What the heck is a varietal? Why is it on every decent bag of coffee: Heirloom Varietal, Caturra Varietal, Pacamara Varietal, Geisha Varietal… the list goes on (also sometimes called varieties). Do these names mean anything, or are they just a fancy words to make the label look better? Well, yes, they do mean quite a bit. There is information about our potential coffee purchases to be gained from these words, it’s just a matter of learning what they really mean, and discovering how this knowledge can affect our coffee choices.
.
Read the rest of this entry »
This Sunday saw the the Heston hats come out for Central London coffee shop Tapped & Packed at their latest project: The Sunday Club. Read the rest of this entry »
New coffee shop Notes (Music & Coffee) on St. Martin’s Lane in Central London is a welcome addition to the ever-increasing London coffee scene. Full of the latest must-have coffee gadgets, but situated in the oldest building in the street (previously MDC, a classical music shop) Notes seems to have struck the right chord. Read the rest of this entry »
It has been occurring to me more and more the impact that the level of interaction between baristas and customer has on the customer’s entire coffee experience. Recently I saw a comment on Twitter by a friend: “Looking forward to my cup of horrible Starbucks. The coffee is rubbish but talking to the Indian/Columbian guys is great!” Amazed by this, I began to realise more and more how when you put the quality of the coffee aside, loyalties are formed when there is a degree of personalised interaction. It is this interaction which brings a customer back to certain coffee shops and not others – because in reality plenty of decent coffee shops have opened in the past year or so in London, and specifically in Central and East London. We are almost spoilt for choice these days, so something other than the fact that Square Mile coffee is being served must dictate which shop to visit on any given occasion.
Of all the New York baristas, this guy at Abraço in New York’s East Village (86 East 7th Street, to be precise) had the best coiffure of all. If I were a man whose hair was greying, this would be the standard to live up to. The drinks pulled from the La Marzocco Linea at this uber-cool cubby-hole of a coffee shop were pretty decent too, and deep regrets on not sampling the intriguing “Olive Oil Cake” on offer along side “Rose Almond Cookies” and cinnamon buns.
For more pictures of Abraço:
Read the rest of this entry »
