Eric Heycoop started out as a chef and it wasn’t until learning barista skills when he and his wife, Miriam, opened their first cafe that his interest in coffee grew.
After successfully running the cafe for three years, Heycoop wanted to move on to a new challenge, in a business where he was producing a product for consumption.
In 2000, Heycoop launched Emporio Coffee. Emporio selects 100 percent arabica coffee beans from around the world through ethical relationships, roasting each coffee individually. The highly-skilled crew includes roasters, educators, technicians and baristas.
Emporio remains a true artisan coffee roasting company, owned and operated by the hands-on Eric and Miriam. The Wellington coffee scene has exploded in the two decades since Heycoop started and he is currently seeing a great divide as small businesses in the overcrowded New Zealand market are bought out by big corporations. Emporio is now the oldest independent owner/operator coffee roasting company on the Wellington scene.
As Director, Heycoop remains committed to supporting local cafes and clients, growers across the globe, and colleagues in the industry. Emporio promises to always make beautiful coffee and be loyal, sustainable and real.
The roaster finds reward in seeing customers thoroughly enjoy their Emporio coffee, as well as seeing clients and businesses grow due to their business relationship.
Heycoop’s favourite is the original Emporio blend, started 22 years ago. Uniformity and consistency are the first defining features of a great roast, along with a balance of flavour as a great roast gives baristas the ability to consistently make good coffee.
The roaster continues to explore ways to be more sustainable and environmentally friendly within the company, and innovative technology has helped the roastery in this regard. Emporio purchased a LoringS35 Kestrel Smart Roaster, which has a very low oxygen roast atmosphere that protects the natural flavour of the green beans. The machine is smokeless and odourless, the latest technology in coffee roasting and the most sustainable option.
In 2015, Heycoop visited Nicaragua, where he and his family stayed on the coffee farm where he sourced the roastery’s green beans. He has future hopes to visit coffee farms in Guatemala and Colombia, “once travel is normal again!”.
After over twenty years in the industry, and having cemented Emporio’s place in Wellington and New Zealand’s coffee sectors, Heycoop’s advice to those looking to start their own roastery is to search the markets diligently.
“Do true research and a cost analysis of the set-up.”
In his own time, Heycoop can be found around Wellington’s arts and restaurant scenes and at Hot Road events, owning a hot rod and American pick-up truck himself.
Emporio Coffee is located at 90 Abel Smith Street, open weekdays 7.30am-3pm for coffee, pastries and toasted sandwiches. Order coffee online at emporio.co.nz
