Newy's kinda new(ish) order: Inside Newcastle's coffee flights
Barista, photographer and coffee roaster Kunaal Singh is sharing his take on Newcastle’s coffee scene, starting with coffee flights. Here, he takes us through the local cafes serving them, what to order and why it’s worth trying a few coffees side by side.
I've pulled shots for a living, roasted the beans that went into them, and stood on both sides of the counter enough times to know when a coffee program is genuinely good versus just confident.
Somewhere in that, I picked up a habit: I order flights whenever I can get them.
Not because they're a novelty, but because they let me see the decisions a barista is making in real time - the same bean, poured two or three different ways, laid out so you can taste exactly what changes when the hand or the method does.
Once you've stood behind the machine yourself, you can't really unsee it. A flight is the closest thing coffee has to watching someone think out loud.
Kunaal Singh
That's also, as it turns out, the clearest proof of what's happened to Newcastle's coffee scene over the last decade. This city has stopped importing its coffee identity and started building one from scratch - and a flight is the fastest way to taste that shift for yourself, because there's nowhere for a mediocre roast to hide when it's sitting next to its own better self.
Only a handful of spots in Newy have actually formalised the flight on the menu. That isn’t a knock on the rest - it usually just means the flight lives in the barista’s head rather than on the laminate. If you ask me, that’s often the more interesting version anyway. Here is where to find both.
On the menu
Autumn Rooms
Darby Street, Cooks Hill
Order: either the "Biggie Smalls" (flat white alongside a single origin espresso) or the "Full Flight" (flat white, single origin espresso, and batch brew). Using Single O beans, Autumn Rooms makes the comparison seamless right from the printed board.
It’s a simple demonstration of how the same roast profile handles milk texture, pure high-pressure extraction, and a brew that’s reliant on time rather than solely pressure and extraction. A staple on Darby Street, Ben Richardson has all the right people in place who know what it takes to serve some of the best cups in Newcastle and grabbing either flight from here is a no-brainer.
Bolton Street Pantry
Bolton Street, Newcastle East
Order: the coffee flight, straight off the menu - rotating single-origin espresso, house seasonal blend latte, and single-origin pour over. It is one of the few places in town where it's a permanent, named item rather than something you have to ask for.
Regulars also rate the bottomless batch if you'd rather commit to one cup for the long haul. A CBD institution since 2015, two blocks back from Newcastle Beach, and an easy first stop if you're new to town and want a flight without any explanation required.
One Penny Black
Hunter Street Mall, CBD
Order: the "Single Origin Flight" on the board - 4oz cold brew, piccolo latte, and single-origin espresso served together on a timber tasting paddle. One of Newcastle's true veterans (opened 2010, now run by Praveen and Sai), and one of the only cafes in town running the full spread of formats on one machine: espresso, single-origin espresso, V60, batch brew, cold brew, and cold drip.
Getting a dedicated paddle makes it an effortless way to taste how extraction, temperature, and milk balance play off each other.
New Slang Coffee Brewers
Hunter Street, CBD
Order: the "Flight." One bean, served as a batch brew, single-origin espresso, and piccolo, side by side. Alaric Daley and his partner Sara built this off the back of Unison, their own roasting label – which started as a 1kg roaster in a Merewether garage and now supplies cafes across the city.
New Slang has been in the hands of Jarrod and Matt since 2024, who also own Black Label Espresso in Maitland and have kept Unison pouring at both spots. It’s a look at how extraction and milk ratios change everything. It turns a standard coffee run into a quick education, without any of the specialty coffee pretension.
First Light
Lambton Park
Order: the single origin flight, a rotating showcase hand-picked by co-owner and head of coffee Angelo. Years behind the bar mean he settles on a perfect set fast, sometimes running the same bean across batch brew, a flat white and espresso.
Temperature and contact time are the variables here, rather than just extraction pressure. All served in the beautifully restored former baby health centre in Lambton Park. I’ve had this one myself, and it’s a flight that rewards slowing down: order it, then enjoy the mushrooms on toast or their smash burger while you work through the trio.
Josie Coffee
Metro Court, Gateshead
Order: a "barista's breakfast" setup – a single origin espresso paired alongside either a flat white or a batch brew. Chris and the Josie team roast and operate their dedicated espresso bar right out of the Gateshead warehouse.
With Framework, Showcase, and limited-release single origins always dialled in, asking them to line up two formats side by side lets you taste their modern roast curves metres from the production floor. It is truly a treat.
Frothers Espresso & Colour Dot Coffee
Merewether
Order: whatever Nathaniel is currently roasting across Colour Dot Coffee poured side by side if you catch them during a quiet lull. Owner and roaster Nathaniel keeps his bar stocked so that any barista behind the machine can easily put it together.
