Kōkako established New Zealand's first organic coffee roastery over 20 years ago. To this day, Kōkako stay committed to doing right by the earth and its people. Here at The Coffee Collective, we are excited to bring you the range from Kōkako Coffee Roasters. Including Coffee Blends, Single Origin and Decaffeinated Coffee, as well as Organic Drinking Chocolate. Let's dive into the story of Kōkako!
"Dating back to the late 90s, Kōkako founders, Helen and Christian, shared a vision to be New Zealand's first organic coffee roasters. We’ve grown considerably since then but we’ve never once wavered from our values, which we reckon is why so many good people have joined us along the way—birds of a feather flock together.
2001 Auckland's first organic coffee roaster
Helen and Christian, inspired by their recent trip to Europe, their passion for organics and a kōkako bird recovery programme translocation, release Kōkako to the world in Auckland's Aotea Square.
2005 Kōkako's first permanent home
Onwards and upwards, Helen and Christian take over a small café on the corner of Parnell Road and Ayr Street in Parnell that still serves Kōkako beans to this day!
2009 Backing up our claims
2012 Setting up shop in the old post office
The Kōkako team swiftly transformed the old Grey Lynn community hub into a light, airy and welcoming café space, with a focus on serving great coffee and vegetarian food. Our office team moved in upstairs and we roasted inside the café initially before moving the roaster across the road into an old car garage.
2014 Moving to compostable packaging
We partnered with Kiwi-owned packaging business, Convex, to develop a compostable packaging solution suitable for the coffee industry. We still use their packaging today, which is all made in their Hamilton factory.
2016 Becoming climate neutral
Knowing there are unavoidable carbon emissions in our supply chain, Kōkako helped Fairtrade Netherlands adapt their carbon offsetting system for the New Zealand market. We've been offsetting our carbon ever since.
2017 Growing Up
We outgrow the roastery across the road from the Grey Lynn café and jump at the opportunity to expand into a bigger space in Mt Eden. With that, the Grey Lynn café is sold to excellent operators who uphold the Kōkako standard.
2019 Bucket Scheme
2020 Commercial Bay
When we heard about Commercial Bay opening in downtown Auckland, we thought this could be the moment to open an innovative flagship coffee bar in the city — something that had been on our wishlist for years. With the help of some talented friends, we installed a counter made of 8880+ used 2L plastic milk bottles, and kitted out the space with the best gear around to bring a considered speciality coffee experience to the people."
You can view this story and more online at Kōkako - here.
