Gumption is the Strand Arcade café of Coffee Alchemy, and the brand under which its founders, Hazel de los Reyes and Clare, have since opened cafés in New York and Singapore. The line is “Great coffee takes gumption”, and it runs down the chain: the grower who earmarks a plot for a variety and waits out the growing years, the roaster who picks a coffee on the cupping table, the barista who knows when to get out of the way, and the customer who knows coffee’s true value.

The founders are “the alchemist” and “the unwavering enabler”. Hazel first watched her grandmother roast beans in a wok in the Philippines; in Sydney the pair modified espresso machines and roasted in popcorn poppers before building their own roastery, Coffee Alchemy, in Marrickville. Hazel was Australian Barista Champion in 2005 and won the inaugural Australian Cup Tasting Championship in 2007, and the Sydney Morning Herald’s Good Cafe Guide gave Coffee Alchemy its Best Coffee award from 2011 to 2014. A roastery in Brooklyn followed in 2018, then shops in Times Square and Flatiron in New York and at Wheelock Place in Singapore.

Gumption pays producers the price they set, above the commodity price, and prefers long relationships to handout schemes. The Strand Arcade shop takes orders ahead for drinks and beans through the Hey You app, and Coffee Alchemy keeps a Vault of past and current single estates for anyone who bought a bag in store at Gumption. The coffee is roasted by Coffee Alchemy in Marrickville, and Gumption’s shop carries two of its blends under the same names, Goodness Galileo and Hairy Chest.

Coffee on the shelf