If the bar isn’t running out the door on a weekend morning rush, it’s worth asking, here you will get answers and great brew. The roast profiles here bring out distinct fruit and clarity that thrive in a direct comparison.
Hayl Mary
The Lane, Maryville
Order: the “Barista’s Breakfast” – a pretty common term and ritual amongst baristas dialing in coffees in the morning pre-service to ensure everything is on point. Hayl Mary is the sister cafe to Praise Joe, run by Hayley Sinkinson and Philip Gameson, tucked away overlooking Throsby Creek in a part of Maryville most visitors wouldn’t stumble on by accident.
Worth the detour on its own, but doubly so if you’re already working your way along this list. Pouring Pablo and Rusty’s quite well here, with a rotating board that keeps options fresh and diverse.
Ask, and you'll usually get one
Nothing's printed on the menu at the places below – but if there's an experienced barista on shift, say the word and most will build you one on the spot.
Floozy Coffee HQ
King Street, Newcastle West
Ask for: one single origin, poured as both a filter (batch or pour over) and an espresso. Everything here is roasted metres from where it's served, so this is the best example in Newcastle on what brew method alone does to a bean before milk enters the picture. Floozy's whole identity is built around the producers behind that bean, so you'll usually walk away knowing more than you expected to.
Step Up Coffee
Maitland Road, Mayfield
Ask for: the two house blends back to back – one bright and fruity on a lighter roast, one darker and more traditional or add the single origin as a third if you want the fuller spread. Tom has enough experience behind the machine and the roasting space to put this together in a heartbeat, no advance notice needed. Maitland Road is one of the most concentrated coffee strips in the city, and Step Up is a genuine, confident addition to it.
Honourable mentions
Pums Coffee Haus
Darby Street, Cooks Hill
Ask for: their house Foundation blend alongside whatever rotating single origin or batch brew is on the bar. Setting up in the former Core Espresso space on Darby, Brock and the crew take a serious, low-fuss approach to extraction. Getting an espresso and a batch poured together gives you an instant read on their roast development and dial-in precision.
Ante Meridiem
Merewether Street, Newcastle
Ask for: whatever’s on hand. There’s no flight on the board, but Ryan, who owns and runs the place, will pull one together from the best beans in the house without blinking.
He came up working alongside Zeb at Smiling Monk, on the same site this cafe now occupies and has kept the same standard of service and coffee going, with food now added to the mix. I asked for a flight here and he built one on the spot from what he had open with zero fuss or hesitation.
Mr. Sister
Speers Point and East End, Newcastle
Ask for: a single origin flight, a fixture at both Mr. Sister locations for those who want to taste a bean’s full range in one sitting. It’s been a while since I worked through one myself here but the format holds up well and just recently roaster friends of mine, The Coffee Benders have been and highly rate it. Whether you land at the Speers Point original or the East End outpost, it is worth asking what their current rotation is.
Bonus: a flight, but not as you would know it.
Onyx Espresso Bar
Maitland Road, Mayfield
Order: the Iced Latte Tasting Board - a proper menu fixture since Onyx opened on this strip back in 2016, poured with their ONA Specialty Coffee. Where everything else on this list is chasing the same bean through different methods or similar, this one’s the reverse: same base, different flavours, so you can pick your favourite without committing to a full-sized drink which you might not love.
Expect a rotating line-up of cold drip, butterscotch, iced choc mocha and biscoff. It is playful rather than technical and genuinely a good option if you’re bringing someone along who isn’t as coffee obsessed, plus a dog-friendly courtyard out back doesn’t hurt either.
Here’s what to ask for
If you're ordering two or three different coffees for the table anyway, ask if they'll plate them together instead of sending them out one at a time.
Most baristas who actually care about the craft will jump at the excuse to walk you through it – costs the cafe nothing extra, and you get a proper tasting instead of three separate transactions.
Works almost anywhere with a decent machine and a barista who isn't rushed off their feet – it's one of the easiest upgrades in Newcastle hospitality.
How we got here
Ten years ago, if a Newcastle cafe wanted a serious specialty bean, it got shipped in from Sydney or Melbourne. That's the single biggest shift behind everything on this list: roasting became local.
Silverskin got there early, in 2012 along with Adam and Trent with Darks Coffee Roasters. Then came the real wave – Floozy in 2017, and Unison spending nine years building from a garage roaster into a full roastery with its own bar, alongside The Coffee Benders running two Aillio Bullets, Glitch, and Red Parrot doing the same thing in parallel.
Layer in the 2019 light rail opening and a wave of owner-operators who trained in Sydney and Melbourne before coming home to open something of their own, and you get today's Newcastle: well over a hundred cafes, a genuine roaster ecosystem, and baristas confident enough to put three versions of the same coffee on one table and let you pick the winner.
Over a decade ago that would have looked like a gimmick. Today, it reads as a scene secure enough in its own quality to invite scrutiny.
