Allpress Espresso Review
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Editor's Note
I first tried Allpress at a cafe in Shoreditch that was using their Redchurch blend back in 2012, before I knew anything about the brand's New Zealand roots. The espresso was smooth, balanced, and unapologetically built for milk drinks. It did not shout. It did not try to impress with acidity or complexity. It just tasted good, consistently, every time I went back.
That consistency is Allpress's real product. They have been doing the same thing well for nearly four decades, and the London operation carries that same steadiness.
James Bellis, Health and Wellness Editor at Balance Journal
The Brand
Allpress Espresso was founded in 1986 by Michael Allpress in Auckland, New Zealand. Allpress was a trained chef who fell in love with Italian espresso and built a coffee cart to serve it at a local market. That cart turned into a roastery, the roastery expanded to Sydney and Melbourne, and in October 2010, Allpress arrived in London.
The London operation started on Redchurch Street in Shoreditch, a small space that combined roasting with a cafe. By 2014, the business had outgrown the original site. The roastery relocated to a restored joiners' workshop in Dalston, a larger space that now houses the roasting operation, a training facility, a cafe, and an event space. The Redchurch Street location was downsized to an espresso bar, which it remains today.
Allpress operates as a wholesale-first business. Their primary customers are cafes, restaurants, and hotels, and the roastery produces at a scale that supports that model. The retail side is the visible tip of a much larger operation.
This wholesale focus shapes the coffee. Allpress roasts for consistency above all else. Every batch needs to taste the same in a busy cafe at 8am on a Monday as it does in a quiet one at 3pm on a Sunday. That is a different challenge from roasting a limited-edition single origin, and Allpress has been solving it for longer than most London roasters have existed.
The Coffee
The Redchurch blend is the backbone of the Allpress operation and the coffee that most wholesale partners serve. It is an espresso blend designed to perform with milk, and on that brief, it delivers. On the nose, milk chocolate and roasted hazelnut. Through the body, a smooth, rounded sweetness with toffee and a gentle nuttiness. The finish is clean and short, dropping off without bitterness or astringency. It is not a complex coffee. It is an effective one.
Three Bells, their second espresso blend, offers a slightly different profile with more fruit-forward notes and a brighter acidity. It is designed as a step up for cafes whose customers want more flavour without sacrificing the milk compatibility.
The single origin filter offerings rotate with the seasons and represent the more expressive side of Allpress's range. These are lighter-roasted, more origin-driven, and more likely to appeal to the speciality-focused home brewer.
For decaf drinkers, Allpress produces a dedicated decaffeinated blend that maintains more body and sweetness than most decaf options on the market.
Pricing sits at £8 to £12 for 250g, which is fair for the quality and reasonable for the consistency you are getting across every bag.
The Experience
The Dalston roastery and cafe is the primary destination. The space is a beautifully restored industrial building where you can watch the roasting team work through glass partitions while you drink your coffee. The food offering is simple but well-executed - sandwiches, breakfast plates, and canteen-style lunch dishes. Weekends and evenings bring events, including film screenings, supper clubs, and monthly tasting sessions.
The Redchurch Street espresso bar in Shoreditch is tiny, standing-room-only on busy days, and focused entirely on coffee. It is the original London location scaled down to its essentials.
Both spaces have a calm, considered feel that reflects the brand's New Zealand roots. There is no rush, no performance. Just well-made coffee in spaces designed to make you slow down.
Who It Is For
Allpress is for the coffee drinker who values consistency above novelty. If you want an espresso that tastes the same every time you make it, with enough quality to satisfy a trained palate and enough approachability to please anyone in the house, Allpress delivers. If you are chasing single origin complexity and light roasts, the core range may feel too safe. But that safety is the product, and it is the reason Allpress has lasted nearly forty years.
Final Thoughts
Allpress Espresso has been roasting coffee since 1986, and the London operation, now over fifteen years old, carries that heritage with a quiet confidence. The Redchurch blend is one of the most widely served espressos in London's independent cafe scene, and for good reason. It is reliable, approachable, and roasted to a standard that does not waver.
If you want a roaster that has already proven itself across four decades and four countries, Allpress is a safe bet. And in coffee, safe is underrated.
Part of our guide to the best coffee roasters London and best coffee roasters UK.
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