14 cafés in 4 citys. Places change: check opening hours before you go.
Sam and Fleur Crofskey opened C1 in 1996. After the 2011 earthquake it reopened across the road in the old High Street Post Office in 2012, one of the first central businesses back, and it now sends sliders to tables through pneumatic tubes.
Order: Flat white · Sliders by pneumatic tube · Cold drip
💡 Order the tube menu just to see the delivery; walk-ins welcome for groups of six or fewer.
Deluxe opened in 1988 as a temporary café beside the old Deluxe Theatre (now the Embassy) and never left. It is a small, busy Wellington institution serving hundreds of coffees a day with vegan food.
Order: Flat white · Vegan cabinet food
💡 Grab a coffee before a film at the Embassy Theatre next door.
Roger Young set up Fidel's in 1996 in an old wooden building at the top of Cuba Street, decorating it with images of 1950s Cuba. It was among the first cafés to turn a rough stretch of Cuba Street into today's bohemian strip.
Order: Flat white · Milkshake · Big breakfast
💡 The covered courtyard out back is the place to sit.
Opened in 1988 as a late-night alternative to bars and clubs, Midnight Espresso was part of the new wave that made Wellington a café city. It still keeps the espresso machine going into the small hours.
Order: Flat white · Cake · Vegetarian plate
💡 One of the few places in town for coffee after midnight.
L'affare opened in 1990 as a roastery and café, a pioneer of New Zealand's café culture, and has stayed on College Street for more than three decades. The room still looks like a coffee plant with a café inside.
Order: Flat white · Breakfast
💡 Open seven days; weekend brunch gets busy.
Michael Allpress began with coffee carts in nearby Victoria Park in 1986, founded Allpress Espresso in 1990 and opened this Freemans Bay roastery in 2000. The roastery, caffetteria and training rooms share one building.
Order: Flat white · Toasted sandwich
💡 Watch the roasters through the glass while you drink.
A Kingsland roastery and café that hand-roasts beans in-store, one of Auckland's long-running independent roasters.
Order: Flat white · Beans to take home
💡 Kingsland train station is a short walk away.
Fewer recent sources for this one: check it's open before you go.
Eighthirty started in 2009 with a two-person team and grew into one of New Zealand's best-known specialty roasters. Its K Road café was renovated recently with a bigger food menu.
Order: Espresso · Filter
💡 Combine with a walk along Karangahape Road's shops and bars.
Fewer recent sources for this one: check it's open before you go.
A calm café a short walk uphill from the town centre, with views over the bay to the Remarkables, serving organic Allpress coffee and vegetarian and vegan food.
Order: Flat white · Vegetarian brunch
💡 Worth the short climb to escape the lakefront crowds.
Started in 2005 with Argentine roots, Patagonia makes chocolate and ice cream and roasts its own coffee; its lakefront café is a Queenstown favourite.
Order: Hot chocolate · Flat white · Ice cream
💡 Busy in the evenings too; take your cup to the lakefront.
Fewer recent sources for this one: check it's open before you go.
Coffee Supreme began in 1993 and is the longest-running New Zealand specialty roaster under the same ownership. Customs, its flagship brew bar since 2010, shows off current brewing methods just off Cuba Street.
Order: Filter · Flat white · Sourdough toast
💡 Weekend doughnuts from Little Dough Co sell out.
Flight Coffee's flagship café on the corner of Willis and Dixon streets, known for telling the story behind each coffee and for sampling platters.
Order: Coffee tasting flight · Brunch
💡 Open seven days for coffee and brunch.
Billed as Wellington's original siphon coffee lab, this hidden bar has baristas who explain the differences between brewing methods.
Order: Siphon coffee
💡 A good stop if you want to learn about brewing.
Fewer recent sources for this one: check it's open before you go.
Billed as New Zealand's first fully manual coffee bar, it brews every cup by hand and plays with odd ideas such as coffee filtered through orange peel.
Order: Pour-over · Orange 'Choffee'
Fewer recent sources for this one: check it's open before you go.