By Michael Gormley We recently released a video on Steampunk's YouTube channel, exploring the delights of brewing coffee on inexpensive equipment.  Prominent among these is the good old stove-top Moka pot, a genuinely iconic piece of design which has provided many people (myself included) with their first experience of making quality coffee at home. Moka pots are pretty much synonymous with a stereotypical notion of Italian culture, right up there with Vespas and pizza, and they are certainly capable of delivering a face-meltingly intense and bitter, espresso-ish drink. A lot of peop ..read more

By Michael Gormley We’ve been having fun this week making another video for the Steampunk YouTube channel (link at the bottom of this blog), which looks at brewing coffee on the cheap. Having previously offered some tips on using a home espresso machine, which is a pretty expensive piece of technology, we felt it was important to explore the opposite end of the market, and show how it’s possible to make exceptional coffees at home using equipment that costs only a few pounds. This is a subject close to my heart, not least because I’m addicted to haunting charity and second hand shops where co ..read more

By Catherine Franks This month (March 2024) marks 10 years since Steampunk opened the doors of its warehouse roastery and coffee bar. We have gone through a lot of changes over those 10 years and maybe I will share some of those in a future post, if there is interest. But this anniversary has cast my mind back to how I found our home. Customers enjoying the terrace, 2023. It was the sunny patch of gravel in front, that first drew my attention to the old warehouse building. I had walked past it many times, tucked as it was away around the corner from the High Street. It was this ..read more

By Rachel Beebe Steampunk just launched our first ever lot of washed Pink Bourbon variety coffee and we were thrilled to have this elegant coffee on our lineup. I didn’t know much about where the variety came from or why it tastes so good, so I did a little research and went down a speciality coffee rabbit hole. All the digging led to a few realisations relating to coffee genetics, biodiversity, the present day impacts of colonialism and a lot of reflection on the interplay between roaster-led trends, the livelihoods of farmers and the sustainability of specialty coffee generally. It’s a lot ..read more

By Catherine Franks In this week's blog we look at an important aspect to consider when buying coffee - seasonality. We want to know what this means to you the coffee drinker and what are the challenges to drinking coffees which are actually in season. This is a big topic so we will break it down, starting in this post by looking at some of the challenges on the producers and importers end - at origin. Next week we will look at the challenges faced on the roasting side when aiming to source as seasonally as possible. I spoke with our Head of Coffee Ludwika Kopczynska (who is in charg ..read more

By Catherine Franks We recently shared a bit more about why we specialise in single origin coffees. This has led us into doing a deeper dive into origins - where we have been exploring over the past year and where we hope to go next. So this week I spent some time speaking with our Head of Coffee (and green coffee buyer) Ludwika Kopczynska about coffee origins and also about seasonality. There is quite a lot to say about both of these topics so this week we will focus on origins but do come back next week for a deep dive into coffee seasonality. Thanks to Ludwika for contributing to this art ..read more

by Mick Gormley It’s the time of year that many of us have finally given in to an undeniable yearning and begged Santa for a home espresso machine.   On waking up with a big box, a shiny metal sculpture and a set of indecipherable instructions, however, your initial excitement may have evaporated when you realised you have no idea how to begin.  With this in mind, we have just posted a little video to the Steampunk YouTube channel which will give you some quick tips and, I hope, the confidence to take the plunge and get your home barista career kickstarted. Check it out HERE ..read more

By Rachel Beebe One warm, quiet afternoon in the summer of 2019 James Wilkinson walked into Steampunk with a backpack full of coffee samples and introduced himself. James was starting a fledgling green coffee importing company, Omwani Coffee, and he wanted us to try his wares. At the time Steampunk was purchasing the bulk of our coffee from one importer, Falcon Coffee, from whom we still buy. But James’ story, and his coffee, were compelling enough to launch a relationship that would shift the way we buy coffee and offer us a glimpse into the development of Uganda as a specialty coffee produci ..read more

By Mick Gormley I've road tested the Aeropress metal filter against the Concetto one - here is what I found out. Earlier this year the makers of the Aeropress released a range of interesting new products for and variations on their iconic coffee brewer, including a metal filter which has been created as an eco-friendly alternative to the paper filter that we all know and love.   We've stocked this metal filter in the Steampunk shop for a couple of months now, and when it arrived I was pretty sure it was set to become another valued tool in my expanding armoury of brewi ..read more

Our keen home brewing nerd Mick has been busy experimenting with our new coffee release from Ethiopia so you don't have to*. Check out these two recipes for a couple of popular brewing methods to get you started. * Who are we kidding, of course you are going to want to experiment loads yourself, but here's a place to hit the ground running. And if you do have a favourite recipe, why not tag us @steampunkcoffee via Instagram so that we can share yours too.   Pour-over Grind setting: Medium to medium-fine (we used Niche Zero setting of 35; equivalent to Baratza Encore setting of 12) Brew ..read more