Black & White Coffee Cartel is a New Zealand coffee franchise born from the post-earthquake rebuild of Christchurch. Founded by Bink Bowler alongside his brother Luke Bowler and Canterbury rugby identity Reuben Thorne, the first store opened in February 2015 at 83 Victoria Street in Christchurch city — one of the first notable new cafes to open in the rebuilt city, and widely credited with helping launch a new café culture for a new Christchurch.
The chain's defining difference is its micro-roasting model. Black & White describes itself as New Zealand's first micro-roasting coffee franchise: each full café has its own onsite coffee roaster, meaning the coffee served in each store is roasted on the premises, in full view of guests, rather than arriving pre-roasted from a centralised roastery. This small-batch approach removes the middleman, improves quality, and creates an experience where the journey from raw green bean to finished cup happens entirely under one roof.
The house blend — the Cartel Boss — is a medium roast built from just two origins: Brazil Cerrado, a natural-process coffee with soft sweet/fruit notes and a characteristic nutty overtone; and Honduras La Flor, a washed coffee with heavy cocoa notes and bright acidity. Together they create what the team describes as a full, rounded personality distinctive to Black & White.
The café experience is deliberately individual to each location: menus vary by store, décor draws from different eras, music is louder than average, and baristas are encouraged to be themselves. Food typically includes an all-day brunch menu with classics like bacon benny and the BOSS Breakfast, plus cabinet food covering sweet treats (caramel slices, friands, bliss balls, muffins, scones, cheesecakes, brownies) and savoury items (pies, sandwiches, wraps, sausage rolls, croissants, vegetable frittata). Much of the food is prepared onsite. Most stores offer gluten-free, dairy-free, vegetarian, vegan, and keto options, and free fluffy's are available for children at all stores.
Franchise partners — called Cartel Bosses — began joining the network in 2016. Black & White grew into one of New Zealand's fastest growing coffee franchises, with multiple locations across the country. The Boss Blend is also available as retail beans online and in-store.
In 2011, the Canterbury earthquake flattened large parts of Christchurch city. In the years that followed, buildings came down and the ground was cleared for something new. It was into this context — a city rebuilding itself from scratch, thinking hard about what it wanted to become — that Bink Bowler arrived in 2014 with a vision for a new kind of coffee shop.
Bink, his brother Luke Bowler, and Canterbury rugby identity Reuben Thorne formed the founding team. In late 2014 construction began on the first Black & White Coffee Cartel. In February 2015 it opened at 83 Victoria Street in the city — loud, proud, and immediately iconic. It was among the first of the notable new cafes to open in post-earthquake Christchurch, and it helped kick-start a new café culture for a city that was ready for one.
The concept that set Black & White apart wasn't just the aesthetic — though that was deliberate too, with loud music, brighter walls, furniture from different eras, and creative baristas. The real differentiator was what happened with the coffee itself.
Rather than operating the traditional New Zealand model — a centralised roastery supplying all stores from one off-site location — Black & White developed what they describe as New Zealand's first micro-roasting coffee franchise. Each full café has its own onsite roaster. The coffee you drink was roasted in that same building, in full view of the customers, that day. No middleman. From raw green bean to espresso cup, under one roof.
Small-batch roasting, the founders argue, produces a higher-quality result — and the experience of watching it happen in real time is part of the café visit itself. Europeans have been operating this way for years; Black & White brought the model to New Zealand.
The house blend — called the Cartel Boss, a medium roast — is built from just two origins: Brazil Cerrado and Honduras La Flor. Where other blenders pack twelve coffees into a house blend, Black & White chose two carefully matched classics that complement rather than muddy each other.
The Brazil Cerrado is a natural-process coffee with soft, sweet fruit notes and the characteristic Brazilian overtone of nut. The Honduras La Flor is a washed coffee with heavy cocoa notes and a bright, distinctive acidity. Natural meets washed; sweet meets bitter; nut meets cocoa. The result, according to Black & White, is a full, rounded personality that makes for a distinctive cup — one available at every store, and as retail beans online.
Black & White describes its mission as bringing "the funky, independent coffee shop" to the masses — a deliberately contradictory proposition. The point is that each location is intentionally individual: food menus that vary by store, décor that doesn't repeat, baristas who feel like neighbours rather than uniforms.
The food offering ranges from an all-day brunch menu (classics like bacon benny and the BOSS Breakfast) to a cabinet full of sweet and savoury options — caramel slices, friands, bliss balls, muffins, scones, cheesecakes, pies, sandwiches, wraps, sausage rolls, croissants, and vegetable frittata. Much of the food is prepared onsite. Most stores carry gluten-free, dairy-free, vegetarian, vegan, and keto options, and children receive a free fluffy with any visit.
The franchise model — franchise partners are called Cartel Bosses — began recruiting in 2016, and within a few years Black & White had grown into one of New Zealand's fastest growing coffee franchises, with stores across the country.