Now Dunedin’s Quick Brown Fox is preparing to move to larger premises where founder Arjun Haszard hopes to build the capacity to export again.
It was 2011 when he decided the market lacked a sophisticated coffee drink and set about creating and selling an organic coffee and cinnamon liqueur.
Now distributed nationwide, the company has become a popular choice for coffee cocktails such as espresso martinis.
The business had been selling to the United Kingdom and Australia in 2019 and had gained "great traction", especially in the UK, but then Covid-19 happened, and it lost its distribution partners, Mr Haszard said.
He then focused on the domestic market and released some new products, including flat white coffee liqueur, made from New Zealand cream, and a limited-release overproof coffee liqueur aged in bourbon barrels.
With soon-to-be three fulltime staff and an increased product range, Quick Brown Fox’s existing premises in Fairfield had become too small and he was excited to find a larger space in South Dunedin.
While the hospitality industry was struggling and consumers were choosing what they spent their money on, they were still looking for "little moments of indulgence and luxury", he said.
Its liqueur recently won double gold at the New Zealand Spirit Awards.
The win was testament to the Dunedin team.
"There’s no textbook on how to make award-winning coffee liqueur and the team have been meticulous about improvement and quality."
Double gold was the highest accolade an entry could receive, awarded when the judges ranked the entry "near the peak of achievement".
The coffee was the key to the liqueur, Mr Haszard said.
Strictly Coffee had roasted its beans since the beginning of the business.
Quick Brown Fox’s parent company QBF Drinks produces a ready-made espresso martini, Harpoon Cold Brew, a popular cold-brew coffee concentrate; Fomo, a vegan organic foaming agent for cocktails; and Dr Tartmore, a new cocktail acid product used in place of lemons and limes.
