A Bar Apart Launch Week: 7-12 July 2026
We’re excited to announce that A Bar Apart is launching on the 7th of July – World Chocolate Day!
We've been working on this for a while, and we're incredibly excited to finally share it with you.
A Bar Apart is a new shared emblem for New Zealand's finest ethical bean-to-bar chocolate makers – a signature that tells you, before you've even taken a bite, that what you're holding was made with genuine craft, transparency and care. Every maker who carries our emblem crafts their chocolate from scratch, knows exactly where their cacao comes from, and is proud to show the world how they make their chocolate.
New Zealand has quietly become home to an exceptional bean-to-bar chocolate movement over the last 15 years. A Bar Apart has been founded by 14 incredible makers – from Wellington to Nelson, Auckland to the Coromandel – each making chocolate in their own distinctive way, but united by a shared commitment to doing it properly and transparently. A Bar Apart exists to celebrate their work, and to help you find them, trust them, and enjoy their delicious creations.
Come and meet us – launch week pop-up, 7–12 July
To mark the launch, we're hosting a week-long pop-up shop at Spacefor Pavilion, 10 Te Ara Tahuhu, Britomart, Auckland. We open on World Chocolate Day – Tuesday 7 July – and we'd love you to come and celebrate with us.
The pop-up will be open Tuesday to Saturday 10am–6pm and Sunday 10am–4pm, and throughout the week we'll be running a programme of free lunchtime tastings (12–1pm, no ticket required) and ticketed evening events (7.30–8.30pm).
What's on
Lunchtime tastings – free, 12–1pm
Each weekday we'll be joined by one of our makers for a free lunchtime tasting:
Tuesday 7 July – Wonderland Chocolate
Wednesday 8 July – Raglan Chocolate
Thursday 9 July – Coromandel Chocolate
Friday 10 July – Valura Chocolate
On Saturday 11 July we’ll also have free Kōkako coffee for the first 100 people, from 10am
Evening events – ticketed, 7.30–8.30pm
Tuesday 7 July – The art and fun of flavouring chocolate with Baron Hasselhoff's
Wednesday 8 July – Cacao adventures in Peru with Lucid Chocolatier
Thursday 9 July – Chocolate and olive oil tasting with Shirl & Moss and Allpress Olive Groves
Friday 10 July – Single origin tea and chocolate pairing with The Tea Curator
A Bar Apart – chocolate worth finding
Whether you're a lifelong craft chocolate devotee or just beginning to discover what chocolate can really taste like, launch week is the perfect place to start. Come and meet the makers, taste the chocolate, and find out what it really means to make a bar apart.
We'll see you there.
Follow us @abarapart.co
