Coffee with a conscience

But times have changed, he says, and people are ready for coffee with a conscience ... as long as it tastes great.

Switch Espresso, in New Brighton, opened four weeks ago. It is believed to be the first 100 per cent Fair Trade and organic- certified coffee-roasting business in Christchurch, and, lest you dismiss it as a nice-idea-not-nice-coffee sort of deal, Evans is determined to not only provide excellent coffee but also to modernise the perception of the Fair Trade movement and create a stylie, contemporary brand.

He is building his business not around the idea of the "poor farmer", but rather treating the bean suppliers as "equal and respected traders", and ensuring that, first and foremost, he roasts and makes great coffee.

Although Evans describes Switch primarily as a coffee-roasting business, rather than a cafe, with the roaster and sacks of beans taking up a substantial percentage of the floor space, he does make excellent coffee to go. That is something local business people and residents have been quick to pick up on, but Evans has found that people often want more than just their cup of joe.

"The product has to be top quality, but what really makes this place is the communication," he says. "People want to chat, they want to talk about coffee, they want the story."

Evans believes that the New Zealand coffee industry is at a turning point. Probably every roaster, he says, is now offering at least one blend of organic Fair Trade coffee, but they are in a difficult position. They have established supplies of coffee beans and by promoting Fair Trade they risk discrediting their other product.

"They have client bases that make it hard to change to Fair Trade, and also, not all the coffee origins are available yet through Fair Trade so there are limited origins from which to replace their established blends.

"I'm not jumping on that as ammunition in any way. They developed the coffee culture in New Zealand and without them I would be nowhere, but I'm lucky that I am in a position where I am starting a new roastery. I don't have a client base so I can create all my blends from Fair Trade."

Evans' decision to go the Fair Trade way was based on wanting to have a positive impact on the injustices of the global coffee industry, and on a feeling that, business- wise, the time was right.

After more than six years working as a barista and coffee roaster, Evans went travelling. He saw two sides of the coffee industry - in Venice, the home of coffee culture, and in Mysore, an Indian coffee- growing region. The contrast could not be ignored. Venice's well-heeled citizens and tourists paid handsomely and easily to enjoy a cup of good coffee, whereas in Mysore, the poverty was abject and heartbreaking. It made a lasting impression.

AdvertisementAdvertisement"After seeing that, how could you not go Fair Trade," he says.

Soon after his return to New Zealand he began researching the national and global coffee industry.

"I saw that in Europe, Fair Trade coffee had boomed and it was capturing 30 per cent of the market, whereas in New Zealand, and globally, it is only 1%. But considering we followed European trends in developing a coffee culture, I would be surprised if we don't follow suit in terms of market share. It seemed clear to me through my research that this was where the coffee industry was going to go.

"The timing was perfect. If I had tried to do this five years ago, it wouldn't have happened. We wouldn't have had the bean supply and people wouldn't have been ready for it. Now you see things about Fair Trade on prime-time television and that is a very good indicator of social awareness and acceptance."

He stresses that Fair Trade coffee is not a particular bean or origin. The difference is "in the way the product gets moved from A to B". That, and the fact that the farmers are being paid twice what they would otherwise get.

Switch offers two original blends - Brighton Up for espresso machines, and Revolution, a plunger blend - along with single origin beans from Ethiopia, Colombia, Papua New Guinea and Sumatra, and a decaffeinated blend from Mexico. The coffee is sold in green packs with a motor- scooter logo, and the scooter that inspired it is part of the Switch furniture, when not being used to get Evans to and from his work.

"It is a new business, so it's stressful and all that," Evans says, "but it is also about something bigger than just making money. That's exciting."