This study was designed to determine mediators of urate responses to a fructose load in a cohort of New Zealanders categorised by ethnicity: Māori (n=25), Pacific (n=26) and New Zealand European (n=25). Blood samples were obtained from each participant after consumption of a 64 g fructose/16 g glucose solution. The bloods were analysed for changes from baseline in lipids, glucose, insulin and C‐reactive protein. In analyses accounting for age and gender, glucose and insulin responses were significantly higher among people with higher BMI compared with those with lower BMI (p<0.01 for both comparisons). Whereas glucose levels were similar among people of Māori or Pacific ethnicity and those of New Zealand European ethnicity (p=0.077), Māori and Pasifika had significantly higher insulin responses (p=0.0005), which remained after additional BMI-adjusted analyses (p=0.001). Sugar‐sweetened beverage (SSB) intake was higher in the Māori and Pacific cohort than among New Zealand Europeans (median 1.0 vs 0.0 SSB/day; p=0.002).