The Gentlemen Baristas London Bridge

Detail of the sign hanging above the counter at The Gentlemen Baristas, The Coffee Store.The Gentlemen Baristas, which started life at the end of 2014 on Union Street, just south of the Thames, boasts, at the time of writing, four branches, of which this, on nearby Park Street, can legitimately be said to be the baby. In terms of look and feel, however, it very much has the air of a miniature version of the original, albeit with a cut-down coffee menu featuring two options on espresso and another on batch-brew, pour-over having been sacrificed to save space.

This lack of space also means that seating is at a premium, with room for four inside and another four outside on two benches. That said, there’s still the space for a well-stocked set of retail shelves, selling retail bags of coffee/coffee kit on one side, and produce at the other, including pickles, preserves and condiments. Meanwhile if you’re hungry, there’s a range of cakes and sandwiches. Another victim of the lack of space is cups, The Gentlemen Baristas only offering takeaway cups, so bring your own, although there are some espresso cups knocking around.

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Fade To Black

The Fade to Black logo from the front of the store on Uxbridge Road in Hanwell.A couple of weeks ago, I made a trip to southwest London, taking in the likes of Beanberry Coffee, Woof Coffee and The Press Room in Twickenham. At the end of my trip, I found myself in Ealing and, since I was there, I decided that I would carry on going west. Really west. All the way out to (wait for it…) Hanwell! Well, maybe not that far west, but, as London goes, quite far, and not exactly known as a hot-bed of speciality coffee.

What had dragged me onto the No 427 bus and out along the Uxbridge Road was the prospect of breakfast (and coffee) at the interestingly-named Fade-to-Black, which, since February, has been serving espresso using Ozone’s Empire Blend to the fine folks of Hanwell, with tentative plans to add a single-origin batch-brew. This is backed up with a decent breakfast/lunch menu, complete with sandwiches and a good range of cake.

Fade to Black has a simple, welcoming interior with windows on two sides and a range of seating, including window-bars, should you want to get some people-watching done. There’s also a spacious basement which, while normally off-limits, is used for functions and events such as yoga.

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The Press Room, Twickenham

The Press Room on London Road, Twickenham.It seems unfair to call The Press Room a chain, since there are precisely two branches, the Surbiton original and today’s Coffee Spot, in Twickenham. Both are close to railway stations and they’re also at opposite ends of the 281 bus route. I visited the Surbiton branch in June 2013, almost exactly a year after it opened in 2012, while the Twickenham branch opened in the summer of 2015. It’s taken me slightly longer to visit this one, a mere three years, but it was worth the wait!

The Press Room occupies a bright corner on London Road in Twickenham. It’s much bigger than the original, with a simple spacious interior. The basic offering remains unchanged, with a solid coffee offering, including pour-over, plenty of tea and a selection of cakes, with sandwiches and salads if you want something savoury. Originally, The Press Room used Staffordshire’s Has Bean, but switched to Cornwall’s Origin when Twickenham opened.

The Resolute Blend is the mainstay on espresso, where it’s joined by Origin’s seasonal decaf. There are usually two offerings on pour-over through the V60 which change every few months. During my visit, these were a pair of Nicaraguan single-origins, one washed, the other naturally-processed.

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Woof Coffee

My espresso, a single-origin Honduras from Clifton Coffee Roasters, served in an over-sized yellow up on a blue saucer, with a bite-sized piece of chocolate brownie at Woof Coffee in Teddington.I came across Woof Coffee in October 2016, receiving an e-mail invitation to a party to celebrate its official opening. Sadly I couldn’t make it (the party was the day I arrived back from my first around the world trip) but I duly stuck a star on it in Google Maps and made a note to visit. Fast forward 22 months and I took a small excursion to southwest London that saw me call in on Beanberry Coffee in Kingston and The Press Room in Twickenham. And conveniently half way between the two (sort of) in Teddington, there’s Woof Coffee.

Woof has a simple, espresso-based coffee menu with the ubiquitous Redchurch blend from Allpress acting as the house blend, with a different guest roaster every month. Woof buys in a number of single-origins/blends, which are available as retail bags, with a different option as the guest espresso every day. If coffee’s not your thing, then Woof has plenty of tea, working with a local tea merchant who sources a range of loose-leaf tea exclusive to Woof. Finally, there’s food, with a simple all-day breakfast/lunch menu backed up by five sandwiches, all of which can be toasted.

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Firecreek Coffee Company

A Kenya AA in a diner-style mug, made with the Bonavita Dripper at Firecreek Coffee Company in Flagstaff, AZ.I came to Flagstaff in search of mountains, forests, canyons and deserts, but not expecting much in the way of good coffee. However, the one place that pretty much everyone recommended was Firecreek Coffee Company, right in the centre of town on the Historic Route 66, almost directly across from the train station (which now doubles as the tourist centre).

I’ve already written about Firecreek’s roastery, 111 Roasting Works, which is a few blocks to the south. When I visited, it operated as a tasting room on weekday mornings. Sadly I’ve just learnt that 111 Roasting Works has finished its coffee service, but the good news is that Firecreek, which opened in 2015, is still going strong, serving excellent espresso and filter coffee, plus a range of tea, from the Donahue Building, one of Flagstaff’s oldest, dating from 1888.

There’s an excellent breakfast menu, which is supplemented by a wide range of very tasty-looking (and indeed tasty) cakes. These are all served in the large, spacious front portion of Firecreek, while there’s a second area to the rear, which serves as theatre, function room, bar and overspill seating area. You can also sit out front at one of two tables.

