For 5 years now we have enjoyed taking Mavis our van to Stockbridge Market with our little lever espresso machine installed in the back for making coffees. As the popularity of the market has grown however, we have struggled to keep up with demand using our old-school set up and this has resulted in people waiting (we feel) too long for coffee. Our little Fraccino passed away in December and as dark clouds often have silver linings this gave us the opportunity for a rethink…
As the majority of coffees we sold at the market were ‘Americanos’ or ‘long blacks’ changing our brew method over to filter coffee was not such a big leap. So instead of replacing our espresso machine with another we sourced a top end filter brewer from Bunn and installed that in our van instead. We have been serving batch brew filter for a year and a half in our shop and it has proven really popular. Although batch brew has had a poor reputation in the past, the improvement in the technology of brewers available means we can now get a great result from this method of brewing and it has earned many converts. We believe filter is the ideal brew method for highlighting the nuances of flavour in coffees and as we specialise in single origin coffees rather than blends this is a natural fit for us.
Our Experiment
At our last two markets in December we offered filter coffees only - showcasing Los Nogales from El Salvador which has notes of chocolate, caramel and tropical fruit sweetness and as a contrast our Christmas Coffee from Burundi - Murango which is all about an apple acidity and brown sugar sweetness. We gave samples to people to try both to compare them and invited folk to buy a cup to enjoy too, either black or with milk.
Of course with any change there will be those in favour and those against. We had a small handful of people disappointed to not have a cappuccino or espresso but on the other hand we had many more people who said they prefer filter and were delighted they did not have to wait in a queue for their coffee. The majority of people tried the different coffees we had on offer and were intrigued by how different they were from each other and were curious to find out more. One of the best things about our new setup was that we finally had time to talk to our customers about our coffees. We shared more with people about the origins of our coffees and our passion as coffee roasters on these two Sundays than we have been able to in the past 5 years while we have frantically made espressos and steamed milk!
The future
We are excited about taking this journey with you and bringing you different coffees each week to try. At our next Stockbridge Market on January 8 we will be returning with El Recuerdo from El Salvador and also showcasing our newest coffee from Costa Rica - Los Crestones. In addition we will have samples of ALL of our different coffees available for you to sample! That’s right you can sample all of our coffees for free!!
We would like to hear feedback about what you think - please drop us an email at info@steampunkcoffee.co.uk.
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