Single O

Single O is a Surry Hills-based specialty roaster widely regarded as one of the formative names in Australian third-wave coffee. The name is a statement of intent: single-origin coffee is the organizing principle, with the roaster rotating roughly three new origins through its lineup each month, treating provenance as the primary value rather than a house-blend identity.

The roaster built its reputation through its Surry Hills café, which doubles as the public face of the roastery, and a Saturday farmers' market stall that made Single O a recurring fixture in the Sydney weekend circuit. At some point the operation crossed the Pacific: by 2023, per Brian's Coffee Spot, Single O was running parallel operations in both Sydney and Tokyo. The Tokyo commitment deepened when Sprudge reported the opening of a day-to-night flagship in Kanda Awajicho—a format unusual for an independent specialty roaster and a significant departure from the typical wholesale-plus-flagship playbook.

Sourcing spans the canonical producing regions without obvious stylistic bias: recent offerings have included a washed Guatemala Quetzal (orange, marmalade, peach syrup), a washed Colombia La Primavera Sidra dialed for espresso (peach and cola), a natural Ethiopia Hallo Beriti (blackberry and honey), a natural Indonesia West Java from the Frinsa Collective (passionfruit and peach), and a washed Kenya Getuya under the Filter Show label (blackberry and cola). Selection criteria, stated plainly on the site, run: 'deliciousness first and foremost, supported by a farm's good quality and sustainability practices.' The roaster also runs an ongoing Art Bag Project—now past its 35th iteration—commissioning original artwork for retail packaging from Australian artists. A house blend, Collider, anchors the milk-coffee and filter end of the range.