The Londinium Espresso Blog

This blog has moved

2009-06-20T00:57:00.001+01:00

This blog has now moved to our website, LondiniumEspresso.com

Thank-you for visiting

Kind regards

Reiss.

LondiniumEspresso.com

NEW! Olympia steaming jug

2009-04-27T00:56:00.004+01:00

Ahh! This jug makes life easy. A recent addition to the Olympia product line, this milk frothing jug is more appropriate for home use, having a capacity of just 500mL.

Furthermore it is tapered, such that the top of the jug is narrower than the base.

The outside of the jug is polished, while the inside has a satin finish.

I wasn't too taken with the shape of the handle, until I picked it up. It is shaped so that it fits very snugly in your hand and doesn't wobble around. Some thought has gone into this.

Finally it is made of very heavy gauge stainless steel. The downside is this drives the price up considerably. Just how much additional material has been used in the manufacture of the jug becomes evident as soon as you lift it... it is heavy! Heavier than jugs with a much larger capacity.

The payback is the thick walls of this jug act as a heat sink, keeping the milk cooler for much longer whilst you stretch the milk. Personally I found this a massive advantage & am now knocking out great frothy milk with ease for all those who insist on corrupting their coffee with it.

Visit to Olympia Express, Switzerland

2009-04-26T23:00:00.024+01:00

I havent time to write a meaningful report right now, but I will at least make a start and post some images...

A flight to Milan & an extremely pleasant trip by car up into southern Switzerland where the people bring a winning combination of Swiss precision & Italian flair. No surprise then to find a large number of successful manufacturing companies based here.

The purpose of the images below is to demonstrate that the Cremina is a domestic machine built to a commercial standard. This is not the consumer grade junk that proliferates today, where you throw it away and buy another if something breaks. No, the simple sturdy Swiss engineering means these machines are easy and cost effective to service.

A relatively recent change in ownership of Olympia has seen heavy investment in developing the engineering excellence of the machine even further. A more precise thermostatic switch has been developed, along with a new pressure guage without a stop pin to ensure the needle of the guage is not damaged under the vacuum that occurs when the machine is turned off. Olympia have also changed the press tool for the top cowling on the boiler to allow you to warm your espresso cups on the top of the machine. In addition the piston has been changed to a twin seal design. Quality control programs have also beeen embedded in the production process to ensure all components meet the design specifications provided by Olympia. The design of the drainage tray has also been refined, and the pins on the lever are have reverted from machine screws with grub screw retainers to circlip retainers on each end to assist ease of correct reassembly when servicing the machine.

Left end elevation: Olympia Cremina with boiler housing & group removed. Old style thermostatic pressure switch clearly visible in brass housing. Now replaced with a much smaller & more accurate design.

Main elevation: group removed.

Right end elevation with group removed. Clearly visible mounted to the top of the boiler are the over pressure release valve (mounted vertically), the feed for the pressure guage, the outlet pipe from the base of the boiler to feed water to the sight glass water level indicator, and the return feed from the sight glass to the boiler (top)

A new design of bronze piston with marine grade (316) stainless shaft with the two seal seats clearly visible

A collection of pistons fitted to shafts and ready for installation.

Externally I thought the shower screen was in good condition...

...but it wasn't! Coffee oils had formed a hard residue on the inside.

The key to staying young is to stay flexible! Both seals under pressure between forefinger and thumb; old seal (top), new seal (bottom). A new generation of silicone seals are currently under development.

What's the collective noun for espresso machines? A hiss of espresso machines, perhaps? Olympia Maximatic model almost ready to go to their new owners. These are selling like hot cakes.

Moca grinder showing off the engineering excellence for which it is renown. It took me a while to come around to agreeing with the design of this grinder, in particular the fixed box for the collection of grinds, but I am now an advocate.

This is due to the quality of the grind, the quiet operation, its very small footprint, and the fact the I no longer spread coffee grinds all over the kitchen as they are captured in the box very effectively.

And far too quickly it is time to make the return journey to Milan.

All in all a great day with great people. I personally learnt a lot about how the machines were manufactured, the history of the company, and the plans that the [relatively] new owners have for the company. In all aspects they are seeking to build on the fine history of Olympia, and expect to see some exciting new machines from Olympia in the not too distant future.

