There is an increasing trend among the Auckland coffee cognoscenti of roasting in small batches, yet we all know that not all coffee is roasted equally. So, what does that mean for your daily coffee fix?
Good coffee roasters look for lighter, brighter roasts that maintain more of the bean’s inherent fruity flavour, farm-to-roaster relationships with the growers, and a sense of fellowship established around caffeine.
We often frequent our favourite micro-roasters in Auckland, but when we find ourselves in the suburban wilderness craving a fix, we can also judge the surrounding cafes by the coffee roasts they serve. An outpost with Kokako or Eightthirty behind the counter will always put us at ease. Because life, ultimately, is far too short to deal with Robert Harris or Vittoria.
Competition is stiff when considering who is roasting, brewing and serving up the best coffee in Auckland, but we have narrowed it down by considering only those where you can enjoy a caffeine fix in a roastery that is open to the public.
Whether you’re an amateur home barista, contemplating upgrading your office espresso game or looking for a spot to watch the roasting action first-hand, these local coffee roasters in Auckland have the magic beans to help you through the week.
3 Beans
City Works Depot, Shed 6A/90 Wellesley Street West, Auckland CBD
Since 2010, 3 Beans Coffee has been delivering fantastic espressos and exclusive brews to Auckland caffeine addicts.
They are committed to quality and pride themselves on outstanding relationships with customers, whether at their industrial-chic roastery, which serves everyday regulars at City Works Depot espresso bar, or at their petite Fort Street sister cafe. Come down, have a conversation, and knock back an espresso or single-origin filter.
Allpress
8 Drake Street, Freemans Bay
While the well-known name is enough to make an impact, Allpress’s coffee consistently lives up to the hype. Providing some of the consistently best beans in Auckland for years, you’ll find Allpress being served up at top independent cafes around the world from Japan to Berlin — how is that for a New Zealand success story?
Michael Allpress (yes, there’s a guy) was spurred to establish Allpress Espresso after observing Seattle’s specialty coffee revival in the late ’80s. The obsession with flavour saw him develop what was then New Zealand’s first coffee cart, before moving on to roasting coffee in the back of a garage and supplying it to cafés around Auckland City CBD.
Founded in 1989, Allpress is now found in 1000 independent cafes worldwide, but the main Allpress Roastery in Freemans Bay is the place to go for the sensation that you’re really at the beating heart of all things Allpress Espresso.
It’s just a stone’s throw away from Victoria Park, where that first coffee cart was founded, with the calming hum of the roasting machines working six days a week and a complete selection of all their beautiful coffee blends available for takeaway.
Anastasis Coffee Roasters
104 McLeod Road, Te Atatu South
A bit of an unknown in the Auckland coffee roastery scene, but Anastasis has been roasting coffee strong enough to walk the dead for over seven years out in Te Atatu South.
A tiny hole-in-the-wall, if you blink while driving along, you’d almost certainly miss this hidden gem—but the great selection of coffee blends prepared by experienced baristas makes it worth hunting down. Covered in fine coffee dust with only a few stools inside, Anastasis Coffee Roasters is not for posers, Wi-Fi lovers, or those looking for chic design but rather those who demand superior coffee and perfectionist service.
The roadrunner house blend is powerful and perfect if you need that extra jolt to wake!
Atomic Coffee
420c New North Road, Kingsland
Before coffee culture was a phenomenon, Atomic Coffee Roasters opened for business on Ponsonby Road in 1992. They were the raggedy kid between fine-dining restaurants, pumping out live music and top-notch coffee. The lines grew longer, and their little store couldn’t handle it any more so they moved to Kingsland and have been a core part of the artistic, eclectic culture there ever since.
They poured our energies into making uncompromisingly fine coffee. Roasting into the wee hours, experimenting, measuring, and sampling until their beans were the best, they kept nothing back and are still crafting uncompromisingly good coffee. Atomic Coffee Roasters now run three bustling espresso bars in central Auckland, but their Kingsland roastery is the place to go for the full experience.
Try the Tasting Tray with an Espresso, Cold Brew, Piccolo or any of their four house blends. The food menu is also exceptional.
Chiasso Coffee Roasters
20 Wynyard Street, Devonport
A family-owned business in Devonport that has been roasting coffee in Auckland for over 20 years.
