Kia Ora Magazine Feature

As featured in Kia Ora, Air New Zealand's inflight magazine — April 2026, p.63.

Native Tree Farm™ — From the Bay of Plenty to the World

Native plant growers Laureen and Dan Andrews cultivated a surprise hit while producing premium New Zealand grown tea.

Their biggest seller isn't tea at all — it's Kawakawa Latte, a coffee-alternative made with leaves grown on their lush country plantation in the Eastern Bay of Plenty.

The Andrews propagate and grow certified organic mānuka, kānuka, horopito and kawakawa, which are harvested, processed and packaged on their Native Tree Farm property.

Laureen expanded their original tea offerings after sampling a turmeric latte at her favourite Whakatāne café. "I thought, if other countries are doing this with their native herbs, why haven't we?" she says. She began trialling dried leaf combinations and testing the results on family and friends.

Kawakawa emerged as the star ingredient, mixed with matcha, organic coconut blossom sap and their own pure-line horopito and mānuka leaves.

The result was Kawakawa Latte, which will feature in the Flavours of Plenty festival chef's box and is already being sipped at the newest luxury café in Rotorua and at Zealandia Te Māra a Tāne wildlife sanctuary in Wellington.

Online, their popular kūmarahou leaf tea sells alongside the farm's herbal teas, flavoured flaky salts and edible petals planted and picked by daughter Aliyah.

“Kūmarahou is a bitter plant, but people buy it because they understand the power of its properties. It’s one of the most important plants in Māoridom.”

Laureen is keen to “push the barriers” with new blended powder mixes. Meanwhile, a wholesale deal with a British-based tea maker will see their mānuka leaf added to tea blends for export around the world.