Coffee! Coffee! Coffee!

New Zealand's cafe culture is definitely something I will miss when we leave, especially since the flat white doesn't exist at home. While we were in Rotorua, we looked online for some espresso machines and quickly realised we had no idea what to look for, or what to do with one if we were to own one. So, Neil had the excellent idea of taking a class! Surprisingly (or not surprisingly, given the abundance of cafes here) there are many full-day or multi-day classes offered to become a professional barista. These classes actually require a student visa. New Zealand takes this very seriously! After a bit of effort, Neil stumbled upon a 3 hour "home barista" class offered in Auckland, and we were able to book it. So, we spent our morning practicing making espresso shots and attempting to achieve our perfect 25 second extraction (using 20g of grounds). We then tried texturing milk, both cow and soy, to make our own flat white.

For some background, a flat white is like a stronger, smaller, more velvety cousin of the latte. It consists of a double shot of espresso (40-60ml) plus only about 130ml milk and a thin layer of silky foam. The milk is steamed and then swirled to make a light and velvety consistency. In contrast, a latte contains the same amount of espresso but more milk, typically served in an 8 or 12 oz glass or cup (or even larger). The steamed milk is denser and the latte is topped with more foam than a flat white.

The class was really interesting. It was very enlightening to taste good and bad espresso, and then add milk to taste a regular (180ml) and large (220ml) flat whites side by side (note: a "large" flat white isn't actually supposed to exist, since the flat white should be small, but the desire for "more" impacts coffee sizing, even though a large size just means more diluted! The milk suppresses a lot of the espresso flavour, though it also hides some of the acidity or bitterness of a poorly extracted double shot. We may yet turn into espresso purists and drink the stuff black...though first we'll need some equipment, and a ton of practice :)

After our class we strolled around downtown Auckland a little, and then decided to head north. We weren't originally planning to head north of Auckland, so we looked at a map, picked a well-located town at random, found a well-reviewed motel online, and went for it! So here we are in Kaihohe, a relatively unremarkable town that's about 30 mins from the Kauri forest to the west, the bay of islands to the east, and sits in the middle of a new cycle trail. This is another hotel from the 50's era, with some awesome vintage furniture and a super sweet owner. We have found the perfect small-town North Island location for our final 2 days here!