A name, a spark, a way of doing things — and the reason we roast the way we do.
This Is Max
Back in 1999, up in the salty, sun-drenched wilds of the Bay of Islands, a guy named Ben started a coffee company. He named it after his son, Max — a kid who was bold, curious, full of beans, and probably climbing the furniture. That same energy? Still in every bag we roast.
Since then, Max Coffee has changed hands, levelled up, and been lovingly tampered with — but the spark stayed lit. We’re still here, still roasting, still chasing that perfect cup that tastes like a good idea and a small, delicious win.
These days, Max isn’t just a name — it’s a way of living. Maybe your Max looks like surfing at sunrise and keeping a sourdough starter alive. Maybe it’s dancing like a fiend in gumboots at a festival that’s 80% mud, 20% glitter. Maybe it’s surviving daycare drop-off or maybe it’s just chasing five quiet minutes before the chaos kicks in.
We roast coffee for that moment. The Max moment. The main-character energy. The “yep, that’s the stuff” sip.
We keep it simple: Roast the good stuff, treat people right, and fuel the moments that deserve a little extra magic.
So here’s to your Max — whatever that looks like.
What Fuels Us
Make good coffee. Be good humans. Leave things better than we found them.
Max exists to roast specialty coffee that fuels better days — the wild ideas, the early starts, the tiny triumphs and not so tiny to-do lists. We roast with care, partner with people we believe in, and keep things fresh, honest, and obsessively well-made.
Coffee’s just the start. We’re here for progress, connection, and showing up with beans that make your day (and someone else’s) better.
No Compromises. Just Quality.
Honestly? We care. A lot. About flavour, balance, texture, aroma — even how it hits your soul at 7:03am on a Tuesday.
We roast only 100% Arabica, specialty-grade beans. Every batch is colour-read, cupped, and put through its paces until it earns the right to be called delicious.
We log every batch, fine-tune every roasting curve, and obsess over the details — so your cup is smooth, balanced, and deeply satisfying.
Because when the details matter, the coffee does too.
The Roaster
Max started life on a 12kg Otto Swadlo — a vintage beauty built by a factory with serious backbone. During WWII, when the German regime commandeered Otto’s workshop to produce weapons, the founder wasn’t having a bar of it. So, in a quiet act of rebellion, he engineered tiny faults into the machinery — undetectable, but enough to throw a spanner in the works.
We’ve since upgraded to a 25kg Probat, but only after hunting down one that roasted with the same soul: gutsy, intuitive, a little rebellious, and totally hands-on.
Still manual. Still Max.
The Humans
Max is led by Jason and Zara — a husband-and-wife team with one shared brain cell and a deep love for coffee. Jason’s a coffee trainer turned roaster (well, still a coffee trainer too, technically). Zara’s a fashion designer turned brand wrangler and flavour aficionado.
We roast, taste, pack, train, fix stuff, and dream big — all from our roastery HQ in Kerikeri, Bay of Islands. Throw in a few top-tier café mates and a small but mighty crew, and that’s the Max whānau.
The Beans
We don’t pick the cherries ourselves — but we do know exactly where they grew, who processed them, and why they made the cut.
We work with importers who care about the full picture: traceability, fair pricing, and long-term relationships at origin. The kind of people who know every co-op manager by name and have WhatsApp chats full of harvest photos.
Some origins are old favourites we keep coming back to. Others are exciting new flings that won us over in the cupping lab. But all of them have to hit the Max standard — and that bar is aggressively high.
If it’s not delicious, ethical, and roast-worthy? It doesn’t go in the roaster. No hard feelings — just high standards.
