Urban Café on Great South Road in Papatoetoe, Auckland, is a café with a difference — it's also a Mrs Higgins Licensed Store, which means its counter is stocked with the homestyle baking of Higgins, a Kiwi company that has been making cookies, brownies and slices since 1986. Higgins is part of the Cookie Time Group, a New Zealand family business since 1983, and everything is baked locally with love, care and quality ingredients.
The range covers the full Higgins line-up: fresh baked cookies made with wholesome ingredients, from generous share packs through to individually wrapped cookies and brownies. For a more indulgent moment there's the 40% Range — naked cookies baked with 40% chocolate chunks and nestled in the pack ready to share. Lighter options are covered too, with Bliss Balls for healthier snacking and gluten free options everyone can enjoy.
The philosophy behind it all is simple: baking brings people together, reminds us of good times and encourages everyone to stop for a minute — and that makes for a moment. Whether you're grabbing a single wrapped cookie for the road, a share pack for the office or frozen dough to bake fresh at home, this Papatoetoe stop is all about those small, delicious moments.
Great South Road is one of Auckland's long, busy arteries, and in the heart of Papatoetoe it passes a small stop with a sweet reputation: Urban Café. The café doubles as a Mrs Higgins Licensed Store, which means that alongside its everyday café trade, its counter is stocked with Higgins — the New Zealand baking brand behind a whole world of cookies, bars and slices.
Higgins has been baking since 1986 and is today part of the Cookie Time Group, itself a New Zealand family business since 1983. The brand's whole identity is built around a simple idea: baking brings us together, it reminds us of good times, and it encourages us to stop for a minute — and that makes for a moment. It's homestyle baking made with love and care, in familiar flavours, using wholesome ingredients and — as the packaging puts it — baked full of goodness.
Walk in and you'll find the Higgins retail range laid out in its familiar forms. There are fresh baked cookies in generous share packs built for passing around, and individually wrapped cookies and brownies that slot neatly into lunchboxes, gloveboxes and desk drawers. Everything is made with wholesome ingredients, in the homestyle way that has made the brand a familiar sight in cafés and stores around the country.
The star of the show is the Higgins 40% Range. These are the 40% Chocolate Chunk Treats — naked cookies baked with a substantial hit of 40% chocolate chunks and nestled in the pack ready to share. Higgins asks, what a way to make a cookie more special? The range is positioned exactly as that: the way to make your next moment a little more indulgent. It's the pick for anyone who believes a cookie should be measured by its chocolate.
The range doesn't stop at cookies and brownies. Bliss Balls offer a bite-sized option aimed at healthier snacking, while gluten free options mean nobody has to miss out — treats, as Higgins puts it, that everyone can enjoy. And for those who like their cookies warm from the oven, there's frozen dough you can take home and bake fresh yourself, filling the kitchen with that just-baked smell without any of the measuring or mixing.
That breadth is the point of the licensed store model. Higgins supplies cafés, restaurants and retail stores through its wholesale range, and a Mrs Higgins Licensed Store like Urban Café brings that cabinet together in one neighbourhood spot — café convenience on one side, a proper bakery range on the other.
A visit here is a low-fuss affair, in the best way. Stop by on a run along Great South Road, pick out a wrapped cookie for the road or a treat to eat on the spot, and be on your way — or linger a little longer and make it an actual moment, in keeping with the brand's whole philosophy. Share packs make it easy to stock up for an office morning tea or the family tin, and the individually wrapped options mean there's always something portable on hand.
Because everything comes from one baker, the quality is consistent: homestyle recipes, quality ingredients, and that established-in-1986 know-how behind every batch. It's Kiwi baking — made in New Zealand by a company that has been at it for decades and remains part of a family business.
Urban Café sits at 63/217 Great South Road in Papatoetoe, Auckland, making it a handy stop for locals and anyone passing through the suburb. If you're hunting down Higgins treats specifically — the 40% Chocolate Chunk Treats, the Bliss Balls, the gluten free options or the frozen dough — this licensed store is exactly the kind of place to find them.
In a stretch of road full of reasons to keep driving, this is one built to make you stop for a minute. That, as Higgins would say, makes for a moment.