The average price for a café-brewed coffee in New Zealand is $5.20, but one Christchurch café is selling its newest brew for $100 per cup.
By Makayla Powick for 1News
Rook Café, in central Christchurch, is branching out by offering a rare type of coffee to its customers, sourced from a Panama coffee farm called Mt Totumas in Chiriqui and roasted in Western Australia.
"The coffee itself is roasted in Perth by a friend who recently opened a small roasting business from his house," said barista and co-owner of Rook Cafe, Kyle Cabangun.
"We had an idea of selling his $100 coffee, and we basically asked him, 'Can you please find us something that would allow us to charge this amount?' Then he asked some people he knew to find some coffee in the price bracket we were willing to pay," said Cabagun.
The café owner said finding coffee to fit the price bracket was surprisingly challenging.
He described the premium flavour profile of the rare coffee as floral, clean and with a "nice acidity".
But he said if people don't drink lots of high quality, premium brews, "it'll just taste like fruity coffee".
Cabagun explained coffee was scored by certified professionals on a scale of 0-100: "This coffee is a 96.2. So, It's extremely high quality."
It was brought through Panama's premium auction where all of the world's most expensive coffee was sold.
"Buying a really nice coffee to be able to share with people is a privilege and it's something that I enjoy doing," Cabagun said.
He thought the opportunity would appeal to "coffee nerd and enthusiasts" and the café already had two pre-orders before they made the coffee available for purchase from September 21.
He estimated the café had enough stock to sell 14-15 cups, and Cabagun said he wasn't "too concerned" about not selling them all.
"You can freeze coffee so it holds its value for a long time", he said.
Cabagun said offering such a unique coffee would be "another step forward" for the café which opened in November last year.
According to Stats NZ, the average price of a café coffee in New Zealand for 2026 is $5.23.
SHARE ME