SAVING the planet one coffee cup at a time might be an ambitious endeavour but Phillip Gameson and Hayley Sinkinson are determined that it’s worth a try.
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The couple opened the doors of Praise Joe Urban Pantry in Tighes Hill last month, where they have not only pulled together a simple all-day food menu, but also introduced the HuskeeCup to Newcastle.
They are the first cafe in Newcastle to offer the reusable cups which are made from discarded coffee husks and have been designed as a sustainable alternative to regular ceramic cups.
The couple was introduced to the initiative through their coffee supplier, Pablo & Rustys, whose co-owner Saxon Wright looked into ways to minimise the waste from coffee production.
He had been on a trip to Equador and returned home shocked at the amount of waste going into landfill.
“He thought ‘We need to do something about this’ because I think it’s a couple of billion tonnes of coffee we go through in Australia alone every year,” Sinkinson says.
“There’s so much that ends up in landfill, so he got together with an engineer and they designed this cup where the husk of the coffee berry has been pressed down to make the HuskeeCup.”
Unlike most reusable cups - like KeepCup, which is made from plastic - the HuskeeCup is biodegradable, as well as compostable.
It is durable, too, so it can be reused again and again.
“We have bought a heap of cups for the swap and go system, which works in the way that if you buy a HuskeeCup and you come into the shop, we will take your cup and fill your coffee up with a new cup.
“The name of the game is that we can hopefully get more cafes in Newcastle to get on board with that and then we start to get rid of the takeaway cups.
“It’s huge in Sydney and Melbourne, so hopefully we can get the ball rolling here.
"It’s great that we are doing it and that we are the first, but it doesn’t mean anything until more places get on board.”
Coffee is number one at Praise Joe.
In fact, the name itself was inspired by the slang term for coffee.
“In America, Joe is slang for coffee," Sinkinson says.
"We noticed it in a lot of TV shows we were watching, like in the old diners they have over there, they say ‘You want another cup of Joe?’ so we were like ‘Oh … Joe!’
“So basically we are praising coffee [laughs].”
As well as creating great coffee, Sinkinson and Gameson focus on simple food done well.
The menu has only 12 items, which range from housemade crumpets with whipped salted butter and jam ($10) to the Sloppy Praise Joe waffle with meatball and old English cheese ($12), or smashed avocado with dukkah and fresh herbs ($11).
There’s three toasties: The Richard Branson with ham, cheddar, Branson pickle and dijon mustard; Hippy Love with spiced pumpkin, semi-dried tomato, vegan cheese and cashew pesto; and Chicken Little with BBQ chicken, cheese, caramelised onions and mayo (all $13).
Plus, there is a revolving range of patisserie-style cakes and slices created in-house by Sinkinson.
They make their own range of iced latte and iced chocolate, the latter of which Gameson will sell to you with a promise that it’s the best you’ll try - and he’s not wrong.
The super creamy ice chocolate, served pre-made in an old fashioned milk bottle, is also very good.
“It’s only two ingredients in the iced chocolate, but if you use good ingredients, then you don’t need many,” Sinkinson says.
“It’s simply good quality Callebaut chocolate and full cream milk. That’s it. It’s so smooth and creamy … we make them and they fly out the door.
“It’s the same with the iced tea - it has fresh peaches, a peach syrup and the tea.
"The iced coffee one is just a shot of the coffee, the milk and a bit of sugar syrup.
“It’s all simple stuff, but we’re just using the best ingredients we can.”
Like the menu, the space itself is not big - there’s just a handful of tables inside and a few upcycled wooden cord barrels outside reimagined as tables - but it has a cool vibe that fits perfectly with Tighes Hill.
There’s a brightly coloured hand-painted mural on the wall and great music coming out of the speakers.
Funnily enough, neither Sinkinson or Gameson originally hail from Newcastle.
She grew up in Adelaide and he’s from Darwin, but collectively they have 35 years of kitchen experience.
“We’re from opposite ends of the country and we actually met over in Thailand of all places,” Sinkinson says.
“I had never actually been to Newcastle before we moved here, but we love it.
“We are so proud of what we have managed to accomplish and it’s so nice how welcoming the community has been to us.”
