fair trade coffees,
craft beer & wines

"We offer a menu blending international themes with interesting flavours and the freshest of ingredients." A delicious selection of home made foods from scratch and you're hooked for a return performance.

Step into her establishment for the first time - and every other time - you'll see - and feel - The Kiwi Welcome.

A fine selection of magazines for leisurely browsing, a basket of toys for the youngsters, a popular deck taken over by hungry, soggy-clothed junior sailing students on summer days, an outdoor hitching post and freshly poured bowl of water for the dogs, all demonstrate the Kiwi Café's whole-hearted pleasure in our arrival.

The colour scheme alone lifts our mood to a happy, expectant level. Lynda, a transplanted New Zealander, copes with Nova Scotia's sometimes lingering grays, by turning to colour.

A bright, bold Kiwi green sets the stage for the juiciest orange, the most regal royal blue, terrific tropical turquoise and the sunniest of yellows.

Sit at a rainbow splashed table and chairs and you might be surprised at the Kiwi coffee menu's full bodied selection. It's encouraging you to pause a while. At the first smell, sight, and sip of a specialty coffee lovingly created by Sandy Reid you know you made the right choice!

Happily for Kiwi Café enthusiasts, not only does the eatery look good, it serves delicious, satisfying food and beverages. "I have 50 gazillion cookbooks," Lynda admits. " She's also dedicated to exploring glossy food magazines and Internet food sites.

"We do baking all from scratch with natural ingredients. We use butter . . . ". For special dietary needs there are delicious spelt flour choices. "If we don't have brownies, we'd get in so much trouble, it wouldn't be worth it," she confides. "Some won't share it with their spouse! "

Pecan squares and chocolate chip cookies have a loyal following as well. At a recent catering event, a self-described connoisseur of chocolate chip cookies declared Lynda's were "Very, very good." One enthusiast begged for her oatcake recipe, promising she wouldn't open a restaurant in Chester. As for the hummingbird cake, a tantalizing cross between a banana-carrot cake with cream cheese frosting, its claim to fame is not even making it through the cooling-off stage before one table of customers devoured it from start to finish.

"Lynda was worried it wouldn't sell," says employee Sandy Reid, laughing with delight.

Java Blend, high in flavour and ethics

Java Blend Coffee Roasters, a small family run business, has been roasting premium coffees since 1938 and take pride in their second generation customers.

Only the finest high-grown Arabica beans are freshly roasted daily in small batches, right in the Java Blend's Halifax, Nova Scotia shop.

Coffee is the second most widely traded commodity in the world. Yet many of nearly 20 million people involved in growing the beans live in extreme poverty in some of the poorest countries in the world, such as Nicaragua, Mexico, Peru and Ethiopia. Some coffee farmers are in marketing co-ops. In partnership with Fair Trade Canada and licensed Fair Trade roasters such as Java Blend, they receive a better price for their coffee. By paying about a cent more per cup, you help make a difference in their lives.

Java Blend's beans are selected for their flavor and the care and attention given to the fragile environment where they are grown. They are OCTA certified organic and are nearly always "shade grown" (interspersed with other native plants) to help preserve bird habitats and discourage erosion.

Craft beer : time-honoured brewing

Craft beers are made in small batches, for local customers only. The focus is on distinctive full-bodied taste and aroma, achieved by using the best ingredients.

The Propeller Brewery, Halifax, Nova Scotia, doesn't have anything against the big beer producers, but their products, aimed at the broadest possible range of tastes, to be on the bland-side.

Mass producers of beer prolong the shelf life of their product by using sterile filtration or pasteurization. To keep costs down, they sometimes substitute corn or rice for malted barley. Some big brewers hasten fermentation with enzymes that make a beer concentrate of sorts, to which they later add water.

At Propeller Brewery, it's all about taste. If you enjoy an all-natural beer or ginger beer, root beer, cream soda or orange .. . and are visiting Nova Scotia, treat your taste buds to a Propeller!

Jost Vineyards - Nova Scotia award-winning standard

Nova Scotia's Jost Vineyards is found along the picturesque Northumberland Strait, just off the Sunrise Trail. The winery welcomes visitors year round to its store and vineyards.

Since 1978,  the vineyards at Jost have grown to 45 acres in Malagash which is located on the 45th parallel, the same as parts of   France and Germany. Grape growing in marginal climates produces exciting, fruit forward wines, a perfect match for the Maritime bounty from land and sea. Jost also has over 130 acres of vineyards under contract with grape growers around the province of Nova Scotia.

In a blind taste test against 594 wines from across Canada, Jost Vineyards 1999 Vidal Icewine was named Canada's Wine of the Year 2000. This marks the first time in the 20 year history of the competition that a wine from outside Ontario and British Columbia has garnered this distinction.

Nova Scotia goat cheeses & yogurt

At Ran-Cher Acres, overlooking the beautiful Annapolis Valley, Randy and Cheryl Hiltz and their children Aaron and Sara, milk 60 purebred Saanen dairy goats. With the milk they produce a variety of cheeses and yogurt.

The Kiwi Café uses their Fine Farmstead Artisan cheeses - proprietor Lynda Flinn declares them to be "Delicious!"

Twinings Approach to Ethical Sourcing

Since 1706, Twinings of London has been at the forefront of the tea trade. Nearly all their teas are produced in developing countries. Twinings buys raw materials on the open market from producers who comply with local employment legislation both ethically and without exploitation.