Expressing the character of Allpress Coffee through the seasons.

Mr Lyan Studio Provides Drinks Menu Consultancy for Allpress Coffee

How could Allpress Coffee appeal to new audiences via cocktails?

Allpress Espresso is a specialty coffee company founded in New Zealand in 1989, known for its stunning cafés, high-quality coffee and direct-to-consumer subscriptions.

Its Dalston roastery and café has become an icon of the London coffee scene, serving as both a hub for roasting and as a meeting place for the community.

Allpress wanted to expand its offering in a way that would showcase its products, while appealing to customers looking for new and refreshing experiences.

The team approached us to design a series of four non-alcoholic, coffee-based cocktails to be served across all their cafés worldwide. Rotating seasonally, each drink would highlight different single-origin and blended coffees, while capturing the essence of the season.

Our cocktail development brief

The project needed to:

Deliver a rotating seasonal menu.
Create serves that were simple, delicious, and highly drinkable.
Be easy to recreate by café teams who are not specialist bartenders.
Support storytelling around Allpress products.

How are mixed drinks and cocktails appearing in cafés globally?

We began by surveying how non-alcoholic cocktails were being interpreted in cafés across London and other key global cities, identifying where Allpress could carve out a unique niche.

This was followed by guided tastings of Allpress’ single-origin and blended coffees, where we explored flavour, aroma, and texture across the range. Collaborative development sessions with the Allpress team allowed us to refine ideas into accessible serves that would be practical for baristas to make on site, while still offering something distinctive and memorable to customers.

A year-long partnership comprising team training, cocktails and content

The final menu avoided overly sweet or saccharine expressions, instead leaning into indulgence balanced with freshness. Each serve was designed to feel seasonal without defaulting to clichés, and visually striking without borrowing from the tropes of other coffee shop trends.

The result was four drinks that evoked the spirit of the seasons, each rooted in the character of Allpress coffee. This included:

Summer serve: ‘Tropic Cold Brew’ - citrus-forward, combining espresso with mango, pineapple, and jasmine syrup, served shaken frothy over ice and finished with a dusting of vibrant dragon fruit powder.
Three further serves completed the collection, each bringing a fresh perspective on how coffee could be experienced without alcohol.

To embed the programme, we implemented training for Allpress teams covering batch preparation and drink execution, ensuring consistency and ease of service. Alongside this, we produced still and video content to support the launch, giving teams tools to communicate the concept and strengthening the sense of partnership between Allpress and Mr Lyan Studio.

A showcase of the Allpress product range and seasonal storytelling

The programme gave Allpress a new way to showcase their product range and seasonal storytelling, while offering customers a refreshing, accessible entry point into coffee cocktails.

It extended the role of Allpress cafés beyond coffee service into moments of discovery, with drinks that felt innovative but straightforward to prepare. By connecting seasonality, flavour, and brand narrative, the project created a platform that can evolve and adapt across Allpress’ global network.

Testimonial:

A dream collaboration. The team brought boundless creativity and curiosity, elevating the project to something far greater than we imagined.

The entire process felt like working with true partners who cared as much about the outcome as we did.

Minna Broucher, Head of Brand, Allpress

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Summary of scope: