One shortcut to following the global coffee scene is to track the movements of Tim Styles, such is the Australian barista’s knack for turning up at seminal shops at the right time. He’s worked stints at Ray Cafe in Melbourne, Joe the Art of Coffee in New York, Flat White in London, Intelligentsia in Venice (California) and Penny University, the pop-up brew bar in London’s Shoreditch which popped down on the 30th of July. [Read more...]
Goodbye to Penny University, Hello to Tim Styles
29 July 2010 By 1 Comment
London’s great coffee moment has come
“The British capital won’t be a coffee capital,” I wrote in April 2009, “until the taste for excessively milky coffees recedes and the best coffee shops look beyond espresso to filter- and siphon-brewed coffees. I’d also like to see more coffee shops sourcing and roasting their own beans.”
One year on, those conditions have been met and the wishes of the growing legion of local cafenatics has been granted: London’s great coffee moment has come. [Read more...]
18 April 2010 By 11 Comments
World barista champion rolls his espresso cart into London menswear shop
Rather than violate the civil liberties of a law-abiding British citizen I would prefer that Gwilym Davies voluntarily strap a GPS tracking bracelet to his ankle. But if the 2009 World Barista Champion refuses to help us trace his movements via GPS or constant twitter updates I may soon have to ask my man at MI5 to slip a microscopic satellite-tracking particle into Gwilym’s morning coffee. When we discriminating cafenatics are on the loose in London we have a right to know where and when the champ is pulling espressos. [Read more...]
19 October 2009 By 6 Comments
Top 10 Coffee Shops in London
Antipodean know-how and joviality invigorate London’s coffee landscape. Baristas from New Zealand and Australia transform waves of rich espresso and smoothly textured steamed milk into lattes so velvety you can barely see a bubble. Two noteworthy imports, Melborne’s St. Ali and Auckland’s Allpress Espresso, have recently opened roasteries and coffee shops in London.
Yet it’s home-grown talent that represents the cream of the crema: Two of the last four World Barista Champions are British and work in London: 2007 winner James Hoffmann is co-owner of Square Mile Coffee Roasters, an artisan roaster supplying beans to half of the top 10 London coffee shops. 2009 champion Gwilym Davies co-operates the Prufrock Coffee Shop on Leather Lane, now the best coffee shop in London, as well as the “Prufrock” coffee trolley he and partner Jeremy Challender rolled into the menswear boutique Present. And Monmouth Coffee maintains world-class standards for sourcing, roasting and brewing beans while supporting small-batch indie roasters just getting into the act. [Read more...]
24 April 2009 By 87 Comments
Hats off to Gwilym Davies – 2009 World Barista Champion
Whenever in London you can congratulate 2009 British and now World Barista Champion Gwilym Davies in person – and have a great coffee while you’re at it. Gwilym pulls his award-winning shots from an espresso cart parked at the Whitecross Street Market on weekdays (mornings through lunch) and behind the Columbia Road Flower Market on Sunday mornings.
22 April 2009 By 1 Comment
