Ben Boyle

Ben Boyle - Be Specialty Coffee

We are a specialty coffee roastery (formerly known as Barista Empire) based in Auckland, New Zealand. Founded by award-winning professional Barista Ben Boyle in 2006 after returning home from a stint on the Melbourne cafe scene, Barista Empire started off with humble beginnings as an eponymous small inner-city espresso bar on Fort Street with one of the country’s first Synesso espresso machines, which was soon followed by a 3kg Diedrich IR Roaster installed in the corner of the cafe. With Ben at the helm of the Synesso everyday and roasting all our own coffee in-house, it wasn’t long before the reputation of the coffee served at Ben Cafe had grown to be one the city’s best – with throngs of inner-city workers queuing up every morning for their coffee fix a testament to that.