Michael Allpress started with one of New Zealand's first coffee carts, inspired by a mobile espresso cart a Boeing engineer built in Seattle. In 2003 he designed the ART hot-air roaster with engineer Mike Scobie, which suspends beans in a stream of hot air.
The team buys directly from growers, a practice dating to 2001, and visits farms and co-ops to assess quality. More than 800 tonnes of green coffee a year comes direct from origin, at 83 points or above.