Homebrew was always meant to exist. Blair and Tayler Paterson were just waiting for the right moment and the right site to bring it to life.
Before they ever had a café, they had a plan. They wanted a drive-through coffee bar. Fast, energetic, and built for connection. And they were bold enough to chase it. They drove around Hamilton, spotting potential sites, knocking on landowners’ doors and pitching a dream with optimism.
They were young, running on determination, and “a bit delusional in a good way,” Tayler laughs. Their son, Mason, was a baby at the time, strapped into the back seat as they searched for a car park big enough to make the numbers work. And then Cambridge appeared, not as the original plan, but as the first real “yes”.
In late 2019, an opportunity came to establish a café adjacent to a Waitomo fuel stop. There’d been a sudden change, and a small building needed a new leaseholder quickly. Blair and Tayler had about 72 hours to decide. It wasn’t a drive through. It wasn’t Hamilton. But it was worth a shot.
What happened next is part business origin story, part community effort. With almost no budget, they built the first Homebrew themselves with help from family and friends - floors, paint, benches, whatever they could do to get the doors open. By the end, there was no money left.
“One night we were so close to opening and had zero money left over,” Tayler says. “We just said, ‘we have to open tomorrow, somebody has to come and buy coffee’.”
Cambridge did. From the beginning, Homebrew’s point of difference wasn’t a secret blend or a complicated concept. It was a deliberate decision to make coffee culture feel welcoming.
A big part of the menu design came from that mindset: make great coffee, make it approachable, and make the experience feel like someone’s glad you walked in. That philosophy shaped everything, from the bright, energetic branding to the way staff are trained to connect. Homebrew feels fast and fun, but never rushed. The pace is high, the vibe is friendly, and the welcome is consistent.
And that’s where Blair and Tayler’s partnership becomes the real story. They both recognise their strengths are different, but perfectly matched. Tayler leads with heart and relationships. Blair leans into coffee craft, systems and business building.
“Tayler is the people person. She really loves that side of the business,” Blair says. “I care about that too, but I’m really passionate about the coffee itself, including the taste, the process, refining the blends, building systems, automation, and making the business scalable.”
Over time, Homebrew has become a front row seat to the milestones of its customers’ lives.
“We hear about pregnancies, we hear about loss… we see people on their first date here, and then they end up engaged and married,” she says. “It never stops feeling special. It’s all because of coffee, but it’s really not about the coffee.”
If you read Homebrew’s reviews, she says, you’ll often see that truth spelled out: the people were amazing… and the coffee was good too. The “vehicle” is coffee, but the outcome is community.
“We can teach coffee,” Tayler says. “What you can’t teach is someone who’s genuine, fun, and kind.”
Over the years, they’ve watched shy team members grow into confident leaders, including staff who have become minor local celebrities in Cambridge, recognised in supermarkets by families who know them by name. Tayler gets emotional talking about it, because for them, the business isn’t just about serving customers; it’s about developing people.
“We want our team to leave better than when they started,” she says. “To know you can run a business and be kind to your team, and still hold your values.”
Blair says they set business goals early, intending to open four shops in four years. They positioned the business from day one to enable expansion. That meant getting off the tools earlier than most owners can afford, hiring sooner, and focusing on leases, systems, team development and product consistency.
The pandemic disrupted timelines and supply chains, but they still reached four stores in five years, and today Homebrew sits at six locations, with around 25 staff.
The latest brings the story back to Cambridge. Their newest Cambridge café evolved from a shipping container set up into a full café, and opening it has felt like both a milestone and a moment to breathe.
“It’s the first time we’re not laser focused on opening stores,” Blair says. “It’s been full gas until now.”
There’s still a drive-through dream in the background, too. But whatever comes next, the heart of Homebrew stays the same: a business built on care, made for community, serving neighbours, and led by a partnership that knows exactly what it’s trying to create.
