The Story
Sample Coffee opened their tiny Surry Hills espresso bar in 2011 with a simple goal: to let customers taste (sample) delicious and diverse coffees from around the world.
They focused particularly on rotating single origins and black coffee brewing styles, something not so popular back then.
In 2014, they opened their roastery and second cafe in St Peters. This space allowed them to curate and share the coffee menu of their dreams: a generous, weekly changing list of exceptional single origins, smooth espresso blends, and respectable decaf.
Over a decade later, slowly and organically, they’ve grown a community of locals, homebrewers and wholesale partners that love and respect their coffees and way of doing business.
They still do things small, by choice. This helps them stay nimble, flexible and hyperconnected with every part of the coffee journey. What began as a quest to share diverse coffees has evolved into a roastery that has made big waves in Sydney’s – and now Australia’s – coffee scene, with an exciting mix of blends and single origins from around the world, all roasted on restored vintage German roasters.
Sourcing & Relationships
Sample Coffee’s approach starts with transparent, high-quality sourcing, followed by consistent roasting and brewing. They run the non-coffee side of their business with the same integrity, creating a respectful, generous, and thoughtful experience for everyone involved. They source only high-quality lots through ethical importers that pay above Fair Trade and C-price.
The roaster practices what they call “honest ethical sourcing” and demonstrates this commitment through B Corporation certification—a rigorous third-party assessment of social and environmental performance. They publish all the sourcing information (variety, process, region, story, importer, and more) that their importers share and give them permission to—both for single origins and blend components. This helps them talk confidently about the quality and background of their product.
Their sourcing philosophy embraces seasonality and supports small producers. They only use relatively small-sized coffee lots from the latest harvest and from independent small-scale producers. When one origin comes to an end, they replace it with another of similar characteristics. This approach prioritizes freshness and farmer relationships over convenience, requiring continuous curation but ensuring every coffee tells an authentic story.
Roasting Philosophy
Sample Coffee’s roasting philosophy centers on achieving clarity of flavor through their omni-roast approach. They want their single origins to highlight (as much as possible) the inherent characteristics of each coffee lot—this is generally known as transparency or clarity of flavour. Those qualities are determined mainly by terroir, varietal, fermentation method and production process followed by each producer. To achieve this, they design their own roasting protocols that will deliver those characteristics according to their experience and testing over the years.
These protocols sit in the middle of the light/filter and dark/espresso roast spectrum, closer to the first. They target a balance between acidity/brightness and sweetness/full body, always with enough development to avoid green-grassy flavours.
They roast their singles using a single profile that suits both filter and espresso brewing (omni roasting), and they do it because they love how their coffee tastes—both brewed as filter and espresso—when roasted this way and brewed well.
Their Loring S35 Kestrel roaster replaced their 1960s Probat and represents a total game-changer. Designed and built half a century later, it integrates technological developments that bring more control and efficiency to their roasting and fewer carbon emissions. Most excitingly, it achieves cleaner, more transparent flavour profiles and a longer product shelf life.
The Loring works mainly with convective heat, which achieves an even and uniform roast throughout the whole bean. This preserves and highlights the intrinsic qualities and ages much better.
What to Try
Pacemaker stands as their house blend since 2011, when they opened their Surry Hills espresso bar. A touch lighter than Sweet Tooth and most espresso blends in the market, it’s loved for its fruity, consistent, and gentle taste.
As black, expect amaretto, raisin, and caramel—the base note is classic caramel that gives structure and comforting familiarity, with added brightness of dried fruit notes. With milk, it delivers shortbread, nougat, and baked apple, creating a rounded sweetness typical of baked fruit and goods.
Their single origins represent the heart of Sample’s philosophy, offering a weekly changing selection that showcases diversity and seasonality. These ever-changing single origins and premium Very Special coffees work best as espresso or filter. Each coffee is roasted to reveal its unique character while maintaining the roastery’s signature clarity and balance.
Sweet Tooth, their other espresso blend, is roasted a touch darker with one (sometimes two) natural process components. The combination gives it bigger body and sweetness, making it closer to a traditional espresso profile, while Pacemaker remains bright and fruity. For those seeking convenience without compromise, they offer decaf options and even steeped bags for espresso-style coffee anywhere. Their current coffees start to taste best around 10 days post-roast and begin to fade after week 8—or even later, thanks to their Loring roaster’s superior bean development.