Scratch Pop-up on Commerce Street, Auckland

Coffee is like a Sarah McLachlan song, fumbling towards ecstasy.

While wandering around looking for a specialty café along Auckland’s Queens Wharf (and not quite finding it till the following day — a story for another time), we stumble upon a pop-up in the foyer of a bank building.

Lit by natural light from the waterfront, Scratch Pop-up offers the best of both worlds — freshly baked goodies and freshly brewed coffee. The former is courtesy of Scratch Bakery, an Auckland-based purveyor of lovingly crafted baked goods; the latter supplied by Three Beans Coffee Roasters, another Auckland mainstay founded by Jonny McKessar in 2010.

Scratch Bakery’s central kitchen at City Works Depot is where regulars drop by for their trademark pork belly apple cider pies and peanut butter & dark chocolate brioche. Here at the pop-up, we go scone-crazy: the spinach, feta, onion, mushroom & olive mini scone is packed full of green goodness, while their bacon and leek is to-die-for. More, please.

However, this is a coffee blog, after all, and it’s the coffee that captures our attention here. The barista, Michael Tan, explains that Three Beans Coffee Roasters has two signature blends: Gangster Rabbit, a smooth and sweet blend that combines nutty Tanzania, creamy Brazil, and Guatemala for body and balance; Raging Rhino, a fair trade organic blend that has a blueberry spark we recognize from the inclusion of Ethiopia Sidamo.

Michael, who is half-Kiwi and half-Malaysian (his father hails from Penang), recommends the Gangster Rabbit for a flat white and the Raging Rhino for a long black. Delicious cups, these.

Michael also runs a boutique artisan coffee roasting company called Meebz Coffee. Having owned and operated a franchise café and competed as a barista before, Michael is now turning his attention to organic blends and single origin coffees from small-yield cooperatives and estates. It’s not a new trend but it’s the individuals who inspire with their passion for everything coffee when we meet them around the world. Michael is definitely one of them.

So, we didn’t find the café we were originally looking for. What we found instead has us beaming instead.

抵達奧克蘭的第二天清早，我們來到了皇后碼頭，
想到那去尋一家朋友推薦的咖啡館；無奈走了幾遍還是沒找著。
塞翁失馬，焉知非福，
雖然沒找到原本想去拜訪的那家，
可是在尋找的途中，卻讓我們意外的發現了這家pop-up式咖啡館。
位於一棟銀行的大樓底層，空間寬敞明亮，
雖然無甚佈置，卻也舒適自在。
在這家名叫Scratch Pop-up 的咖啡館裡，
除了可以享用由Scratch Bakery新鮮烘焙的糕點外，
還能品嘗到來自Three Beans Coffee Roasters的咖啡。

這裡沒有單品手沖，不過在點咖啡的當兒，
咖啡師 Michael 向我們介紹這裡的兩支綜合豆子；
流氓兔子Gangster Rabbit和憤怒的犀牛Raging Rhino。
前者由坦桑尼亞、巴西和瓜地馬拉組成，順滑可口，適合用來調製Flat White。
而後者則帶有藍莓的獨特香氣；如我們預料般的，混合了西達摩的豆子，
製成Long Black，口感更佳。
帥氣健談的Michael還向我們透露了他是半個馬來西亞人，
（母親是紐西蘭人，而父親來自檳城）
除了在這裡當咖啡師外，他本身也經營了一家叫Meebz Coffee的烘豆坊。
年輕的他談起咖啡時眉飛色舞，得知我們會在紐西蘭呆上一陣子后，
還極力向我們推薦了幾家在奧克蘭和威靈頓的咖啡館。
在一站一站的旅途中，遇上同是咖啡的愛好者，
真是一件非常棒的事！

Scratch Pop-up Bakery
Rabobank Building
2 Commerce St, Britomart
Auckland CBD, New Zealand
Mon-Fri 7.30am-3pm / Sat 9am-3pm / Sun closed
+64-9-366-0973
Scratch Bakers: www.scratchbakers.co.nz
Three Beans Coffee Roasters: www.threebeans.co.nz

Also, learn more about Meebz Coffee, Tan’s boutique roastery at www.meebzcoffee.co.nz