Steampunk has been buying coffee from Shirani Gunawardena and Christian Steenberg of Indochina Coffee since 2021. We first tasted their coffee at the recommendation of James Wilkinson, co-founder of Omwani Coffee, from whom we buy many of our African coffees. In 2020 the two importers, along with six other micro importers, launched the Green Coffee Collective, a green coffee platform tailored to small roasteries like us.
Christian travelled to our roastery towards the end of the Covid pandemic to bring us samples and chat with Ludwika, one of our roasters and now our Head of Coffee. At the time she and Rachel, the other roaster, were still working on separate days in order to reduce the risk of Covid spread between them. It was a meaningful gesture that Christian took the time and the risk to bring us coffees personally and sit down to answer all of our questions during a global health crisis. Our first lot of coffee from Indochina was grown in China, which back then was an unfamiliar origin to us, so we had a lot of questions!
Since then we’ve bought several lots of Chinese coffee as well as the customer favourite from Myanmar, Padah Lin, which we’ve bought three times in four years. The company has expanded steadily and today also they import coffee from India, Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand. Despite expanding, Christian and Shirani still put personal connection first in how they operate. Last year when coffee prices spiked dramatically and unexpectedly, many importers were in panic mode and sharply increased their prices overnight. But Christian called Ludwika and the two had an honest conversation about how to navigate the situation. She recalls him saying, “we’re going to get through this together”. His transparency and willingness to tackle yet another crisis side by side cemented our relationship.
You've been importing coffee from lesser-known Asian origins for about a decade - how have things shifted, on the farmer side and the market side, in that time?
Shirani said:
"Generally speaking on the origin side there’s greater confidence and agency. Early work focused on building infrastructure, scaling production and agreeing reference points around quality. Today, decisions around processing and quality are more deliberate and determined largely by local context. Risk has increased across the board. Climate change, rising costs, labour pressures and wider socio-political conditions all affect what’s possible at origin and across the supply chain. These realities make trend-driven approaches less relevant and place more emphasis on resilience and viability.
On the market side, Asia as a specialty coffee origin is no longer treated as a curiosity—it certainly felt that way when we started! Familiarity and confidence in these coffees has grown but pricing remains challenging, particularly because Asian coffees can often sit at a higher price point than more well-known and established origins. At the same time, growing demand within many Asian producing countries, driven in part by the expansion of specialty cafés, is also shaping how and where these coffees are sold.
For Indochina, the past decade has shifted from discovery to a more established set of relationships and ways of working. We’re focused on moving forward together and on scaling carefully where possible in ways that allow our partnerships to deepen and reach further."
Shirani
How do you decide which farmer groups to work with?
Shirani said:
"We start with the people and the relationship, not just the coffee. We look for producer groups who want to export in the first place (not everyone wants to or needs to, especially with growing domestic markets). We seek partners who want to work collaboratively over time and are open about how they operate—on pricing, costs and quality.
That usually means working with the same partners year after year, focusing on consistency and shared expectations rather than one-off results. We’re particularly interested in origins where long-term engagement matters more than quick wins and where decisions are shaped by local realities rather than current trends."
What's exciting you about the future of specialty coffee?
Shirani said:
"What’s been encouraging is that some of the more superficial ethical narratives in specialty coffee are being challenged. There’s more willingness to look beyond simple claims and to acknowledge the limits and contradictions in how the industry operates.
I’m also interested in seeing more nuanced conversations led from an origin perspective. When producers are framing discussions around value, risk and sustainability—it tends to reflect lived realities more closely than anything devised from a largely Global North industry starting point."
Christian and Ludwika in the roastery
You're a team of three importing from six countries to both the UK and EU. Are there benefits to being a small team in a market where you're competing with much bigger importers?
Shirani said:
"Being small keeps us close to the work. We're directly involved in relationships at origin and with our customers, and that helps keep decisions clear and responsive. We're not trying to cover every origin or scale quickly. The focus is on doing a limited number of things well, maintaining consistency and being accountable for the relationships we're part of. In a complex supply chain, that closeness matters."
What's the best coffee you've ever had?
Shirani said:
"Often the best coffees are the ones brewed by the producer themselves and shared without much ceremony during a farm visit. Those coffees are memorable, not because of cup scores or flavour notes, but because they’re rooted in place, context and the people behind them. I realise in these moments that I am very lucky to do the job I do!"
Aidan in Yunnan
We're delighted to be bringing back Padah Lin, brought to us by Indochina, for its third year. Its clean, sweet, easy-going profile makes it perfect for milky espresso drinks in our café, while still shining as a morning pour-over. It’s a true all-rounder, and a coffee we’re proud to stand behind. This is a coffee we continue to buy not just because it’s delicious, but also because we want to support the smallholders who produce it. Keep an eye out for it hitting our shelves soon.