Which New Zealand Coffee Brands Are Best for Cold Brew?
Cold brew rewards South American beans, a medium to dark roast and a coarse grind. In New Zealand that points to Coffee Supreme's Brazil Blend, Flight Coffee's Bomber, Raglan Roast for cheap bulk, Ozone if you want a ready-made concentrate, and Naki Roast's Southern Lights, a single origin Brazil Cerrado roasted to order in Taranaki. Budget about 80g of coffee per litre of water. All prices are in NZD and were checked on 13 August 2026.
What actually makes a bean good for cold brew
Cold water is a lazy solvent. It pulls sugars and chocolate notes out of coffee happily enough, but it barely touches the bright acids that make a light Ethiopian sing when it's hot. So the beans that shine in a V60 often taste flat and thin after twelve hours in the fridge.
Two things matter more than the brand on the bag.
Origin. Coffees from Central or South America, so Brazil, Colombia and Guatemala, work best for the traditional cold brew profile, which means more chocolate, nut and caramel flavour in the cup [3]. Brazil in particular is the safe bet.
Roast level. If you normally drink lighter roasts hot, go a step darker for cold brew [3]. Longer roasting develops more sugar, and sweetness is the thing cold extraction can actually reach.
Then there's grind. Medium to coarse, closer to plunger than espresso. It filters cleanly and it tastes less bitter, because a fine grind over-extracts across a long steep [2]. Think rough sea salt, not flour.
That's the whole brief. Chocolatey South American beans, medium-dark, ground coarse. Now for who in New Zealand sells that.
The NZ brands worth buying for cold brew
| Brand | Pick | Why it suits cold brew | Price (NZ$) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Coffee Supreme | Brazil Blend | Chocolate, butterscotch, praline. All Brazilian [1] | $19.50 / 250g, $69 / 1kg |
| Naki Roast | Southern Lights | 100% Brazil Cerrado, dark and rounded, roasted to order | $17 / 250g |
| Flight Coffee | Bomber | Orange, caramel, cacao nib. Roasted for espresso and filter [6] | $18 / 250g, $63.50 / 1kg |
| Raglan Roast | Brown Lightning | Cheapest per kilo, ships next day, plunger grind option | $14 / 250g, $49 / 1kg |
| Ozone | Cold Brew Concentrate | No brewing at all. 80 servings per box [4] | $122 / box |
Coffee Supreme, for the textbook answer
Supreme's Brazil Blend is about as on-the-nose as it gets. The tasting notes read chocolate, butterscotch and praline, with a soft, silky body and a peanut slab finish [1]. That's the cold brew flavour wheel written out in full.
They also publish their own recipe, which is handy because it's calibrated for New Zealand water and New Zealand plungers: 80g of coffee per litre, plunger grind, twelve hours in the fridge [5]. It keeps three to four days after that.
Naki Roast, for a single origin Brazil at the everyday end
Southern Lights is 100% Brazil Cerrado. Nothing else in the bag. It's roasted dark and rounded, full-bodied, with a smooth finish and no bitterness fighting through. Read the cold brew guidance again and it lines up almost line for line: South American origin, darker roast, sweetness over acidity.
It's NZ$17 for a 250g bag, which puts it at the affordable end of specialty rather than the top.
If you want more chocolate and less fruit, OG Roast (NZ$18 / 250g) is a medium-dark blend of Brazil Cerrado, Colombia Medellín and Mexico Altura with notes of dark chocolate, hazelnut and caramel. Three Latin American origins in one bag. Also fine cold.
And if you brew cold by the jug all summer, there's Lab Rat, a 1kg custom bag at NZ$60 where you pick your own origins and tell the roaster whether to stop at first or second crack. Load it up with Brazil Cerrado, take it to second crack, and you've built a cold brew bean to spec. One caveat worth knowing: that 1kg is green weight, before roasting, so you get roughly 850g to 900g of roasted coffee out of it.
Flight Coffee, for something with a bit more going on
Bomber is Flight's all-rounder, roasted for both espresso and filter, tasting of orange, caramel and cacao nib [6]. The caramel and cacao carry through cold beautifully. The orange is the interesting part, because cold brew usually flattens citrus, and here it survives as a lift at the end rather than a sour edge.
NZ$18 for 250g, or NZ$63.50 for a kilo.
Raglan Roast, when you're brewing by the litre
Cold brew is expensive in beans. You use two to three times the coffee you'd use for the same volume of filter. That makes price per kilo the number that matters, not price per bag.
Brown Lightning is NZ$14 for 250g, NZ$26 for 500g and NZ$49 for a kilo. They'll also grind it to plunger for you at checkout, and they dispatch same day on orders in before 2pm.
Ozone, if you'd rather not brew at all
Ozone sell a Single Origin Cold Brew Concentrate that's hot-brewed through their own process, then concentrated, pasteurised and cooled. One box holds the equivalent of 80 double-espresso-strength servings [4]. At NZ$122 that's about NZ$1.53 a serve, which beats a café and requires nothing but a fridge.
