whine as your previously aerodynamic car now struggles against the weight of the air.
We were jamming some quality chat, listening to NOFX’s Decline for the hundredth time, when the noise stopped. A brief moment of calm descended in the car as we finally had some respite from the constant hum of the kayaks.
That brief moment quickly turned to panic as we looked in the rear vision mirror to see our kayaks bouncing down State Highway 1, still attached to the roof racks, but no longer attached to the car.
We pulled over to the hard shoulder and started running up the busy road to retrieve our cargo, praying that they didn’t end up damaged, ruining our next mission. Oh, and hoping that they didn’t end up going through anyone’s windscreen.
We gathered ourselves, made a trip to Super Cheap Autos in Pukekohe for new rack mounts, and made our way to Raglan, getting there just as the sun set on a glorious day.
The next day we surfed Manu Bay, and had a magic time. But having not slept very well due to sharing a bed [Matt is handsy, in a good way] and reliving what could have been a very terrible time indeed over and over, we needed coffee.
Raglan has coffee, sure, but it was something grander that we craved.
We knew of Rocket Coffee but hadn’t had the pleasure of trying it for ourselves. We made a new mission - get to Rocket Coffee in Hamilton, with kayaks still on our roof.
Success. We made it.
And from that fateful day in 2016 Rocket Coffee has been on high rotation in the coffee cupboard.
When ever I have Rocket Coffee, I’m transported right back to that mission. I can feel the dread. I can smell the salt. I can taste that Ethiopian coffee. Funny how the brain works.
Rocket Coffee continues to source exceptional coffee and roast it with absolute skill and care.
I’ve had a few coffees from Rocket Coffee this year that have smashed it out of the park.
The San Rafael Desamparados from Costa Rica was a really fun time.
The Luz Helena Salazar and Pauola Trujillo (both from Colombia) were excellent examples of the best of washed coffees - light, delicate, fruity.
But it was the ice natural processed Jairo Arcila from Colombia that tipped Rocket Coffee into Bean of the Month territory.
What is the ‘ice natural’ process?
The process that is used has a massive impact on what you end up tasting.
In a normal ‘natural’ process, ripe coffee cheeries are dried slowly in the sun, with the fruit intact. Once dry, a machine is used to get the bean out from the rest of the fruit.
Since the coffee gets to dry and ferment with the fruit still on the bean, natural process coffees tend to be fruitier, sweeter, very intense and berry-like.
An ‘ice natural’ process is an experimental process that takes a natural process one step further.
According to the Rocket Coffee website: [an ice natural coffee] “is anaerobically fermented for 24 hours & then placed inside GrainPro bags for 50 hours at temperatures below 22 degrees, then frozen for 72 hours. After this fermentation process, the frozen coffee is placed on raised beds at temperatures below 35 degrees until the ideal moisture content is achieved.”
There you go.
Such a good coffee
This ice natural coffee is one of the coffees of 2024 so far, and has to be tasted to be believed.
This bag came with a sticker on it “FUNK” and it delivered in spades. Not an over-powering or over-fermented or unpleasant funk. No, this was super approachable, delicious stone fruit funk that was super sweet and super drinkable.
Rocket Coffee’s website says “it’s a coffee to drink over weeks rather than blasting through it all the first week.” Hard disagree. Smash it fast. Get all of that goodness inside of you - stat! Then go buy some more.
There are a few versions of this coffee around the place, but Rocket Coffee has roasted the best one I’ve tasted.
At $27.00 a 250g, it is one of the best value highest quality coffees you can buy. It could be double, triple the price. Don’t sleep on this coffee.
It’s hard work to be producing a quality product, year after year. It’s amazing to me that Rocket Coffee has always been at the top of the roasting game in New Zealand.
Where some roasters might choose to start roasting for the majority of the coffee drinking public to survive (and fair enough) Rocket Coffee continues to source really interesting specialty coffee that pushes you into exciting new corners of taste.
I reached out to Glen Woodcock at Rocket Coffee to learn more about what they’re all about. He was a legend. We had a good yarn about podcasts, coffee, tramping and a heroin addict who was trying to run a cafe in Tauranga. Wild stuff.
So here is the run down on what makes Rocket Coffee great.
Glen Woodcock from Rocket Coffee
TMR: what was the inspiration behind Rocket and what got you into roasting?
Glen: Well, we did start a long time ago when there were very few roasters & Crompo [Glen Crompton - the other Glen at Rocket] and I thought we could have a crack at it.
TMR: what's your roasting style and philosophy?
Glen: We’ve always tied to roast to highlight the flavours we tasted in the sample and to suit the brew method, either espresso or filter.
In espresso want some acidity, fruity flavours if we can get em - a developed roast with minimal roast flavours.
For filter we want to preserve as much flavour & acidity as we can with zero roast or undeveloped grain flavours.
TMR: what's the key to sourcing a great coffee and bringing your vision for that coffee to life?
Glen: We just roast & cup every coffee that comes our way, always trying to be in the loop with importers & pushing them to get what we want.
When we started roasting we could only get coffee from Colombia or Kenya, never from a single farmer or washing station, so now that we can, we try whenever we can to get coffee from these folks.
TMR: what does the outlook look like for roasters in NZ? We are in tough times but quality products appear to continue to be doing okay - is that the sense you're getting on the front lines of SMEs?
Glen: There’s a lack of labour in producing countries - if there aren’t enough workers to harvest, either there will be less production or farmers may turn to less labour intensive crops.
Like every product, most people take pride in doing their best… growing special coffee is a lot of work & at times like these when prices are high it may be a better option for some to do the bare minimum with less cost to themselves but still getting good money.
In short, labour, volatile prices, logistics… but we’ve always had ups & downs.. so we just try & do our best.
TMR: what's your favourite coffee right now and what other Kiwi roaster is killing it right now?
My favourite coffee is Paola Trujillo’s washed Pink Bourbon.
And I great time at Holiday in Auckland drinking Woo Hyung Lee’s coffee a few weeks ago.
Thanks to Glen for his knowledge and sharing his stoke about coffee.
I’ve had a great time getting to know Glen and Rocket Coffee more, and enjoying some exceptional coffee.
Tmr is beaniclious
Great notes. Nice rack