Florets is a whole-grain sourdough bakery on Great North Road in Grey Lynn, Tāmaki Makaurau (Auckland), open Wednesday to Saturday from 7:30am to 2:30pm. Everything here is baked the slow way: leavened entirely with a living sourdough starter and never with baker's yeast, from a rye starter named Ryan that the founder carried home from New York. Alongside the loaves you'll find sandwiches, toast, cookies, cakes and Supreme coffee, made daily with local, seasonal ingredients.
The bakery is led by Maya Handley, who spent 13 years in Los Angeles and Brooklyn before moving home to Auckland. A weekend sourdough workshop with American baker Sarah Owens set her on the path, and she went on to graduate with honours from the Artisan Bread Making program at the International Culinary Centre in New York in 2018. Today she works with a small team from the Grey Lynn bakery.
The craft behind the bread is deliberate: organic, spray-free whole grains grown in Canterbury, stone-ground in small batches at low temperatures to preserve the germ and nutrients, then given a long sourdough fermentation that the bakery credits with easier digestion, gentler blood-sugar impact and unlocked minerals. Whole-grain flour and fermentation acids also mean the loaves stay fresh longer than most artisanal bread — no preservatives needed. That approach earned recognition when Florets' Whole-Wheat Sourdough was named Supreme Winner in Metro magazine's Best Bread in Auckland feature.
You can pop in to buy a loaf with a coffee and cookie, email a day ahead to have one set aside, or order by midday Tuesday for Thursday delivery to selected Central and West Auckland areas. Florets loaves are also stocked at Mor Bakery in Remuera each Friday and Saturday.
Florets Bakery is the kind of place that does one thing and does it properly. From a small bakery on Great North Road in Grey Lynn, the team bakes whole-grain sourdough bread only — leavened with a living sourdough starter, never with baker's yeast — alongside a short daily menu of sandwiches, toast, sweets and Supreme coffee. Doors are open Wednesday to Saturday, 7:30am to 2:30pm, and the Whole-Wheat Sourdough has been named Supreme Winner in Metro magazine's Best Bread in Auckland feature.
The bakery is led by Maya Handley, who spent 13 years living in Los Angeles and Brooklyn before moving home to Auckland. Baking started as something she did for family, friends and neighbours, but as her understanding of bread science grew, she concluded that much of the bread available to us simply doesn't hold good nutritional value. A weekend sourdough workshop with American baker Sarah Owens in Far Rockaway confirmed the path: she left with a rye sourdough starter named Ryan and the resolve to bake full time. She went on to study Artisan Bread Making at the International Culinary Centre in New York with Chef Johnson Yu, graduating with honours in 2018, before bringing it all back to Grey Lynn, where she now works with a small team.
Florets' approach rests on three pillars the bakery sets out itself: the grain, the milling and the fermentation.
Flour, they say, is produce — so better bread starts with better grain. The bakery sources organic and spray-free flour grown in Canterbury, prioritising whole grains for their fibre, minerals and vitamins, with no chemicals used in growing or storing. That flour is stone-ground in small batches, a gentle, low-temperature method that keeps the grain's nutrients in their original proportions, including the precious germ.
Then time does its work. The Lactobacillus bacteria and wild yeasts in the sourdough starter leaven the loaves through a long fermentation that breaks gluten proteins down into amino acids for easier digestion, pre-digests simple sugars (kind to blood sugar levels) and activates enzymes that unlock the grain's minerals for our bodies to use. There's a practical payoff too: whole-grain loaves hold more water and the acetic acid produced during fermentation naturally inhibits mould, so Florets' bread keeps longer than most artisanal loaves — with no preservatives needed.
The counter revolves around a handful of core breads: the award-winning Whole-Wheat (as a cob or tin), Overnight Oats, Seeded Rye (available Thursday to Saturday only), sheet-tray Foccacia and Sesame Seed Morning Buns. Lunch runs to sourdough sandwiches made daily with local, seasonal ingredients — think a cheese toastie with gouda, mozzarella, pear, onion and pickled chilli, or the vegan roasted eggplant with green chilli and whipped cashew tofu miso. Sweets include a rye, sea salt and dark chocolate cookie, a carrot, ginger and black sesame tea cake, and sourdough banana bread. Wash it down with Supreme coffee, matcha, herbal tisanes, kombucha or pressed orange juice.
A little strategy helps. The bakery encourages bread runs Wednesday to Friday, as Saturdays often sell out quickly — and if you'd like a specific loaf set aside, email maya@florets.nz one day in advance and it will be ready for collection. You can also order ahead for the wider city: place an order by midday Tuesday and it will be delivered on Thursday to selected Central and West Auckland areas. If Remuera is closer than Grey Lynn, freshly baked Florets loaves are stocked at Mor Bakery on Remuera Road each Friday and Saturday.
Whether you're after a loaf that will genuinely last the week, a quick coffee and a cookie, or a sandwich on bread you can feel good about, Florets makes a quiet, convincing case that traditional sourdough fermentation still matters — and that it tastes pretty good too.