THE LONDON COFFEE FESTIVAL

( Sacred Cafe *above* is one of many coffee shops in London that have London Coffee Festival leaflets and information available.)

The London Coffee Festival is running between 8th and 10th April as part of UK Coffee Week. The festival will be taking part at the Old Truman Brewery on Brick Lane in Shoreditch with the festival’s website stating that it is a chance for ‘the coffee-obsessed and food fanatics’ to be ‘immersed in a world of discovery, tastings, demonstrations and entertainment.’ A number of established coffee chains as well as independent coffee shops around London will be taking part in the festival, giving festival-goers a chance to sample of their products and showcasing their coffee-making talents.

To find out what to expect at the festival and for more information, visit the website HERE. 

There will also be a few festival themed ‘zones’ around London, in London’s Hyde Park and also in Soho.

To purchase tickets to the main festival in Brick Lane go HERE. Tickets cost £8.50 per person per session, and all ticket sales will go straight towards Project Waterfall.

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Sacred Café

Head off towards the back of Regents street and you’ll find a maze of roads intertwining with one another; filled with boutiques and wine bars. It was down Ganton Street I found my most recent coffee shop discovery: Sacred Café. With the weather today being unnaturally hot for this time of year, we were lucky to find that the café also had outdoor seating (a major plus point).

The inside of the café was brilliantly decorated with a menu that extended across the entire wall behind the cash desk. There was a laid back atmosphere to the place which was welcome, but also somewhat odd bearing in mind its position near to one of the busiest places in London. It may have been the weather, or the friendly staff in this New Zealand run café, but I felt relaxed for the short time that I was there. The position of Sacred Café is in fact perfect, as it is a great hide away for weary shoppers and business people who need a caffeine boost and a chance to rest their feet.

The price for a small flat white coffee as with Nude Espresso, was £2.50, which I am starting to see as a standard price now in most of the coffee shops I have seen. The coffee itself was also good, I did not enjoy the taste of it as much as I have others but it was still enjoyable. Though then again, this is just my personal preference (and I know nothing about coffee tasting).
What I loved the most about this place was its location, (just off of Carnaby Street, down a small side road, quiet and hidden). Not being from the city myself,  I really do appreciate anywhere I can find to get away from the stress of living in London. Sacred Café is definitely worth a visit if you are ever near the Oxford Street / Regent Street area, so if you plan on going, check on the map down the right hand side of the page to see how to get there.

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Flat White.

I re-visited the famous Flat white coffee shop in Soho about a month ago after an afternoon shopping on Oxford Street. I arrived at around 6 in the evening and the place was reasonably quiet, and as soon as I walked through the door was welcomed by the staff. It is a shop which must lose count of the number of customers coming through its doors, yet they still perfect the art of making every customer feel at home. I was given a choice of seating and then was brought over my flat white (you can’t go to a place named after the beverage and not have one!) which was of course excellent. Flat White has always been one of my favourite places to stop and relax in central London. Places like this are life-savers, especially in our British winter. It is somewhere where you are able to escape from the elements and the hectic streets of the city, and for a short time stop to collect your thoughts over a great cup of coffee.

I have no photos of Flat White at the moment, though plan to go there again within the next few weeks. For now, here is one I found online:

http://srv-londonimages-5.londontown.com/2007/August/RC937191_429long.jpg

 

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First Review : Nude Espresso

Today I took a visit to the Brick Lane and Spitalfields market. In London there is always a limited amount of things to do during the day on a Sunday, and Brick Lane is one of the markets that have saved me from end of the week boredom by opening on this day. After stuffing my face with sausage and chips, and enduring the moans of my exacerbated boyfriend, I took a visit to a little coffee shop on Hanbury Street called Nude Espresso.

Bearing in mind the shop was planning on closing within half an hour of me turning up, it was still jam-packed with customers rushing in and out of the door and a queue half way into the shop. I managed to hastily grab myself a seat close to the till (partly because it was the only one left, and because I wanted to be nosey,) and I ordered my flat white coffee. Despite the fact the shop is in the heart of a popular area, the prices were not too extortionate and for a small flat white it cost me only £2.50. This may seem a lot to some people. Though, taking into consideration that this is an independent establishment who need to make a profit, (and even in a chain where costs should be reduced because of wholesale purchasing this coffee would cost the same amount,) this is not expensive at all.

The coffee itself was brought over to my table quite quickly, and tasted pretty darn good – though make no mistake, I am no coffee connoisseur. I ordered my boyfriend a cookie to reward him for being dragged around the markets with me all day, and although they forgot it, they were extremely polite and brought it straight over when asked. I blame this more on the fact that I arrived at a time when they were serving an extremely large amount of customers whilst also having to close up shop for the day. All in all my visit was a pleasurable experience, the place had a bustling atmosphere that I love. The music playing for those inside such as ‘hold me closer tiny daaaannncerrr’ suited the shop’s cheery and talkative ambiance. It is definitely a place I intend on visiting again, if not just for the coffee, for the vast selection of food by the counter that I was too full to order!

I have yet to come up with a voting system as I should probably go to more places before I can make a sound judgment upon each of them, so this will be something I come back to in the future.

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