Our Story

Our first store (in Oriental Bay) opened for the first time in December 2004. The initial plan had been for a coffee shop that “sold a little bit of ice cream” because of its beachside location. This changed when, while holidaying in Noosa, we were reminded how much we enjoyed gelato and lamented the fact that no one was doing it well in Wellington. From there Italian contacts were made, machinery sourced and Kaffee Eis was born.

The name was chosen to reflect Karl’s Austrian heritage – Kaffee Eis (pronounced - café ice), which means coffee and ice cream in German. Kaffee Eis quickly grew a reputation for both high quality gelato (which was all initially manufactured on site) and great coffee. This was greatly enhanced by some very loyal locals, many of whom we still see on a regular basis, and the positive word of mouth advertising they perpetuated.

It wasn’t long before “the little ice cream shop in Oriental Bay” couldn’t manufacture enough gelato to cover demand, so a production kitchen was set up. This was followed soon after by a second store on the lagoon in Frank Kitts Park (Jan 2005), and two years later a third in Courtenay Place (March 2007) followed by Cuba Street (November 2013) and we now have our latest store, The Kiosk TSB Arena (June 2017).

Whilst Kaffee Eis, along with its manufacturing and distribution arm Gellicious Gelato, is now one of the biggest manufacturers of gelato in New Zealand, we remain 100% locally owned and operated.

Awards

This year we won 12 medals at the NZ Ice Cream & Gelato Awards. Plus our Lemon sorbet went on to win ‘Category Champion - Best of Citrus”!

Lemon Sorbet
Judges comment:
”Lovely appearance, good body and texture. Flavour is great!”

Lemon Sorbet
Passionfruit Sorbet
Strawberry Sorbet

Blueberry Sorbet Chocolate Gelato
Mango Sorbet Forest Fruit Yoghurt Gelato
Mixed Berry Sorbet

Boysenberry Sorbet After Eight Gelato
Sea Salt Caramel Gelato
Vanilla Bean Gelato