Coffee and Tea Lovers in Botany Downs is the Auckland tea and coffee purveyor's café and retail shop at 12e Amera Place, part of a small family of stores that also includes Howick, Mt Eden and Epsom. The business has been trading since 2000, when it began supplying premium quality loose leaf teas and fantastic service to the hospitality trade throughout New Zealand.
Over the years the offer has grown well beyond tea. Coffee roasting was added in the last few years, making Coffee and Tea Lovers one of New Zealand's leading all-round coffee and tea specialists. Their Opium Blend earned a Silver placing at the NZ Coffee Awards 2011-2012 in the Best Flat White category — proof that the coffee side of the business is taken every bit as seriously as the leaf.
The Botany shop works as both a café and a retail store. You can drop in for a coffee or tea, then browse shelves stocked with hundreds of loose leaf teas — the online flavour selection alone lists 524 products, spanning flavoured and traditional black teas, green teas, Earl Grey, chai, fruit and herbal blends, rooibos, white tea, pu-erh, matcha and mate. Alongside the tea sit roasted coffee beans, espresso machines, coffee makers, brewing equipment, teapots, tea tins, glassware, cups and mugs, and giftboxes.
Whether you are a home brewer chasing a specific single-origin bean, a tea drinker looking for an unusual blend, or a hospitality operator needing a reliable wholesale supplier for your total tea requirements, the team here has been doing this for more than two decades — and it shows in the depth of the range and the advice that comes with it.
On Amera Place in Botany Downs, Coffee and Tea Lovers runs a café and retail shop that does justice to its name. It is one of four Auckland stores — alongside Howick, Mt Eden and Epsom — operated by a business that has been in the tea and coffee trade since 2000, and it is the kind of place where the shelves tell the story before the staff do.
Coffee and Tea Lovers began life supplying premium quality loose leaf teas and genuine service to the New Zealand hospitality trade. That wholesale backbone still shapes the business: they can and do provide a café's total tea requirements, along with the brewing accessories and equipment needed to make a great cup in front of a customer.
In the last few years the company added coffee roasting, and the move has paid off. Their Opium Blend picked up a Silver placing at the NZ Coffee Awards 2011-2012 in the Best Flat White category. Tea specialists who roast serious coffee is a rare combination in New Zealand, and it is what makes the Botany shop worth a detour whether your loyalties lie with the bean or the leaf.
The tea range is the heart of the business, and it is genuinely deep. The flavoured and traditional black teas sit alongside green teas in both flavoured and traditional styles, several Earl Greys, chai, fruit infusions, herbal blends, rooibos, white tea, pu-erh, and hemp and athletic teas. There are blooming teas and tea bricks for something theatrical, matcha and mate with their respective accessories, single herbs and spices for people who like to blend their own, latte powders, and Turkish teas including the much-loved Turkish apple tea. The online flavour selection alone lists 524 products, and seasonal Christmas teas appear each year.
If loose leaf feels intimidating, the brewing accessories — infusers, teapots, tea tins — plus the brewing tips published on the company website make a straightforward starting point.
The coffee side goes well beyond bags of beans. Yes, there are roasted beans to take home, including the award-winning Opium Blend. But there are also espresso machines, coffee makers, general brewing equipment, and tampers and mats for people building out a home setup. It is the same gear the company supplies to the hospitality trade, which is a useful quality signal.
Round out the shelves with glassware, cups and mugs, sugar bowls and creamer jugs, sugars and sweets, and giftboxes that solve birthday and thank-you problems in one stop. For tea drinkers on your list, a New English Tea tin with tea inside is an easy win.
The Botany address works as a café as much as a store, so you can try before you buy. Opening hours are generous: from 7:30am on weekdays — closing at 4:00pm Mondays and 4:30pm Tuesday to Friday — and from 8:00am until 5:00pm on both Saturday and Sunday, making it one of the longer-running coffee stops in the area on weekends.
Cafés and restaurants can tap the wholesale side for both tea and coffee, backed by more than two decades of supplying hospitality. Everyone else can shop the same range online, with tea, coffee and accessories all available through the website along with brewing guides and information on the facts and health benefits behind the leaves.
Whether you leave with a bag of Opium Blend, a tin of something floral, or a whole new teapot, the constant is the same one the company has traded on since 2000: premium quality leaf, properly roasted coffee, and the equipment and advice to brew both well at home.