It's been five long weeks without cafe coffee fixes. Photo / Getty Images
It's been five long weeks without cafe coffee fixes. Photo / Getty Images
As New Zealand enters day one of level three, Aucklanders have wasted no time getting that first, frothy sip of a takeaway coffee after subsisting for five long weeks on homemade brews.
Cafes are allowed to operate under alert level 3, but only for contactless click and collect takeaways and deliveries.
And while plenty of espresso fans have gotten in queues for their first post-lockdown cup, it wasn't quite the feeding frenzy some feared, with reports of social distancing rules being obeyed and lines being busy, but manageable.
While your social media feed is probably chock-full of gram-worthy takeaway coffee snaps, we chatted to cafe owners and customers to find out just how that first sip went down.
Atomic Coffee Roasters in Kingsland's operations manager, Chelsea Morrison, said the staff were "a little nervous" about how things would roll out, given the "uncharted territory" of creating a new efficient workflow, maintaining distance and safety for staff and customers, using pre-order apps for the first time and "the simple unknown of just how many people would show up."
Within the first 15 minutes of "going live", they had 40 orders and by midday had sold 255 coffees.
Morrison says it's been a "pretty lighthearted" vibe at the cafe and that the customers, mainly local regulars, seemed "just glad to be able to have their favourite brew served by their favourite baristas. Everyone seems happy to have an excuse to talk to more people, even from a distance."
Around the corner at Crave cafe in Morningside, staff saw queues of up to 20 people this morning waiting to get their hands on a coffee and the cafe's coveted cheese scones.
On Auckland's North Shore, half a dozen people were waiting for coffees outside the Bitter Sweet and Generosity Coffee cafes in Highbury, near Birkenhead.
One man, who asked not to be named, was relieved to take his first swig of store-made coffee - it was a flat white.
"It's been hard-going without proper coffee," he said. "It tastes really good."
In the neighbouring suburb of Sunnybrae, Patch Cafe had a line of 3-4 people at 9.30am waiting for orders, which were being promptly prepared.
The cafe shared on social media that all orders must be placed over the phone, Regulr app, or via text in order to remain entirely contactless, and no orders would be taken in-store.
Owner of Eden Terrace, Parnell and Takapuna institutions, Goodness Gracious, Greg Cornes shared: "Overall we've been super busy, which has been awesome from a trade perspective."
Cornes noted there had been expected pressure from new contactless payment systems via their website, but he said the public has been generally very understanding. "It's great to see and hopefully people will continue [to show support.]"
When it came to customer demand on day one of level 3, Cornes put it down to locals wanting to come and show support as well as a bit of the "novelty of people being out of the house."
James Gardiner, the owner of Auckland's Rushworth Cafe in Wynyard Quarter, told Newstalk ZB's Mike Hosking it's nice to get back to some form of normality.
"We are doing all our usual favourites, but it's going to be a bit different.
"It's all going to be click-and-collect and contactless, so we've got a bit to learn today. Gardiner said businesses like his were obviously having a hard time, but he's hopeful the situation will improve.
"It's certainly not going to be what we expected six weeks ago, but we'll take it as it comes."
"It's been a tough time, but we've got a really good loyal client base so we feel we can come back pretty strongly."
Meanwhile, Neil McLeod is returning to work as a coffee roaster at Miller's Coffee, supplying Auckland cafes.
