when it all began
Custom built roasting house
And we’ve bean growing some more
Coffee imported from around the world
FAIR-TRADE & certified organic
So, if you could choose the world you want… what would it look like?
We’ve given it some thought too. Ours would be a world where: all people are treated fairly, women are empowered and our natural environment is flourishing. Sound good to you?
That’s one of the reasons why we only roast Fair-Trade and certified organic coffee beans.
HOME COMPOSTABLE PACKAGING
A small step for humankind, but a tremendous step for Kawatiri Coffee Roasting!
In 2021 we started the exciting journey of going home compostable with our bulk packaging. We believe in making it easier for our customers to choose ‘green solutions’.
A year later, in October 2022, we said our final goodbye to non-compostable coffee bags in our business! Now all our bags from 200g – 3kg are fully home compostable.
All labeling on the home compostable coffee bags is done by ink stamps, to avoid messy stickers. We reached out to local Nelson artist, Esther Remnant, and asked for her help to hand carve our iconic fern and Wellington Rubber Stamp helped us get the coffee names looking right.
HOW TO HOME COMPOST YOUR COFFEE BAG?
Not only do these bags keep your freshly open-flame roasted Fair-Trade and organic beans fresh, they are also super easy to home compost.
You simply cut the bag into smaller pieces for quicker composting and feed it to your compost or worm farm. Voila!
The home compostable bulk bags are compostable when disposed of in a home or industrial composting environment containing heat, water, oxygen, soil and micro-organisms
A whole lot of hard work
COFFEE IN THE BLOOD
Buck, Tater’s son and the master roaster, has the love of good coffee is in his genes. His grandfather, a gold miner in the wilds of Idaho—a sourdough as such men were called—roasted his coffee in a frying pan over an open fire. His ‘cowboy coffee’ was hot enough to scald the hair off a black bear, and strong enough to dissolve the business end of a spoon. Grandpa would keep the brew going for several days, adding more coffee grounds and fresh spring water, all the while leaving the kettle in the coals so visitors could squat by the fire and enjoy a hot cup of ‘joe’.
Our goal and philosophy? We want to roast exceptionally good coffee the old fashioned way. And as Grandpa used to say, “Pull up a stump, have a coffee, and share a yarn or two. There are no strangers here, only friends we have yet to meet.”
The only roast on the coast makes it to BOTH the top of everest AND THE SOUTH POLE
Our Values
Kiwi Ingenuity
Bruce (the legend mechanic) built the roaster from both new and salvaged materials (as well as plenty of No. 8 wire), the roasting shed… and even the bagging machine!!
Fair-trade
Fair-Trade products were made with respect to people and planet. Their rigorous social, environmental and economic standards work to promote safe, healthy working conditions, protect the environment, enable transparency, and empower communities to build strong, thriving businesses.
Organic
Organic certification is a certification process for producers of organic food and other organic agricultural products. In general, any business directly involved in food production can be certified, including seed suppliers, farmers, food processors, retailers and restaurants.
We Are Family
Our team is made up of our family. We do all our own roasting at our base, at home on the West Coast of NZ.
Team Kawatiri
Tater Coppernoll
Founder
A legend in the worlds of coffee and skydiving, Tater has been roasting on the coast since 2004.
Bruce Thomas
Plant Design & Maintenance Bloke
A bit rough around the edges, but a natural No. 8 wire engineer when he’s not skiving off fishing, hunting and rafting.
Buck Couchman
Owner & Master Roaster
Buck wanders the country with a surfboard and diving gear claiming to be our sales rep.