Sample Coffee, Surry Hills

Sample Coffee is small, even by Surry Hills standards. A few chairs and tables are squeezed into all the available space and the rest of them spill out onto the footpath where it’s perfect weather to enjoy a coffee. The shop itself is just off busy Devonshire St and enjoys a healthy amount of foot traffic, a lot of which veers into Sample for a take-away coffee.

I’m tucked between the La Marzocco and the glass folding doors and in constant fear of knocking over the stack of The Specialty Coffee Book NSWs perched on a table next to me because I’m fairly clumsy. A few others are seated around the red wood counter with a built in pastry cabinet. How space saving. The shop has some of the features I look for in my “happy places” – the constant hissing sounds of an espresso machine and coffee brewing equipment on display. In this case, it's Porlex mini grinders (which are super handy but don’t ever stop dreaming about owning that EK-43) and an Aeropress sitting on small shelves jutting out from the walls.

Sample Coffee is exactly how it sounds. They’ve got a selection of single origins and a constantly changing coffee from another specialty roaster. If you’ve got time, try a manual brew. If one of the roasts catches your eye (or tastebuds) but you don’t have brew equipment at home, don’t worry. Sample have got you covered. The aforementioned Aeropress and grinder are for sale. It’s a one-stop shop for almost all your coffee making needs. Between the dark flatty (with a rosetta with more leaves than I can count), strawberry muffin and my stack of lecture notes, there’s barely any room left on the table for my phone.

Sample is one of many specialty coffee shops in Sydney where the baristas know what they’re talking about like the best ways to enjoy different aspects of coffee and could probably rattle off the flavour profile of the roast should you ask. But between the high turnover and lack of seating, they probably won’t be able to chat to you because you know, they’re doing their job. That being said, this would be a good place to practice your cupping skills because there’s so much variety on offer.

Sample Coffee
118a Devonshire St
Surry Hills NSW 2010
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