About two years ago, I started visiting local cafes on a daily basis. Like most, I swapped in my breakfast ‘tea and toast’ routine at home for something on the run: a coffee and croissant dashing to the office or in my case an early morning lecture at university. Even after two years, there’s nothing else I prefer in the morning than fifteen minutes at the start of my day in a lovely cafe quietly drinking a well made latte and a croissant. Coffee and croissant generally beat Special K anyway…
I can’t really justify the expenditure of money this early in the morning and every day of the month. Nonetheless it’s generally too early in the day – so why regulate myself… All that happens at the end of the day with wine and cigarettes.
Whether it’s espresso, with a healthy layer of crema on top, a cappuccino (literally meaning a little monk’s hood), latte or filter coffee that you prefer, full-fat or soya milk, the ubiquity of coffee shops in the UK means you generally get the drink you want in a convenient location – like supermarkets, coffee shops are all about convenience. Starbucks and Nero are on most high streets, Costa is available in pubs (?!) and in pretty much every petrol station on the motorway. You can see the market forces at work by how these coffee brands have tried to seize control of parts of the saturated coffee market. I wonder how my readers feel when they get asked for their name at Starbucks at 7:30 in the morning – mine changes (Shazzer, Ekaterinatikinattalina, John). This is an obvious tactic to by the Starbucks marketing team to create a more personalised coffee experience – a synthesised approach to competition which actually makes British people who see through the corporate bullshit totally uncomfortable. Maybe in America “Howard”…
Where I live there are five different coffee shops within 100 metres of my door and within 50 metres of each other – ouch! In Lamb’s Conduit Street, Starbucks shut down last year, delicious La Gourmandina opened in January, next to the cheaper breakfast version door and Tutti’s on the corner. The Espresso Room (one of the best coffee’s I’ve had) is round the corner and glorious glorious Prufrock’s on Leather Lane is less than a ten minute walk away (the head Barista won World Barista champion last year). Let’s face it coffee businesses face fierce competition to attract passers by and even better, attract regular customers. Especially for start-up coffee shops in London where margins are tight and every passer by could be the key to breaking even. (The key is to get visitors hooked on the caffeine and sugar buzz – at best a quadriple venti Latte with a syrup shot).
If coffee is your thing and you think your addiction is healthy enough to stand a bucket of espresso you may decide to go to the London Coffee Festival. It’s running from the 25th-28th over the weekend with the main location at the Truman Brewery at Brick Lane. Anyone who fancies espresso martinis,(Yes!) go to the launch party tomorrow evening from 8. Everyone who wants to kick start their Saturday or Sunday can book their session on the website. Be prepared to get caffeinated in a pretty exciting environment. Some of the highlights are the UK Barista Championships, Latte art competition (well making coffee is an art) and some cool music like soulful Kadija Kamara and the gorgeous Kal Lavelle.
Buy a ticket for £9.50 online and £12.50 one the door. 50% goes to Project Waterfall, which aims to raise more than £1 million to deliver safe drinking water and sanitation projects for up to 100,000 people in Africa.
