“After starting out as a young 17 year old barista, almost 25 years later my passion for all things coffee has not wavered.
While working as a barista for almost ten years for a coffee roastery in Taranaki, I not only learnt the art of making fantastic espresso, but how to make fantastic espresso in a very high volume environment where we regularly produced up to 500 cups per day. Here I was able to master the very valuable skill of being able to make great coffee fast!
I went on to own my own award winning cafe with my husband who was a chef. We successfully grew our coffee sales from 4kg per week to almost 20kg per week over six months. This grew to 30kg per week including retail coffee sales within two years.
We then made a big shift to Auckland where I spent four years working in two well known private training establishments teaching the NZ Diploma in Hospitality Management. From there I went to a very popular North Shore coffee roastery where I spent 5 years as their National Training Manager. I have also spent two years in corporate training, having been a key player in the design and roll out of the McCafe ‘barista coffee through drivethrough’. More recently I have had the opportunity to gain some experience with coffee account management and sales. However I still love to jump on a coffee machine and work a shift!”