Step through the front door of Best Ugly Bagels and the swag meter hits the roof. Here in an industrial warehouse in the transformed City Works Depot on Wellesley St, a hive of activity is underway. A small army of tattooed hipsters are running a production line of hand rolled, boiled and baked Montreal style bagels.
Best Ugly Bagels is one of the top sellers of CoAqua in Auckland, and judging by the volume of production witnessed on this wet spring morning - we can see why. Apparently, Aucklander's love bagels.
We hit up Amon, the guy behind the counter with a quick three questions to find out more about Best Ugly's bagel loving, CoAqua customers.
Who is your typical coaqua customer?
Our typical coaqua customers are people from the gym. We get lots of people from Les Mills who come in after their workout. They get coaqua for rehydration post-gym. I reckon that's our number one coaqua customer.
What is the best bagel you serve to match with coaqua?
It goes with most of them, it goes with savory and sweet. Coaqua sits in between because it's naturally sweet, but not sugary like a soda.
What are your customers saying about coaqua?
We have regulars that come here specifically to buy it. They don't even buy bagels, they just buy a bottle of coaqua. That says it all.
Indeed it does. Thanks Amon.