Miso, matcha and black tahini cookies: Odds creations not so strange

Wednesday, 18 June 2025

Gina Park opened Odds Coffee with a different feel to her other business specialising in French delicacies, Pebbles Boutique Patisserie.

Cookie flavours usually reserved for savouries or trending drinks are featured at a cafe sharing space with a popular coffee roastery.

Odds Coffee owner Gina Park opened her tiny cafe in industrial Middleton, Christchurch under the same roof as coffee roastery Switch, in February as a casual “something on the side”.

The cabinet food includes sandwiches, bagels and baguettes. The cookies made by Park are flavours found nowhere else in Christchurch.

“But it’s become a main gig,” she said, alongside her original sweet treat haven, Pebbles Boutique Patisserie which specialises in French delicacies.

Odds Coffee is the savoury to Pebbles Boutique’s sweet. The eateries having “completely different personalities,” Park said.

“The whole brand is different.”

Park’s husband Minho Kim is the barista at Odds Coffee, formerly at Child Sister.

Odds explores flavours from Park’s Asian heritage and global trends.

There’s still a hint of France, like the jambon (ham and butter baguette), but there’s also some surprising cookie creations.

Odds Coffee in industrial Middleton is the neighbour of Switch coffee roastery and Hand to Hearth whole bread - taking advantage of the fresh cafe items.

They include matcha-damia and white chocolate, black tahini, and miso and dark chocolate chip.

Park said she wasn’t inventing anything new, just putting her own spin on creations she had tasted elsewhere.

The matcha-damia and white chocolate, for example, combines trending green matcha with macadamia nuts. “[It’s] sort of a thing globally but no one does them here,” Park said.

The extensive drinks menu includes traditional brews and some created and named by customers. Pictured is the Chloe ‒ a chai topped with chia cream foam, cinnamon and honey.

Black tahini is a common ingredient in Asian desserts, she said, with its inviting “nutty, earthy and warm” flavour.

“I’m adapting the tastes I’ve had overseas … and tweaking things”.

Miso choc chip, left, and black tahini cookies are just a couple of the Asian influenced biscuits Park makes for her cafe.

Park’s husband, Minho Kim, formerly at Child Sister, is now bringing his barista skills to the cafe using coffee beans roasted on site at Switch.

“We’ve got the coffee roastery with fresh beans 24/7. We literally scoop them out of their bins.”

The bread for the bagels, sandwiches and baguettes is also from a neighbouring business, wholesale bakery Hand to Hearth Artisan Bread.

The extensive drinks menu includes traditional hot drinks with some customer favourites named after the regulars who created them. The ‘Alana’ is made with milk, strawberry colis and matcha creamed foam. ‘Chloe’ is a chai topped with chia cream foam, cinnamon and honey.

New creations are always welcome, Park said.

“If other customers come up with really good combinations we would love to feature those as well.”

Above the cafe, a room is being transformed into a mini art gallery space. It’s set to open in a couple of months.

Park said she wanted to support students at Ara or the University of Canterbury who had no agents or dealerships yet.

“Who knows? This might grab the attention of other dealers.”