diff --git a/streams-bootstrap-test/src/main/java/com/bakdata/kafka/KafkaTestClient.java b/streams-bootstrap-test/src/main/java/com/bakdata/kafka/KafkaTestClient.java
index 7d3ea30b..1d1a68c1 100644
--- a/streams-bootstrap-test/src/main/java/com/bakdata/kafka/KafkaTestClient.java
+++ b/streams-bootstrap-test/src/main/java/com/bakdata/kafka/KafkaTestClient.java
@@ -33,6 +33,8 @@
 import java.util.Map;
 import lombok.NonNull;
 import lombok.RequiredArgsConstructor;
+import org.apache.kafka.clients.consumer.ConsumerConfig;
+import org.apache.kafka.clients.consumer.OffsetResetStrategy;
 
 /**
  * Client that supports communication with Kafka clusters in test setups, including topic management, reading from
@@ -41,17 +43,16 @@
 @RequiredArgsConstructor
 public class KafkaTestClient {
 
-    private static final TopicSettingsBuilder DEFAULT_TOPIC_SETTINGS = TopicSettings.builder()
-            .partitions(1)
-            .replicationFactor((short) 1);
     private final @NonNull KafkaEndpointConfig endpointConfig;
 
     /**
-     * Create q new {@code TopicSettingsBuilder} which uses a single partition and no replicas
+     * Create a new {@code TopicSettingsBuilder} which uses a single partition and no replicas
      * @return default topic settings
      */
     public static TopicSettingsBuilder defaultTopicSettings() {
-        return DEFAULT_TOPIC_SETTINGS;
+        return TopicSettings.builder()
+                .partitions(1)
+                .replicationFactor((short) 1);
     }
 
     /**
@@ -63,11 +64,13 @@ public SenderBuilder send() {
     }
 
     /**
-     * Prepare reading data from the cluster
+     * Prepare reading data from the cluster. {@link ConsumerConfig#AUTO_OFFSET_RESET_CONFIG} is configured to
+     * {@link OffsetResetStrategy#EARLIEST}
      * @return configured {@code ReaderBuilder}
      */
     public ReaderBuilder read() {
-        return new ReaderBuilder(this.endpointConfig.createKafkaProperties());
+        return new ReaderBuilder(this.endpointConfig.createKafkaProperties())
+                .with(ConsumerConfig.AUTO_OFFSET_RESET_CONFIG, OffsetResetStrategy.EARLIEST.toString());
     }
 
     /**
diff --git a/streams-bootstrap-test/src/main/java/com/bakdata/kafka/ReaderBuilder.java b/streams-bootstrap-test/src/main/java/com/bakdata/kafka/ReaderBuilder.java
index 4bd134f4..0d867dac 100644
--- a/streams-bootstrap-test/src/main/java/com/bakdata/kafka/ReaderBuilder.java
+++ b/streams-bootstrap-test/src/main/java/com/bakdata/kafka/ReaderBuilder.java
@@ -64,7 +64,6 @@ private static <K, V> List<ConsumerRecord<K, V>> readAll(final Consumer<K, V> co
                 .map(ReaderBuilder::toTopicPartition)
                 .collect(Collectors.toList());
         consumer.assign(topicPartitions);
-        consumer.seekToBeginning(topicPartitions);
         return pollAll(consumer, timeout);
     }
 
@@ -85,7 +84,8 @@ public ReaderBuilder with(final String key, final Object value) {
     }
 
     /**
-     * Read data from a topic
+     * Read all data from a topic. This method is idempotent, meaning calling it multiple times will read the same
+     * data unless the data in the topic changes.
      * @param topic topic to read from
      * @param timeout consumer poll timeout
      * @return consumed records