Our Story
We’re Avohaven — a small New Zealand-based team on a mission to bring a little magic to every meal with artisan salts, seasonings, and flavour blends.
But we didn’t start here.
Where it All Began
Avohaven began in our avocado orchards of Maungatapere, Northland. What started as a retirement project for dad soon became a full family affair when the neighbouring orchard came up for sale so we went all in, boots and all.
We were hooked on growing great avocados, and the next step was turning that fruit into something more. That’s when the idea for cold-pressed avocado oil was born. After a few failed experiments (including one involving a neighbour’s olive press), we teamed up with one of the top avocado oil producers in the world who happened to be based right here in New Zealand.
That partnership led to our first Avohaven products: 100% pure avocado oil, quickly followed by garlic, and chilli garlic variants, and then our cult-favourite vinaigrettes.
A Few Curveballs
Fast forward a few years… and things got tough.
Cyclone Gabrielle caused serious damage to the orchard. Then, the company producing our avocado oil went into liquidation suddenly, our signature product line was off the table.
Around the same time, the spice supplier we’d been working with also shut down. We were left with a whole lot of ideas and no way to bring them to life.
It’s taken time, testing, and a whole lot of persistence to find the right suppliers, refine our blends, and rebuild but we’re here, still creating, and more excited than ever about what we’re offering now.
Where We’re At Now
We’re proud to now focus on artisan salts and seasoning blends, hand-crafted in small batches right here in New Zealand.
Sure, we still use some imported ingredients (let’s be real, not every spice grows here), but the products themselves are created, blended, and packed in NZ by a small local team who genuinely care about quality.
No fillers. No artificial preservatives. Just bold, balanced, flavour-packed blends made to elevate everyday meals whether you’re slow-cooking a roast or sprinkling something magic on your avo toast.
Still Rooted in Avocados
We’re proud to now focus on artisan salts and seasoning blends, hand-crafted in small batches right here in New Zealand.
Even though we can’t currently produce our avocado oil and vinaigrettes (we’re working on it!), avocados are still part of who we are. They were the start of this journey, and the name Avohaven is a nod to our start, both literally and figuratively.
Five Years of Flavour
We’re officially five years in, five years of flavour experiments, product launches, farmers' markets, Lifestyle Expo's, setbacks, learnings, and a whole lot of kitchen mess.
Every product we release has been trialled, tweaked, and tested by us. We make everything in small batches, by hand, because we think that’s the best way to get flavour just right.
A New Kind of Magic
So here we are: a proudly NZ-made brand bringing you artisan salts, seasoning blends, and flavour magic, made with care, crafted with purpose, and ready to bring joy to your kitchen.
Welcome to the next chapter of Avohaven where simplicity meets flavour, and the magic is all in the mix
The Orchard
Great taste starts with great products and for us it runs far deeper than this.
It’s about looking towards the future and ensuring that our resources are protected for future generations. Growing avocados can be hard on the environment in the form of high water consumption, fertilisers and chemical usage for pest and weed control.
At Avo Haven Orchards we focus on soil health. By using a natural sustainable New Zealand made seaweed product we are improving the soil biology and plant health which in turn has led to a higher production of great tasting avocados. We were recently featured in the Agrisea’s Hort News newsletter.
