Christchurch and Wellington Espresso Run

visited: march 2008

I apologise for not keeping up to date with my blog, to be perfectly honest nothing exciting or thrilling is happening in my life at the moment, so my espresso runs are a very rare occasion these days, however over Easter I visited New Zealand and had an opportunity to drop past few coffee shops. Here is a quick rundown of places in Christchurch and Wellington.

Christchurch

There are few places that I’ve heard of, however all but one were closed due to Easter holidays.

I ended up going to C1 Espresso (150 High Street) , this unorthodox espresso bar offered a very rewarding experience. They pull a double ristretto into a funky heavy glass. The coffee itself was fantastic and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Sitting among Japanese cartoons that are pasted on walls was very interesting. They also have a small space for a DJ, yet another very interesting concept that they integrated into their space. They even have a bazaar sowing machine that will poor your water (you have to see it to believe it).

C1 is an absolute must to visit.

I would like to mention others that I didn’t get a chance to visit as they were closed, but feel that they are definitely worth visiting.

Vivace espresso bar (86 Hereford Street)
Underground Roastery (803 Colombo St)

Wellington

Same story as Christchurch, all the places are closed on public holidays apart from one.

Caffe Astoria (159 Lambton Quay) is located at the bottom of a big Vodafone building. A well established café with 2 WEGA machines. Inside the shop they have a small Italian made Vittoria roaster. They only do one blend and do a pretty solid job. I thought that the coffee was very good however I could sense few defects like chalkiness, might be due to long roast time or something to do with the roaster not very sure. Never the less I do recommend visiting them, you will get a decent shot of espresso.

Other places to look out for:

Lafare (27 College St)
Mojo (23 kent terrace)