Coffee Alchemy

Founder Hazel de los Reyes grew up roasting coffee beans from her grandmother's backyard in the Philippines in a big wok with her sisters, a memory she returned to after opening her first Sydney cafe in Dulwich Hill in 2003 and a dedicated roastery two years later. Coffee Alchemy spent almost two decades on Addison Road before the building was sold for redevelopment in 2021, forcing a move to a bigger, light filled industrial space on Sydenham Road.

De los Reyes has picked up national titles along the way, including NSW Barista Champion in 2012, and the cafe still runs almost entirely on the beans it roasts rather than a food menu, with an almond croissant close to the only thing on the counter besides coffee. The exposed brick, no frills room draws an inner west crowd there specifically for the espresso, filter, and bags of beans stacked by the door.