{"id":587929,"date":"2026-09-02T12:30:12","date_gmt":"2026-09-02T12:30:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/587929\/"},"modified":"2026-09-02T12:30:12","modified_gmt":"2026-09-02T12:30:12","slug":"zealong-opens-tea-studios-at-mojo-cafes-in-auckland-and-wellington","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/587929\/","title":{"rendered":"Zealong opens Tea Studios at Mojo cafes in Auckland and Wellington"},"content":{"rendered":"

The business began with founder Vincent Chen, who told the Waikato Herald<\/a> in May that his Taiwanese heritage gave him an early appreciation of tea. <\/p>\n

After noticing a Waikato neighbour trimming a camellia hedge, Chen wondered whether tea, part of the same plant family, could grow in New Zealand.<\/p>\n

Founded in 1996, Zealong began with 1500 tea cuttings imported from Asia; just 130 survived quarantine.<\/p>\n

Today, the Gordonton-based estate spans 48ha and is home to more than 1.2 million tea plants, producing about 20 tonnes of tea each year.<\/p>\n

Zealong Tea employs 60 permanent staff and 40 additional seasonal staff during peak harvest. <\/p>\n

The company, which celebrated its 30th birthday in May, exports its tea to markets including Germany, Japan and the United Kingdom. <\/p>\n

Zealong general manager Sen Kong said in the statement that the two companies had built their relationship around a shared appreciation for quality and craft.<\/p>\n

\" Lady Gatsby, a blended tea from Zealong. Photo \/ Tom Eley<\/p>\n

\u201cBoth Zealong and Mojo share a passion for quality, craft and creating exceptional experiences around every cup,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter 10 years of friendship, we are excited to bring Zealong even closer to our customers through these new Tea Studios.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mojo Wellington general manager Massimo Capellino said the company was proud to serve New Zealand-grown products.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are proud to be serving quality New Zealand-cultivated products. We always support NZ-made and owned operations who strive for the same values as ours,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Tom Eley is a multimedia journalist at the Waikato Herald. Before he joined the Hamilton-based team, he worked for the Weekend Sun and Sunlive. He previously worked as a journalist at Black Press Media in Canada and won a fellowship with the Vancouver Sun.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The business began with founder Vincent Chen, who told the Waikato Herald in May that his Taiwanese heritage…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":587930,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[95,1975,51,48706,289336,103104,9641,78,296,1446,70226,111,43,139,69,2680,8214,37108,27319,289335,1524,52,225139],"class_list":["post-587929","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-and","tag-at","tag-auckland","tag-cafes","tag-camellia","tag-hedge","tag-idea","tag-in","tag-into","tag-making","tag-mojo","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-opens","tag-sparked","tag-studios","tag-tea","tag-teagrowing","tag-waikato","tag-wellington","tag-zealong"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/587929","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=587929"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/587929\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/587930"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=587929"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=587929"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=587929"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}