Sooooo many awesome artisan food brands popping up in New Zealand! eeeeeeeexciting!
First up - Fix & Fogg, from Wellington husbo and wife Roman and Andrea Jewel. They thought they'd give making peanut butter from scratch a go... and fell in love with it. Rowan started spending every night in a kitchen down at the Hataitai Bowling Club, grinding nuts with a specially commissioned machine. They were making about 400 jars a week - selling peanut butter to order, and at craft fairs. about 400 jars a week. Roman eventually quit his high-paid job as a law lecturer to make Fix & Fogg fulltime... and as well as stocking some of NZ's best eateries, they make (and sell) Fix & Fogg from a teeny little space in one of Welly city's laneways. (Pics above!)
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Informal Tea Co. are from my neighbourhood (Mount Maunganui). Started by mates Tim and Chris, who look at tea as an art form. They source organic green and black tea from micro-producers, and then - back home in NZ - the boys blend the tea with real herbs, flowers and berries. No artificial anything, what you see is what you're drinking. And it is G-double-oh-dee GOOD. I buy the Fresh Mint (organic spearmint and peppermint with rosemary and lavender) on the regular - and just put an order in for some of their new Chai blend. I swear I wasn't even a tea person before trying this stuff.
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Lucy Benetto used to get migraines after eating normal chocolate, so she taught herself how to make chocolate at home. A passion born, she set out to learn all she could about the art, science and history of chocolate making. Along the way, she learnt about the benefits of quality dark chocolate (see? it's good for you!) and all the really shitty ethical issues that surround the cocoa supply chain internationally.
Benetto chocolate uses all natural fair-trade certified and organic certified ingredients, and there's no white, refined sugar or dairy. The coolest thing is Lucy's Drinking Chocolate Bar, crafted especially to be dissolved in hot milk (comes in a solid bar, wrapped in gold foiled paper with sweet illustrations by Henrietta Harris).
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