Flight Coffee

Overview

Three childhood friends — Richard Corney, Matt Graylee, and Nick Clark — founded Flight Coffee in a Hawke's Bay garage in 2009. They opened Memphis Belle Coffee House in Wellington in 2010 and built The Hangar, their flagship roastery-cafe, out of a Te Aro carpark in 2012. Nick Clark won the New Zealand Barista Championship in 2013 and placed 5th at the World Barista Championship the same year; in-house roaster Nic Rapp won the NZ Brewers Cup back-to-back in 2014 and 2015. Flight runs its own producer-side sourcing platform, Raw Material, and operates a coffee farm in Colombia. The company is now part of Australia's Nomad Coffee Group.

Known for

• Memphis Belle Coffee House (2010), one of Wellington's earliest third-wave cafes
• The Hangar — a roastery-cafe built inside a former carpark on Dixon Street, Te Aro
• Nick Clark, 2013 NZ Barista Champion, 5th at World Barista Championship
• Nic Rapp, NZ Brewers Cup champion 2014 and 2015
• Owns Colombian coffee farms (El Fenix, Helena) and runs sourcing platform Raw Material

Why it matters

Flight is the most decorated competition roaster in New Zealand and one of the few specialty roasters globally that owns farms at origin. Raw Material, their producer-side platform, was an early experiment in stable, transparent producer pricing that's since been adopted as a model by other roasters.

Production

roastery location

Te Aro, Wellington (with Auckland office on Dominion Road)

Café

171 Dixon Street, Te Aro, Wellington

Recognitions

• 5th place, World Barista Championship 2013 (Nick Clark)
• NZ Brewers Cup Champion 2014 + 2015 (Nic Rapp)
• NZ Barista Champion 2013 (Nick Clark)

Sources

• https://flightcoffee.co.nz/pages/about-us
• https://collectedcoffee.com/blogs/journal/nick-clark-flight
• https://www.beanscenemag.com.au/flight-coffee-hangar/
• https://www.broadsheet.com.au/new-zealand/te-aro/cafes/hangar
• https://www.nomadcoffeegroup.com.au/brands/flight-coffee