Last year I wrote a blog about my Top Ten Coffee Shop Spots. It included 22 of my favourites. This year my first few contracts were in New Zealand, starting in Dunedin. Naturally I headed to Catalyst Kitchen after I’d checked into my hotel. I’d been travelling for 36 hours and ‘enjoyed’ way too much airplane/airport coffee so I deserved a good Flat White and Catalyst Kitchen is right up there.
Happily I walked in and was greeted with a familiar face. I wish I could tell you his name but we spent all our time talking about the virtues of a great coffee because we are both coffee snobs. The one thing we never got around to talking about was our names.
“Yes! My fellow coffee snob!” I exclaimed by way of a hello. A smile, true coffee snobs are never offended. We catch up as my Flat White is prepared and I tell him about his coffee shops inclusion in my blog: Top Ten Coffee Shop Spots
Coffee in hand I wandered to my seat on the corner of the counter with a view. I opened my blog site and searched for the coffee one ready to show it off to, erm, my mate. But! BUT! It’s not included and worse, there are no coffee shops from New Zealand in the original post.
I sneaked out and promised myself I would rectify this.
That was January 11th today it is February 13th and thanks to Holland America Line I have visited seven different ports in New Zealand, all of them twice, most three times and next week I’ll be visiting them all one more time.
Which reminds me…
Last year with Lyn we did a walking tour in Auckland. Our guide was Darcy and we arrived to meet under the clock on the harbour front. We were bang on time but last to arrive and clearly everyone had already introduced themselves.
“Who are you and where are you from?” he asked and I left the answers to Lyn.
“Paul and Lyn, we are from London!”
We aren’t but it’s just easier than saying “Wateringbury? Near Maidstone? Kent? South of London?”
Then my most feared question…
“What do you do?”
Lyn told them she is a teacher and I squirmed before I lied.
“Nothing.”
And to be fair that isn’t too far from the truth is it? I mean, I do a couple of shows a week, that’s ninety minutes, my sound check takes literally one minute and getting ready to perform is maybe another 30. So in a week there are 10,080 minutes, take off the 121 I use up for a show or two and you’re still left with 9,959. So me admitting to doing nothing isn’t a bad lie.
The walk was fab and during it we got some time alone with Darcy.
“Is it your first time in Auckland?” He asked.
Lyn told him it was and then it’s my turn…
“Nope, I have been before!”
“When?”
“Oh, erm, a few times…”
”A few?”
I admitted that I had no idea how many times, saying a lot seemed like would be showing off so ‘a few’ it was.
“Wow! For most this is a trip of a lifetime.”
Darcy is quite right, it is. But I never take my luck to travel so frequently for granted. I love the travel, I love to explore and I adore finding a new spot in a city I have returned too.
Oh, damn it, Darcy recommended a place for Bao Buns, it’s called Bao & Noodles and we loved them and haven’t found any as good anywhere else. As Darcy led us up the hill he points to a window,
“Great coffee here Paul…” he told me with a wink and a smile..
Back to the point of this blog and updating you on fabulous coffee spots around the world.
Three additions for you. Two you can probably guess.
Catalyst Kitchen, in Dunedin. It’s just up from the Octogan on your right, as long as the water is on your left. Google it!
Loren Street Espresso Bar on, well, Loren Street in Auckland.
I should also give a special mention for Best Ugly Bagles, a couple can be found in Auckland and one in Wellington. It is a chain but offers wonderful bagels and their coffee is just great.
My favourite in New Zealand is can be found in it’s capital. Dylans. It’s everything I say a good coffee shop should be. One, it’s not easy to find, it’s tiny and walked past it three times before I asked for directions and was told to “keep walking, it’s on the right, opposite Starbucks!”
Finally Starbucks gets a positive mention in one of my blogs. Without this info I’d have never found Dylan’s.
Greeted like an old friend I ordered a small Flat White, there is pleasant small talk and off I bimble coffee in hand. A sip later I realised I had found the best coffee in New Zealand. I finished and headed back for number two before having number three and a longer chat later in the afternoon before Dylan closed.
Dylan opened his place in October 2023 and it is thriving. It’s easy to see why too. It’s great coffee prepared with love. There is a small selection of cakes on offer but that’s it. Nowhere to sit, no Wi-Fi and if you visit Dylan’s you’re helping me get closer to my ultimate goal of closing down every single Starbucks.
So my top ten coffee shop spots has reached 25 now, and I am sure there are more out there yet to be discovered…
Damn it. Espresso Studio, a corner kiosk that offers the best coffee in Christchurch. I can’t believe I almost forgot this place. Discovered it last year and went back on numerous occasions. Not only is the coffee fabulous but they’ve a unique was of rewarding loyalty. You can buy their cap and if you order your coffee while suitably attired you’ll get a discount. Brilliant.