Rarotonga. Cook Islands.

[Barry_Duncan]

I spent last week on beautiful Rarotonga, the main island of the Cook Islands, about 5,000 km east north east of Sydney and 3,000 km north of Auckland , in the South Pacific.

I found two places that make very good coffee that I highly recommend.

One was the Waffle Shack at the Punanga Nui Market site in the main shopping area of Avarua where they have the Saturday markets. I didn’t try the waffles but had a good chicken and salad sandwich for lunch. They buy there roasted beans from NZ.

The other was the ‘Cook Islands Coffee Company,’ owned and run by Neil Dearlove outside his house on the main road at Matavera on the north east side of the island. When open he puts out an orange coloured traffic cone labled COFFEE. Neil roasts his coffee on site. Like me, one of his favourite origins is Yirgcheffe. His car numberplate is COFFEE.

Both are open for limited hours 6 days a week. I had two coffees at each place. There could be other good coffee brewers but I didn’t find them.

Barry

[DesigningByCoffee]

We were blessed to get to Raratonga last year with the extended family. Wish I know of these places then!

My brother in law and myself tried to find somewhere on the sunday, and found one bar & grille open with a machine - possibly the worst coffee I've ever had! We couldn't even begin to describe the elements that were wrong with it - UHT milk, over heated, stale oily beans, unwashed machine - who knows! It was just plain nasty…
Did notice that one of the other Cook Islands had a coffee farm, and we bought some ground for plunger (after our town experience!) which wasn't too bad, but would have liked to check their beans out through a proper machine.

But beautiful part of the world!
Matt

[TOK]

I spent last week on beautiful Rarotonga, the main island of the Cook Islands, about 5,000 km east north east of Sydney and 3,000 km north of Auckland , in the South Pacific.

....the ‘Cook Islands Coffee Company,’ owned and run by Neil Dearlove outside his house on the main road at Matavera on the north east side of the island....
Barry

Happy to admit that as an Australian Business Volunteer some years ago, it was me that spent time with Neil and got him started down "that road".... Helped him to properly sort out his first roasting machine, and taught him the basics of roasting and blending to a point where I felt I could leave him to it and he would be well on his way to good coffee roasting.

Glad you enjoyed his coffee.

[Barry_Duncan]

TOK, whatever you taught Neil those years ago is still working well. He has only a little seating. I understand that he mainly does takeaways for the locals on their way to work.

At the Saturday markets, before I found the Waffle Shack, I had a coffee from a coffee truck that I couldn’t drink and I poured it out.

While leaving Raro I got a coffee at the airport departure lounge and had to explain how to make a macchiato. It was not great however I could drink it.

Barry