Here is a gap worth knowing about. Search the two biggest specialty coffee equipment dealers — Prima Coffee and Whole Latte Love — for a flight board and you get nothing. The channel that sells you your grinder, your tamper and your knock box does not stock the one thing a coffee flight is served on.

Meanwhile cafés across the country are selling flights at $11 to $20. This is a guide to specifying the equipment, written for an owner or manager rather than a home barista.

KSESTOR Drink Flight Board — four 5 oz dishwasher-safe glasses and an erasable chalk marker included, so a build-your-own lineup can be relabelled per order. $34.99 each, or $27.99 at ten units. View the board and trade pricing →

The format is real, and it is not coastal

Named venues with published prices:

• Kavé Coffee Bar (Barberton, OH) — cold brew flight, four pours, $13
• Style Pop Cafe — four iced lattes and cold brews, $20
• Karma Koffee (Omaha) — five pours, hot or iced, $19.99
• Blue Bean — four drinks, preset or build-your-own, $16 / $17.50
• Toasted Cafe (Montrose, CA) — four specialty drinks, $17
• Badger Hill Brewing (Shakopee, MN) — cold brew flight, four 5 oz pours
• Brio Coffeehouse — iced coffee flight, four 5 oz pours

The concentration is suburban and Midwest rather than third-wave coastal. Roughly 28 Minnesota shops alone run flight menus — enough that regional bloggers maintain roundup lists, which does not happen until a format clears novelty.

Roasters are actively coaching wholesale accounts into it. Crimson Cup's operator guidance describes Kavé's Wednesday "Flight Nights" bringing in nearly half the day's sales in a few hours on what had been a slow trading day. That is the real argument for the format: it does not add covers to a busy Saturday, it monetises a dead Wednesday.

Two different products share one name

Worth separating before you buy anything, because the equipment differs.

The tasting flight. Two to three ounce pours, espresso and filter, single-origin comparison, palate education. Priced low, often under $10. This wants a demitasse or cupping glass, and it is frequently served on a saucer rather than a board.

The seasonal or build-your-own flight. Four drinks at five to ten ounces, flavour-led, rotating monthly, priced $11 to $20. Presentation-driven, served on boards, and this is the volume format.

Almost everything below concerns the second one.

What to check before you buy a board

Glass capacity. The KSESTOR glass is 5 oz. That covers cold brew, iced coffee and four-to-six-ounce specialty pours — Badger Hill and Brio both run exactly four 5 oz pours. It will not serve a ten or twelve ounce shareable latte flight, and it is too large for a two-ounce espresso tasting. Match the glass to the format you are actually running.

Dishwasher status. Ours are dishwasher safe. This is the specification most worth confirming with any supplier, because most wood flight boards in the trade are hand-wash-only throughout, glasses included. In a café working a ninety-second bar rhythm, a hand-wash-only glass is a real cost.

The labelling surface. Stronger for coffee than for beer, and this is not a decorative point. Build-your-own flights mean every board leaves the pass with a different lineup, and seasonal menus rotate monthly — an engraved or printed board cannot keep up with either. An erasable panel also moves the explanation off the barista and onto the board, which matters when your staff are already describing four drinks per order.

The labelling rail. A non-porous ABS panel with the erasable marker in the box — the surface liquid chalk markers are designed for, wiped clean between orders. See the Drink Flight Board →

Well sizing. The wells are cut to the included glasses at 2.25 inches wide. We do not publish a separate well diameter, so if you plan to run your own glassware, measure the base first.

Replacements and shipping. Spare glasses are $19.99 per set of four. Shipping is free on US orders over $50 and goes out in one business day.

How many a café needs

No published par-level guidance exists for flight boards, so treat these as reasoned estimates rather than benchmarks:

• Monthly or seasonal tasting events: four to eight boards
• Flights as a standing menu item in a 40–60 seat room: six to twelve
• A weekly "flight night" concentrated into three or four hours, where boards cannot cycle through a wash between turns: ten to twenty

The five-unit tier suits the event operator; the ten-unit tier suits anyone putting flights on the standing menu.