Chiasso supplies its fresh-roasted coffee beans to great cafes all over New Zealand, using beans selected from the world’s foremost coffee-growing regions, including Ethiopia, Colombia, Guatemala, and Kenya. Proudly Biogro Organic Certified, this super popular local institution boasts truly friendly and knowledgeable staff who proudly regale you with stores of their roasting method and beans.
Besides making outstanding coffee, you can pick up a supply of freshly roasted coffee beans for espresso and soft brew, specialized brewing machines and everything in between. Combine with a film at The Vic Devonport and a second-hand book hunt at Bookmark for the perfect day in the village.
Eighthirty
16 Anzac Avenue, Auckland CBD
Eighthirty is specialty coffee culture at its finest. The Anzac Ave Roasting Department’s headquarters combines a roastery with a lab, tasting bar and the heart of the distribution centre, while funky, hipster outposts on K Road and Ponsonby help keep the masses caffeinated.
If you’re looking for coffee to go (freshly roasted by Eighthirty themselves) or purchasing their beans to take home, this is the place. In addition to providing great coffee, Eighthirty prides itself on its ethical stance: It uses Fairtrade organic and other ethically grown coffees, organic sugar and milk, and composts all coffee grounds, food scraps, and takeaway cups.
Their coffee selection changes depending on what’s available and what’s good, and it is served by other excellent cafes around Auckland. When we last visited, they had a superb Brazilian single-origin espresso and a Fairtrade Swiss water process decaf—along with a Cajun chicken baguette we are still dreaming of.
For the smell of freshly roasted coffee in an off-beat CBD industrial surrounding, Eighthirty coffee just can’t be beaten.
Espresso Workshop Roastery
4/228 Orakei Road, Remuera
The Espresso Workshop was established in 2007 on the concept of unlocking specialty coffee’s flavour potential, supporting the merits of distinctive flavour profiles and promoting premium coffee of single origin.
The Espresso Workshop aims to show that coffee is an experience, not just a commodity. Their dedication to coffee is obsessive, even fanatical, which might leave uninitiated in third-wave brewing methods a little overwhelmed – but the team at Espresso Workshop is well-trained and always happy to explain each profile and extraction method. What they don’t know about sourcing, roasting and serving exceptional coffee probably isn’t worth knowing.
Not only is their Orakei premises a roastery with the capacity for exclusive training courses, but it is also a shared area where they have collaborated with the delicious Ampersand Eatery.
Island Coffee
21b Belgium Street, Ostend , Waiheke Island
The Waiheke Island Coffee Roasting Company is a premium coffee roastery and café in Ostend, Waiheke Island.
Founded in 1999, Island Coffee has been providing locals, cafes, retailers, and the hospitality industry with freshly roasted coffee of the finest quality ever since. It is the perfect way to start a day of wine tasting on Waiheke. If you cannot get over there, the team offers a speedy delivery service for all customers, so you can have their beans delivered directly to your door.
However, making your way here is worth the effort. The Waiheke Island Coffee Roasting Company is open every morning for espresso, beans, and freshly delivered treats, which are stocked in the cabinet.
Kokako Organic Coffee
9 Charles Street, Mount Eden
No list of coffee roasteries in Auckland could be complete without mentioning Kokako Coffee. However, their 400m2 best-practice coffee roastery in Mt. Eden is focused on supplying retail and wholesale coffee.
Since 2001, Kōkako has been committed to bringing the best selection of Fairtrade organically grown specialty coffees to cafes and hospitality customers, businesses and people at home across Aotearoa – and today, they stand as one of New Zealand’s top boutique coffee brands.
True fans will want to pop into the factory on weekdays to grab some beans for home, paper filters, or whatever you need for your home coffee setup. Don’t worry, though; there is always a fresh pot of filter coffee available, which is why Kokako Organic Coffee Roastery is eligible for inclusion on our list.
Every other month, they host Tasty Tuesdays, a cupping event open to the public at which the roastery team walks you through our seasonal coffee offering, which is worth looking out for.
Otherwise, their Commercial Bay flagship store takes cues from various components of international coffee shops. It combines the latest coffee equipment innovations with a sustainable and modern New Zealand design aesthetic.
Meebz Coffee Roasters
3 Milford Road, Milford
Meebz Coffee Roasters is a coffee-roasting boutique business located in Milford, on the North Shore of Auckland. The small team loves coffee and is passionate about ensuring that customers find their perfect taste.
