Do some Fieldwork ... check out this oasis of extraordinary coffee and cake in Fountainbridge

Fieldwork opened in January 2016, bringing speciality coffee, homemade cakes, fine loose-leaf teas, organic hot chocolates and natural sodas to the edge of Edinburgh’s financial district. Take the time to sit in the small but cosy space where there are old school desks and chairs for getting comfy. They are a dog-friendly café and keep things laid back and relaxed, offering the friendliest service and always a very warm welcome.

The name Fieldwork reflects the focus of what these guys do: experimenting with different flours and flavours, using the best quality locally sourced ingredients. Their milk is from a local farm, their coffee from Steampunk, teas from Anteaques and sodas from local producers Roots Soda & Co. They use organic chocolate from The Chocolate Tree to make up their mochas and hot chocolates. Try the dark and winter spice varieties (which are both vegan and gluten-free) or the rose and vanilla white chocolate. They offer soya and oat milk as dairy alternatives for coffees, tea and hot chocolates.

One of this cafe's highlights is their daily delivery of freshly baked doughnuts from the Bearded Baker (which are usually still warm from the oven when they arrive), and selection of pastries from their local French bakery. 

But at this cafe's heart, and what really makes them special, is their incredible in-house baking. What's on offer changes daily, and there are always gluten-free and vegan options.

Retail bags of Steampunk Coffee and tins of Chocolate Tree hot chocolates are also available to buy. All of the items on their menu are available to take away if you don't have time for sitting in and you can get money off your coffee too by bringing your own cup!

Find Fieldwork at:

www.fieldworkcafe.co.uk

105 Fountainbridge

Edinburgh

EH3 9QG

Opening times:

MON - FRI 8 – 5 / SAT 10 – 5 / SUN 11 – 5

I think this place is amazing, but don't just take my word for it, see what others have said:

A gem of a find at Fountainbridge! I had a to-go latte and Guinness cake. The latte was amazing, seriously good coffee and the cake was a really generous portion and was absolutely delicious and really tasted home made. 

The service was also really efficient and polite - I can't wait to go back!

Fabulous homemade cakes! Lots of choice and great coffee. Service fab and friendly. Definitely going back.

Amazing little place! Just discovered this last weekend (I live under a min walk from the shop = dangerous) 

The cakes are so good and the shop is uber cool!! I'm not a huge chocolate cake fan but the chocolate passion cakes!!! 

A must visit!

Best lemon cake I ever had, beauuuuuutiful atmosphere, good coffee! Best café experience I've had in a while.

Really nice little place to get a coffee or tea and a pastry, to go or sit in. Their filled donuts are absolutely divine. The decorations are tasteful and the atmosphere welcoming. A lovely place to sit down for a chat with a friend or a notebook.

What's brewing at Stockbridge Market...

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.