Trade pricing

Applied automatically at checkout. No code, no wholesale account, no minimum order.

• 1–4 boards: $34.99 each
• 5 boards: $148.71 total (about $29.74 each), saving $26.24
• 6 boards: $178.45 total (about $29.74 each), saving $31.49
• 10 boards: $279.92 total (about $27.99 each), saving $69.98
• 12 boards: $335.90 total (about $27.99 each), saving $83.98
• 24 boards: $671.81 total (about $27.99 each), saving $167.95

Unit figures are the effective per-board price after the discount is applied to the order total. At $13 a cold brew flight, a ten-board order is covered by about twenty-two flights.

Specification

• Wells: 4
• Board: 13" L x 4" D x 3" H
• Glasses: four 5 oz included, 2.25" W x 4" H, dishwasher safe
• Labelling: non-porous ABS panel, erasable liquid chalk marker included
• Board care: wipe with a damp cloth; do not submerge
• Replacement glasses: $19.99 per set of four
• Shipping: free on US orders of $50 or more; ships in 1 business day
• Warranty: lifetime against defects in materials and workmanship under normal use; requires registration; excludes accidental damage and misuse

Honest limitations

We specify these glasses for cold service. Cold brew, iced coffee and iced specialty drinks. If you are running hot flights, ask us before ordering rather than assuming — we would rather answer the question than replace a cracked glass.

It cannot serve a full-size latte flight. Kavé and Style Pop pour ten ounces; some rooms pour twelve. A 5 oz glass is the wrong tool for those menus, and they include some of the highest-priced flights in the category.

It is wrong for espresso tasting flights. Two-ounce pours want a demitasse.

Latte art and tall toppings do not suit it. A 2.25-inch straight glass is a poor canvas for art and will not take a whipped cream crown.

We are not the cheapest. Acopa sells a wood flight tray with four 4.5 oz glasses through WebstaurantStore at roughly half our trade price. If unit cost is the only criterion, that is the better buy.

Common questions

What size glasses do you need for a coffee flight?
It depends on the format. Espresso and single-origin tasting flights pour 2–3 oz and want a demitasse. Cold brew, iced coffee and specialty flights run 4–6 oz, where a 5 oz glass fits. Full-size shareable latte flights run 8–12 oz and need larger vessels entirely.

How much do cafés charge for a coffee flight?
$11 to $20 for four pours is the common range. Kavé Coffee Bar charges $13 for a four-pour cold brew flight, Blue Bean $16 to $17.50, Style Pop $20, Karma Koffee $19.99 for five.

Where do cafés buy flight boards?
Not from the specialty coffee equipment channel — Prima Coffee and Whole Latte Love stock none. Cafés currently go to foodservice distributors, Etsy or Amazon. KSESTOR sells direct at $34.99 with automatic volume pricing and no minimum order.

Are coffee flight glasses dishwasher safe?
KSESTOR's are. Most wood flight boards in the trade are hand-wash-only throughout, including glasses, so it is worth confirming before standardising on any product.

How many flight boards does a café need?
Four to eight for monthly tasting events, six to twelve for a standing menu item, and ten to twenty for a concentrated weekly flight night where boards cannot cycle through a wash between turns.

Do coffee flights actually make money?
The reported case is that they monetise slow days rather than busy ones. Crimson Cup documents a Wednesday flight night generating nearly half the day's sales in a few hours. At $13 a flight against a $27.99 station at trade pricing, the equipment is covered inside the first evening.

Working out your order

Five boards at $148.71 covers a monthly tasting programme. Ten at $279.92 puts flights on the standing menu at the better rate, and pays for itself in roughly twenty-two serves.

View the Drink Flight Board and current trade pricing.