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Beanberry Coffee

My single-origin Ethiopian Yirgacheffe, a washed coffee from the Negele Gorbitu co-operative, roasted and served by Beanberry Coffee in an over-sized cup on a wooden tray, a glass of water on the side.I first came across Beanberry, a Woking-based roaster which specialises in organic coffee, when I visited G!RO Cycles in Esher in 2015. We then met in person at the 2017 London Coffee Festival, where I learnt about Beanberry’s then relatively new coffee shop in Kingston upon Thames, an area crying out for good coffee. Fast forward around 15 months, and I finally managed to get to Kingston, a curious mix of historic buildings and ugly concrete on the banks of the River Thames in west London.

If you’re in Kingston, Beanberry is as close as you’ll get to a must-visit when it comes to coffee. The shop itself is surprisingly large, particularly given the relatively small shop front, and it has one of the most impressive ranges of beans I’ve seen in a while. There are four options on espresso, including a house blend (Javascript), a seasonal blend (Wildcat), a single-origin and a decaf. When it comes to pour-over, through Chemex, Zero and Aeropress, there’s even more choice, with another blend (8AM Blues) and space on the board for six single-origins.

If you’re hungry, the breakfast/lunch menu is heavy on the bread/toast options, backed up by a decent cake selection.

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Craving Coffee

The Craving Coffee logo, from the wall of the coffee shop in Tottenham.Craving Coffee celebrates its fourth birthday this year, a pioneering outpost of speciality coffee in northeast London, which is not somewhere I venture very often. While Craving Coffee has been on my list for a while, I am indebted (again!) to my friend, Daniel Stevens, who gave me the excuse to visit. A café, bar, community hub and evening social, Craving Coffee is also an art gallery, where different artists exhibit each month. And this month (August), exhibiting for the first time, is Daniel, who held his launch party on Friday, the excuse I finally needed to drag myself out to Tottenham and visit Craving Coffee.

When it comes to coffee, Craving Coffee uses Climpson and Sons, with the Baron blend on espresso, plus decaf and (usually) a single-origin on pour-over through the V60. During the day, there’s an extensive menu, including breakfast, lunch and cake, with all the meals cooked in the open kitchen behind the counter. This closes at 4pm, but on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, it re-opens in the evening as Craving Coffee hosts a different pop-up each week as the Tottenham Social. Finally, Craving Coffee is fully licenced, with a three-page menu feature beer, cider, wine and spirits.

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Mother Espresso

My 6oz with milk at Mother Espresso in Liverpool.Coffee shop chains are strange things. Sometimes places expand quickly, adding shop after shop, building a strong brand name. Other times, a second branch is only added after long, careful consideration. And sometimes, that second branch is so far removed in look and feel from the original that, until the barista tells you about the connection, you are completely clueless.

So it is with Mother Espresso, the Liverpool outpost of Manchester’s finest, North Tea Power, which opened a mere eight years after its parent and is about as different as can be in terms of look and feel. In my defence, as soon as the barista told me, I remembered, having read about the opening at the end of 2017 on social media, but by the time I came to visit, I’d completely forgotten about the connection, the name “Mother Espresso” not exactly screaming “North Tea Power” at me.

Like its parent, Mother Espresso does many things, excelling at them all, from coffee through tea, craft beer, wine and cocktails to an impressive food menu. The coffee is from Has Bean, with a pair of single-origins on espresso (for milk and black drinks respectively), while there’s also pour-over and batch-brew.

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Kaido Books & Coffee Update

A single-origin Yirgacheffe from And Coffee Roasters, served in a classic black cup by Kaido Books & CoffeeOn my first visit to Tokyo back in 2017, the final part of my stay was spent in a lovely, quiet residential area just south of Shinagawa Station, where I made the chance discovery of Kaido Books & Coffee, which was a couple of minutes’ walk down the street from my hotel of my trip. Much as Nem Coffee & Espresso became my “local” for the first part of my stay (and filled the same role during the second half of my return to Tokyo in 2018), so Kaido became my “local” for the final week of my stay.

Kaido Books & Coffee does what it says on the tin: a book shop combined with a coffee shop, spread over two delightful floors, with more of a coffee shop feel downstairs and a bookshop/library vibe upstairs. I liked Kaido so much that I immediately wrote it up, posting my original piece while I was still in Tokyo.

However, due to various technical reasons, I never managed to create a gallery to go with the original post, so on my return to Tokyo last week, I popped down to Shinagawa to pay Kaido a visit and to finally complete the gallery.

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& Espresso

A shot of the Kenyan Kabingara served in a classic white cup at & Espresso.So far it’s been Tokyo, Tokyo, Tokyo on the Coffee Spot, but yesterday I escaped the heat of the city (as an aside, it’s currently Japan’s hottest ever heatwave, with Tokyo reaching a sweltering 38⁰C) for the relatively cool (~30⁰C) of the mountains of eastern Nagano Prefecture, just under a 1½ hour ride on the bullet train northwest of the capital. Here I met up with Christopher, an American who has lived in the area for around 30 years.

The plan was to go hiking in the mountains, but along the way, Christopher took me to the delightful & Espresso in Tomi, an area best known as the home of Maruyama Coffee, which has its roastery in nearby Komoro. Midway between Ueda and Karuizawa, & Espresso is easy enough to get to by local train, being a few minutes’ from Tanaka station.

& Espresso is the brainchild of owner and head barista, Harasawa Masanao. Opening earlier this year, it’s in a converted rice storehouse at the rear of a small parking lot, so it’s easy enough to miss. The coffee is from Kagoshima’s Voila, with a choice of two single-origins available on espresso, either black, or in a variety of milk-based options.

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