They also publish a stronger home recipe than Supreme's: 250g of coffee to 1 litre of water, steeped at least 16 hours, giving about 500ml of concentrate. Dilute 30ml with 120ml of water or milk [5].
What a litre of cold brew actually costs you
At Supreme's 80g per litre, here's what the bag price works out to per litre of finished brew. Buying by the kilo is where the saving is.
| Bean | Price per kg | Cost per litre |
|---|---|---|
| Raglan Roast Brown Lightning | NZ$49 | NZ$3.92 |
| Flight Bomber | NZ$63.50 | NZ$5.08 |
| Naki Southern Lights (250g bags) | NZ$68 | NZ$5.44 |
| Naki Lab Rat (1kg, ~875g roasted) | ~NZ$69 | ~NZ$5.49 |
| Coffee Supreme Brazil Blend | NZ$69 | NZ$5.52 |
So the spread across every roaster here is about a dollar sixty a litre. That's the price of half a flat white. Worth remembering before you optimise too hard on the bean cost.
Freshness matters more for cold brew, not less
There's a myth that cold brew is where you dump your stale beans, since the long steep hides everything. It doesn't. It hides bitterness and acidity. It does not hide the flat, cardboardy note that stale coffee gives up, and twelve hours of soaking gives that note plenty of time to come out.
This is where roast date beats best-before. Naki Roast roasts on order and ships straight away, so the beans land inside the 5 to 14 day window where they're at their best [7]. Supermarket bags have often been sitting for months by the time you open them.
Naki Roast is a small-batch operation at 96 Bridge Street, Eltham, in south Taranaki. Small batch is the reason roast-to-order works at all: nothing sits in a warehouse waiting for a distributor [8].
If you're buying a kilo to get through summer, that freshness window matters even more. Freeze what you're not using within a fortnight, in an airtight bag, and grind straight from frozen.
A cold brew recipe that works
Two published New Zealand recipes, both worth having.
Ready to drink, from Coffee Supreme. 80g of coarsely ground coffee to 1 litre of cold water. Stir, cover, fridge for 12 hours. Plunge or filter. Drink over the next three to four days [5].
Concentrate, from Ozone. 250g of coffee to 1 litre of water in a French press. Leave at least 16 hours. Press or filter, which gives you around 500ml. Serve 30ml with 120ml of water or milk over ice [5].
Start with the Supreme ratio. If it tastes weak, don't steep it longer, use more coffee. Over-steeping brings out the woody flavours; a bigger dose just makes it stronger.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which New Zealand roasters sell a bean made for cold brew?
Coffee Supreme's Brazil Blend is the closest thing to a purpose-built cold brew bean, with chocolate, butterscotch and praline notes from all-Brazilian coffee [1]. Naki Roast's Southern Lights is a single origin Brazil Cerrado, roasted dark and rounded, at NZ$17 for 250g. Ozone skip the step entirely and sell a ready-made concentrate [4].
What grind should I use for cold brew?
Medium to coarse. It filters out cleanly and tastes less bitter, because a fine grind over-extracts during a long steep [2]. Coffee Supreme specify a plunger grind [5]. Several NZ roasters, including Raglan Roast, will grind to plunger for you when you order.
Is cheap coffee fine for cold brew?
Cheaper beans go further here than they do in espresso, because cold extraction is forgiving of a rough roast. Raglan Roast at NZ$49 a kilo works out to about NZ$3.92 a litre. What it won't forgive is stale coffee. Long steeping brings out flat, papery notes rather than hiding them, so buy on roast date first and price second.
How much coffee do I need per litre?
Coffee Supreme use 80g per litre for a ready-to-drink brew [5]. Ozone use 250g per litre for a concentrate you then dilute at about 1 part to 4 [5]. Both are far heavier doses than filter coffee, which is why cold brew fans tend to buy by the kilo.
Does cold brew need a dark roast?
Darker helps. Longer roasting develops more sugar, and sweetness is what cold water can reach [3]. You don't need a burnt French roast. A medium-dark like Naki's OG Roast or Southern Lights sits in the right place.
Sources
- coffeesupreme.com: Brazil Blend tasting notes and sizes.
- purewow.com: Medium-to-coarse grind guidance for cold brew.
- perfectdailygrind.com: Origin and roast-level guidance for cold brew.
- ozonecoffee.co.nz: Single Origin Cold Brew Concentrate, servings per box.
- coffeesupreme.com and ozonecoffee.co.nz: published New Zealand cold brew recipes.
- flightcoffee.co.nz: Bomber blend tasting notes.
- nakiroast.co.nz: roast date and the fresh window for coffee in New Zealand.
- nakiroast.co.nz: what small-batch roasting means in New Zealand.