B2 told me about this place before B1 took me down. Rabbit Island Coffee Co is a smallish roastery that makes its own blend and also roasts single beans one at a time and Alberta’s is a cafe next door to the roaster, which is owned by the same people. The set up for the roastery here is pretty cool with the coffee roaster in full view and a nice area to sit and sample coffee and also buy coffee brewing equipment. You can only try filter coffee here and if you want to have an espresso you need to go next door to the cafe Alberta’s, which has a full cafe menu and also real fruit ice-creams on offer.
Ethiopia ‘Wonberta’ Sidamo
When I had it, the coffee had just been roasted in the morning and had not really had time to settle. The coffee was slightly more bitter than I expected from a single bean but that could be due to the roast being freshly roasted. I tasted a nice hint of citrus and apricot. I can see the potential of a nice roast but because it was freshly roasted some of the flavours had not developed.
Flat White
I was really surprised by the colour of the coffee in this Flat White with the contrast between the espresso and the milk froth. The coffee had a good dark taste to it with a really nice chocolate caramel flavours at the front end of the coffee. The ratio of milk and espresso was really good and I was very impressed with this coffee, that I bought some of Rabbit Island Coffee blend to try it at home as a filter and cold brew.
Doughnut
The doughnut on offer on the day was a raspberry and custard doughnut. The doughnut was of a really good size and I just could not say no to this doughnut. The custard cream was really good with a nice egg and cream flavour. The raspberry jam inside was really good and wonder how they got it in the doughnut. Also on the custard was sprinkles of dehydrated raspberry. Overall a very good doughnut that I could eat two.
At Home
Stovetop
I bought some of the Seasonal Roast back home to try for myself. I decided to try it on the Stovetop first. It was an impressive brew. It has a really nice round bitterness to it, that it does not attack you and has really nice smooth backend of chocolate and caramel. I drunk this black and I wonder what this come would be like with milk and even cream.
v60
The next day I tried this as a v60 with 8 grams to 100 ml of water. I have to say it was pretty strong and was surprised to see how strong it really was with 8 grams of coffee. I think this coffee works better as a stovetop or espresso. Maybe I now need to buy an espresso machine.
I went a bit overboard with this, but I am overly impressed with this coffee, especially the Seasonal Roast. Rabbit Island import a limited amount of bean, which I think is due to its market share, but it does a damn good job. I think this may be the first coffee that I order to be delivered from outside of Wellington.
Address: Unit 6, Shed 4, Mapua Drive, Mapua, Nelson
Website: Rabit Island Coffee Co. – Alberta’s
Trencherman's Travels 