Our Approach

Atomic Coffee Roasters opened its doors on Ponsonby Road in 1992 – back before café culture was a thing. We were the scruffy kid, pumping out live music and top-notch coffee from between fine-dining restaurants. As we hit full steam, the queues grew longer than our slice of the strip could handle. So in 1995 we made the move to Kingsland, finding our groove as part of this creative, eclectic community.

It was time to grow up, and we poured our energy into crafting uncompromisingly good coffee. We held nothing back, roasting into the wee hours, experimenting, testing and tasting until our beans were the best.

As well as our Kingsland roastery, we now operate three bustling espresso bars in central Auckland, where you won’t need to comb your hair or hide your tattoos to fit in. You’ll also find our small-batch, hand-roasted coffee in hundreds of cafés across New Zealand.

We’ve built our reputation on rich, robust flavours that are grounded in expertise. Whether brewed in a café or your home, Atomic coffee is designed to satisfy your good taste.

FLAVOUR

Everything we do is about adding flavour to your cup – with no shortcuts. Using only fairtrade, specialty-grade coffee, we source, roast and blend our beans for a complex and challenging profile.

Our exacting methods and hand-crafted profiles give you optimum depth of flavour. At the same time, we treat our coffee delicately. This ensures the beans’ inherent flavour isn’t masked by the roast and allows individual notes to cut through with clarity. This creates a rich, robust flavour with great depth.

ROASTING

Fairtrade coffee deserves respect. We know our coffee farmers have worked hard to produce premium-quality beans, and we have a responsibility to do their work justice with the best roasting and extraction techniques.

Every coffee has a different make-up and unique terroir, so we roast the components of our blends individually using the industry-leading Loring Kestrel. The result is a range of espresso blends and single origins that are complex enough to impress the aficionado but roasted sweet and clean – ensuring simply delicious coffee.

RESPONSIBILITY

All our coffee is traceable to the co-op or farm where it originated, so we know exactly where it comes from and can support these communities through ongoing business. Using only fairtrade beans means we can be sure our farmers are paid a fair price, maintain agreed environmental standards and have ethical working conditions. They’re rewarded for better quality and increased demand, but can always count on a predictable and sustainable income.

Environmental responsibility is important to us too. All our takeaway packaging – including cups, lids, cutlery and containers – is 100% compostable and made from sustainable sources, with no fossil fuels or plastic. We use Ecoware Food Packaging, which is a carbon neutral business, and offer a discount to customers who get their takeaway coffee in a reusable cup. We know some of our takeaway cups might end up in landfill despite being compostable, but this is still better for the environment than products made from plastic and supports the move away from reliance on fossil fuels.