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CAFÉ CONVENIENCE BLUE ZONE OF COFFEE CULTURE IN A SUPERMARKET Specialty coffee was never something you expected to enjoy in a supermarket, but this has now changed according to the Adelaide’s Finest Supermarkets (AFS) team. T he Blue Zone Wellbeing Kitchen, a café at the heart of the AFS Pasadena Foodland store in Adelaide’s inner south, is said to be firmly on the radar of coffee lovers seeking a quality caffeine fix. The café, which seats 20 people, is promoted as the ideal spot for grabbing a coffee while shopping, or taking a seat and enjoying the “friendly vibe” as “an expertly made brew” and “healthy bite” are served. The Blue Zone Wellbeing Kitchen is inspired by Adelaide’s Finest Supermarkets owners, the Chapley family, originally from Ikaria in the Aegean Sea. The Greek island is part of what is classed as one of the world’s five ‘blue zones’ where a higher than usual number of people live much longer than average. With its mission to serve the best brews in Adelaide, the café sources premium sustainable and organic coffee beans from the Paradox Coffee Roasters boutique outfit. These include the flagship Picasso Baby blend of sustainably sourced Colombian, Ethiopian and Tanzanian beans, and Purple Rain, a blend of Tanzanian, Nicaraguan and Honduran beans that was awarded the Gold medal for organic coffee at the 2018 Golden Bean industry awards. A team of experienced baristas create “coffee magic” at the store with a “state-of-the-art”, custom-made blue Slayer espresso machine “handcrafted” in Seattle, US. Slayer – a “world leading” coffee machine manufacturer is said to be known for its visionary approach and revolutionary thinking – is claimed to be a good fit for AFS, which says it seeks to provoke innovation and “do things a little differently”. Sustainably sourced coffee is just one part of the Blue Zone Wellbeing Kitchen ethos focused on healthy eating and a balanced lifestyle. The café is described as an “ever-evolving superfoods paradise” with “nourishing foods all freshly made” in-house using the Pasadena store’s “giant pantry” of ingredients. The Blue Zone Wellbeing Kitchen is claimed to have been a go-to section of the store during the height of Covid-19, with the pandemic highlighting the importance of fuelling up on “nutritious foods”, and “excellent coffee”, to support customer physical and mental wellbeing. “In everything we do, our ethos is about creating the best possible experience for our customers, whether it’s our grocery lines, the service in all our departments, or even making sure you get the best cup of coffee imaginable,” Adelaide’s Finest Supermarkets Operations Manager Rick Ellis told Convenience World. The Pasadena Foodland store was relaunched in 2017. At 20 Fiveash Drive, Pasadena, the store is 3500sqm in size, with the Blue Zone Wellbeing Kitchen spanning 40sqm. The store attracts a wide demographic of shoppers, but particularly middle-income young families. 18 CONVENIENCE WORLD MAR/APR, 2021