Your essential guide to coffee in Wellington

Wellington is spoilt for choice when it comes to excellent coffee options. One of the best spots in town for a quality brew is Customs.

Proving that simple is often best, the coffee menu is short. Choose between espresso or filter, and hot or cold. They’ve got the usual suspects of alt milks, and the beans are from Coffee Supreme, who own the café.

In a city big on caffeine, there’s a small café on Willis Street bursting with personality. Evil Twins exudes cool. The family-run business is all about community, connection, and creativity. And, of course, really good coffee.

For a small café, Evil Twins punches well above its weight. As well as the usual black or white coffees, they make wildly popular jarred drinks. In a bigger size than your usual takeaway, they’re perfect for sharing with a friend. Served chilled, choose from an oat milk triple shot latte, iced chocolate, or peach tea. The fan favourite is the matcha love. Made with 100% ceremonial pure matcha, it’s a jar of green goodness.

Owned and run by an award-winning barista, Swimsuit is an excellent example of a Wellington café. Tait Burge is the man behind the Swimsuit movement. He has three cafés in the Swimsuit family, each with its own dedicated community of locals. Dixon Street is a morning sun trap, with outdoor seating and plenty of people watching.

Swimsuit is dedicated to quality coffee. Serving brews from local roastery, Peoples, every drink is top-notch. Tait is a perfectionist when it comes to coffee, and ensures his team are the same. Swimsuit is also in the running for Wellington’s best cheese scone. Hot and buttery, they’re a delicious side to your coffee of choice.

Visit the café and coffee roastery that was a pioneer of Wellington’s celebrated and world-famous coffee culture.

With its pared-back industrial look, L’affare is one of those cafés that appeals to everyone. Sprawling and spacious, it’s a buzzing spot seven days a week. Its all-day menu features classic café favourites and the kitchen can make your eggs any way you like them.

And the coffee, of course, is always fresh, expertly made and delicious. Choose from espresso or filter, with house-roasted beans. The ‘beanstore’ within the café has all your coffee machinery needs covered, from cups to plungers to manual makers.

What was once a car park on Dixon Street is now a bustling brunch spot. The Hangar is a busy café and coffee spot, and home to one of Wellington’s favourite coffee roasters, Flight Coffee.

Serving up freshly-roasted coffee in whatever format you prefer, from espresso to pour-over, filter, and iced. Alongside excellent coffee, you’ll find a seasonal brunch menu.

Real coffee enthusiasts won’t want to miss the tasting flight of coffee. It’s made up of three different styles of Flight Coffee blends, so you can walk out knowing what brew you like best.

Peoples Coffee is proof that simple is often best. Its Newtown café offers coffee made really, really well, and a simple selection of pastries and toast. Friendly and efficient staff, and a pared-back, casual fit-out complete the Peoples experience.

A steady stream of locals keeps the small café buzzing. It also could be the Fairtrade and organic Peoples coffee beans, roasted just up the road in Newtown.

Its toast menu features one sweet toast, one savoury toast and one special toast for good measure. You can also find a small selection of locally made goods like chocolate and hot sauce.

Housed in a 1959 Art Deco building on upper Tory Street, Havana Coffee Works exudes old-world mystique. Its avocado green exterior and Cuban-inspired décor contain the headquarters for Havana’s roastery, and a retro coffee shop. With the roastery in the same building visitors to the café can watch and smell the beans getting processed while enjoying a fresh brew. Plush leather couches and winged armchairs complete the Caribbean atmosphere. Havana has always had an open-door policy for roasting in public so people are welcome to walk through from the café. Touch the coffee, smell the coffee, and then nip back next door to drink it in a warm and inviting environment. 

At Aotearoa’s first fully manual coffee brew bar there’s no espresso machine in sight. Rejecting the typically fast pace of your morning coffee run, Pour & Twist invites its customers to slow down and consider their drink. It’s about tasting the coffee as well as appreciating the art of how it was made. Reminiscent of the small, caffeinated hideaways of Tokyo and Singapore, Pour & Twist is a narrow, minimalist space that buzzes with warmth and camaraderie. A long bench invites customers to connect with others if they’re in the mood, with coffee being the main (but not only) conversation point.