A flat white in the red light

As mentioned in one of my earlier post 'flat white' is considered to be one of the best coffee houses in London, along with its sister shop 'milk bar'. It is nestled on the east side of a row of shops right in the midel of the Soho market area.

The inside is long and thin and it is always bussy, expect to wait if you want a seat and if there is a group of you, expect to wait longer.

The atmosphere is friendly and orders are taken quickly, even if you have to wait to actualy get your coffee. Its worth the wait though the coffee is excellent, very rich and a little bitter to my taste but the flaviour will stay with you for a good couple of hours, which is always a good sign. If I think realy hard and can still just about invoke the memory of the coffee from darkfluid, thats when you know you have had a realy good coffee, when it creates a memory that lasts. If you haven't or cannot bring to mind an occasion when a cup of coffee was this good, your drinking the wrong stuff and I recommend making the effort, just once, to find a good coffee house and try it.

If in London, I recommend making the effort of a ten minute walk to get good coffee. It has to be a better decision than going for the convenance of a cup of brown warm stuff from a chain.

Say's who....The Times.....Really

I went to London for a meeting and whist in town one of my colleges said "I know this grate coffee house, it severs the best expresso in London". Well whats a chap to do, when presented with the offer of the best expresso in London. Walk for twenty minutes in the pissing rain, getting socked to the skin, that's what.

Eventually, we arrived at 1882 and the sign outside did indeed promise the best expresso in London. We went straight in and I stood looking at the menu, whilst the drips off my coat made puddles on the floor. The barista, prompted me to order "regular flat white with sugar, please". "Sorry sir we don't serve flat whites". "I'll have a cappuccino, then, thanks".

I started drinking flat whites about 2 years ago, an antipodean drink in origin and similar to a latte, however a latte should be served in a glass where as a flat white comes in a cup and saucer, who knew, just looked it up. There are apparently also some other subtle differences to do with milk and micro-foam.

It would appear that the Times has not woken up to the fact that the nature of coffee in our capital is changing. Not longer are people prepared to except a brown, thin liquid, resembling buddy rain as coffee.
The coffee at 1882 is comparable to some the bigger chains, ok, nothing more. Will I go again; But this way, I wont be seeking them out.

I hadn't been up to London for a while and was presently surprise by the number of decent independent coffee house spring up selling carefully roasted, blended and served drinks. All I can hope is that this trend spreads across the country, banishing all 3rd rate dirty ditchwater mongeriors.