Their expertise applies from travelling overseas to investigate the origins of coffee beans to participating in and winning several competitions. Meebz stocks over 20 different coffee products at any one time, including specialty coffee, organic and rainforest alliance coffee.
For consistency, quality and amazing service, Meebz has never let us down. It’s also worth noting for decaf fans who struggle to find transformative coffee that no other brand could hold a candle to the favour of Meebz decaf espresso. It’s a sumptuous, dark, rich and mysterious roast with little acidity, and just perfect for those who want a coffee fix without the caffeine.
Millers Coffee
31 Cross Street, Auckland CBD
Millers is a bohemian coffee roastery tucked away from the bustle of K-road on Cross St. It is run by the distinguished Craig Miller, considered by some to be the Godfather of Coffee in Auckland, who has been roasting here and in nearby Grafton since 1986.
You won’t find any fancy modern interior design or AeroPress here. Millers is old-school to its core and focuses on doing one thing and one thing well: coffee roasting. There are espresso, black, and white coffee options, and you can appreciate the aroma, body, acidity, flavour, and aftertaste of the coffee. It’s all served with sparkling water, too!
Their freshly roasted coffee beans are sold on-premise and fly off the shelf; chances are you’ll want to leave with a bag or two yourself.
Ozone Coffee Roasters
1/18 Westmoreland Street West, Grey Lynn
From New Plymouth to London, it’s been an amazing journey for Ozone Coffee Roasters, and their Grey Lynn Roastery is the latest step in this exciting adventure.
Serving complex flavours in a cup, this very cool roastery and eatery in an industrial multi-purpose warehouse space opened in 2019 and is exceptionally popular. From all-day dining to an almost bar-hopping vibe at night, Ozone Coffee Roasters has a dedicated coffee bar with various sophisticated brews like V60, siphon, AeroPress, batch brew and espresso, among others.
Their trademark brew Empire is always on offer, along with a range of other blends and single origins, each recommended based on your chosen brew method. There is even a cold brew on tap.
Spaciousness and cool, we would never recommend braving the weekend brunch rush unless you like chaos and 1-hour+ wait times, but during the week, the ultra-cool Ozone Coffee Roasters stands head-and-shoulders above the rest.
Red Rabbit Coffee Co.
7 Faraday Street, Parnell
An artisan Auckland coffee roastery located on Faraday Street in Parnell that is passionate about crafting clean, sweet, seasonal espresso blends and filter coffees.
They source the best-tasting green coffee beans from around the world and lightly roast them so you can explore the labyrinth of flavours in a single cup. The roastery is a very rustic-chic haunt with a great warehouse feel and baristas who are exceptionally well-trained — perfect for a mid-day coffee meeting and never overly busy.
Roma Coffee Roasters
3/135 Cascades Road, Pakuranga Heights + 250 Great South Rd, Drury
Beautiful and distinctive New Zealand blends, Roma Coffee Roasters in Pakuranga roasts daily to bring you the sweet song of exceptional coffee.
With four generations of expertise, the team here have coffee in the blood and hospitality in their DNA. Roasted and blended with art and care, their signature Roma blends to awaken the senses and warm the soul. Using old-school Italian techniques combined with a distinct New Zealand style, Roma is one of the few coffee roasteries outside central Auckland and a real hidden gem out East.
These baristas are awesome, friendly, and approachable. They are always happy to inform you about the beans and blends on offer. Don’t be put off by the suburban warehouse exterior; the inside is spacious, bright, and oh-so-trendy.
They also have a small Reserve Roastery in Drury if you want a coffee fix out South.
The New Zealand Coffee Co.
164 Khyber Pass Road, Newmarket
From a busy, vibrant family café company on K’Rd in 1978 to restaurants in the loving ’80s shoulder pad, travel forward through the years, haircuts and incarnations, and drive up the road a few miles. There, on Khyber Pass, Newmarket, you can find The New Zealand Coffee Co. roastery, café, workshop and showroom headquarters.
This is the same location where their devoted first coffee roasting unit started working in the 1990s. While decommissioned in favour of newer roasting methods, The New Zealand Coffee Co. roasting still takes place here. For the public, there is also a flagship cafe serving up their freshly roasted blends and some delicious eats.
With off-street parking, modern-industrial decor, fast and efficient service — and a great display of coffee making equipment, a visit to the mecca that is The New Zealand Coffee Co. is a must for devoted worshippers of the bean.