ONA Coffee Instant: Café-quality coffee, anywhere

Instant coffee has always promised convenience, but rarely quality. For decades, it’s been a compromise: a quick fix for when brewing isn’t an option. ONA Coffee’s new line of Instant Coffee changes that.

By combining years of roasting expertise with a deep understanding of flavour, we’ve created an Instant Coffee range that delivers true cafe-quality taste and texture. Every cup captures the flavour integrity, balance, and mouthfeel you’d expect from a coffee made by a barista – just made faster, and wherever and whenever you need it.
“ONA Coffee Instant delivers true café-quality flavour and texture, not just convenience,” says ONA Coffee founder Saša Šestić. “It’s crafted by world-class baristas using the same approach and standards as our specialty range.”

Reimagining instant coffee

From the very beginning, this project was driven by one idea: convenience should never come at the cost of quality. Instant coffee has long been a category defined by low quality and convenience, with speed and affordability taking precedence over flavour. We saw an opportunity to change that.

“We approached instant with the mindset that quality could not be compromised for speed,” Saša explains. 

“Every step, from sourcing to production, was tailored to preserve flavour, balance, and integrity.”

After years of development, the result is a collection of instant coffees that reflect the same standards found in our cafés – full-bodied, balanced, with flavour clarity, and true to the origins and inherent qualities of the coffees.

The first release of Instant Coffees includes three single origins and one blend, each designed to express the clarity and sweetness that define ONA Coffee’s approach to flavour expression. 

The single origins – Ethiopia Sunset, Kenya Gititu and Ethiopia Hambela Buku – showcase vibrant fruit and floral notes and can be enjoyed black or if desired, with a splash of milk. 

The blend, Maple, has been modelled after our popular house blend and developed specifically for milk-based drinks, offering a smooth, rich texture and comforting sweetness. Preparing Maple instant coffee is simple – dissolve the granules with a splash of hot water and mix well, before adding hot milk a creamy, café-style finish.

For those looking to enjoy a black coffee like a long black, mix the instant granules with the desired amount of water, with an optional splash of milk.

Years of research and refinement

Creating instant coffee that performs like a barista-made coffee wasn’t easy. It took more than two years of focused research and development to bring this idea to life. Our team worked to fine-tune every detail – from roast profiling and extraction parameters to solubility and drying methods.

To make instant coffee, roasted beans are typically ground and then brewed into a concentrated form. After this, it is dehydrated to create a powder or granule that can later be rehydrated. 

In this process, several stages can diminish flavour quality. For example, coffees used in instant coffee are often roasted darker to increase solubility, which can mute sweetness and complexity. High-temperature, high-pressure extraction methods may over-extract the coffee, producing bitterness and flattening delicate flavours and aromas.

For ONA Coffee’s Instant Coffee, we worked on specific roasting and extraction techniques that preserved the best qualities of each coffee, and use freeze-drying to preserve the sweetness, clarity, and balance found in our freshly brewed coffees.
“Getting instant to match the quality of barista-made milk coffee took over two years of [research and development]” says Saša.

“The main challenge was translating our roasted coffee’s complexity into a soluble format that didn’t compromise the flavour. We refined extraction and drying processes to maintain clarity, sweetness, and the unique character of each coffee.”

The process involved countless cupping sessions, textural testing, and feedback from both professional baristas and everyday drinkers. Only when the instant coffees matched the depth, structure, and flavour of our cafe-quality coffee did we consider it ready.

“Instant coffee has always been seen as a completely different product, but we treated it like any other coffee from our range – the same attention to detail, the same obsession with flavour.” Saša says. 

Providing new possibilities for cafes and coffee lovers

With cafe-quality instant coffee, the possibilities extend far beyond the espresso machine. For our partner cafes across Australia and the world, this release offers a new way to connect with customers – whether as a retail product, a travel-friendly option, or a way to offer a unique coffee experience without the need for additional grinders.

Instant coffee can also be used as part of specialised drinks such as cocktails and signature drinks. With less time needed to prepare the coffee for these drinks, cafes are able to expand their offerings and create easy-to-prepare and replicable menu items.

For coffee lovers, it’s a chance to enjoy the same high standards of flavour and balance that they experience in a café, anywhere or any time.

“We believe that ONA Coffee’s Instant sets a new benchmark for convenience in specialty coffee,” says Saša. 

“It opens up great coffee experiences to a broader community – any time, any place – and reflects our vision of elevating coffee standards globally.”

From hotel service to outdoor brewing, ONA Coffee’s Instant gives baristas and coffee drinkers alike a new level of flexibility. Great coffee no longer requires equipment, scales, or perfect conditions – only hot water or milk, and a desire for quality.

A step toward accessibility

At its heart, our Instant Coffee products represent our ongoing mission to make specialty coffee more accessible. Since our beginnings, we’ve been focused on innovation, transparency, and education, and on finding new ways to bring great coffee to more people. This release continues that journey.

“This instant release is a direct extension of our mission to make specialty coffee accessible without sacrificing quality,” says Saša. “Innovation and raising standards are at the core of everything we do.”

By combining years of barista experience with modern technology, ONA Coffee Instant makes it easier than ever to enjoy coffee the way it should be: balanced, flavourful, and uncompromised.

Whether you’re at home, travelling, or in a café looking to expand your menu, this is instant coffee without limits – built for both convenience and excellence.

ONA Coffee’s Instant Coffee range is now available online and in select cafes across Australia.