If you can appreciate the value in an espresso machine that will deliver espresso that is superior to what you will receive in any retail establishment, can be readily serviced, and will be in a fit condition to pass on to your children, then there really is only one choice. Olympia of Switzerland.

fresh is best

2009-03-28T10:11:00.002Z

it will seem obvious when it is pointed out, but people fail to make the connection that coffee is essentially a fruit, or at least the seed of a fruit. as a result it shouldn't come as much of a surprise that fresh is best, just like any fruit.

next time you buy a bag of coffee have a look for the 'best before' date. in almost all cases it will be 12mths after the roast date. while it is true that coffee does go 'off' in the sense of making you ill, this practice is misleading and we have a problem with it. perhaps less so if it is an inexpensive coffee, but a huge objection if you are buying a gourmet or premium coffee.

if you are buying pre-ground coffee it will be stale every time. the information on the packet may try to persuade you that it is fresh as a result of some magical process, but this is at odds with reality, unfortunately.

one of the things you are paying for at Londinium Espresso is our commitment to stamp the roast date on every pack. usually, but not always, this will be after you have placed your order. we are not apologetic that we will sometimes ship coffee that was roasted a few days before your order as we are now firmly of the view that coffee needs at least 10 days in our unopened bags to reach its optimum, and seems to remain in such a condition until at least 3 weeks after roasting. in our experience there is no significant drop off in quality until 6 to 8 weeks after roasting, assuming the bag remains unopened. once opened the oxidation process accelerates rapidly and the coffee needs to be consumed in 7-10 days to be enjoyed in peak condition. for this reason we sell our coffee in 250g bags. in our experience 250g is about the amount of coffee that a moderate coffee drinker can get through in 7-10 days.

as always, if you have any questions please feel free to ask without obligating yourself in any way. if we don't know the answer we will say so & endeavour to go away & find it & get back to you.

Daterra 3 weeks after roasting

2009-03-28T10:04:00.004Z

just discovered a bag of Daterra in the pyramid of coffee that dominates the landscape here. roasted 3 weeks ago to the day on 7 march 2009. ran it through the machine & i must emphasise that it has improved further with a little time. the flavours are smoother, rounder, and more full in the mouth. still has the same basic profile as you would expect, but much more refined & enjoyable. if you want to lower the cost i recommend you buy 5 x 250g bags at a time & enjoy the 20% discount. only open one bag at a time and i think you'll find the last bag you have is more refined and enjoyable than the first bag you open only a few days after roasting.

NEW in: Hawaiian Kona extra fancy

2009-03-28T10:00:00.005Z

roasted a couple of days ago. tried it this morning as an espresso & through the swissgold. have to admit we have under-roasted this and as a result it tastes a little wooden. we'll roast again this afternoon, this time a little darker. all coffee produced in Hawaii is fairly traded, though not certified as such, as the US labour/employment laws are in effect.

Anyone for Cuban coffee?

2009-03-10T16:34:00.003Z

I was reading last night about Cuban coffee & decided we needed to find out if it is even half as good as their cigars.

Having been told the only guy in the UK with any is in Ireland & he will only sell roasted beans I am pleased to announce that we have found some green beans.

I've not had the opportunity to buy from sample so its fingers crossed on this one. I love this journey of discovery that coffee takes you on. It is one of the last products in the world that is completely natural & the processing of which hasn't been reduced to a mathematical formula.

The gourmet roasting community is always picking up unusual coffees, often in tiny quantities & roasting them according to their unique in-house roasting style and often creating a taste quite different to another gourmet roaster using the same bean, or a bean from a similar region.

Fantastic!

Trafficcafe.tv

2009-03-09T18:14:00.007Z

Go and check this website out & watch episode 27

This is a crazy story of coincidence & the power of the web & tools like twitter

A while ago i ran a search for 'Gunson', my surname on twitter, just for the fun of it really

It turned up this guy, Jonathan Gunson, who runs a website called trafficcafe.tv

He said on his show that he was in New Zealand & it is a fairly uncommon surname in that part of the world

So I asked a few a questions about his lineage & it turns out that we are related. I lived in Auckland until I was 25 & never knew of Jonathan's existence

I have resided in London since 1998 & I get on twitter & find a relative & he ends up profiling me on episode 27

In return I must recommend the trafficcafe.tv to you

It is free & I tune in every weekday to pick up his latest traffic nugget & have found plenty of useful practical tips

As a guy trying to get a web business off the ground I have found it to be a valuable, practical resource & encouragement

Anyway, a big thank-you to you Jonathan, I never expected this kind of exposure

Reiss

What is Londinium Espresso all about?

2009-03-08T21:01:00.007Z

Please don't think we only care about espresso

Our mission is to re-introduce you to coffee. Black coffee. What other kind is there?

At the risk of upsetting you we dont regard latte as coffee, nor cappuccino, and certainly not a triple frappe grande mocha caramel lard arse whatever nightmare

You're welcome to enjoy them all. We just don't think they should be confused with coffee. They are coffee flavoured milk. That's all. And if you haven't figured it out for yourself already, they are calorie bombs, whilst coffee is calorie free.

You see the trouble is milk fat is a great masking agent. When it comes to appreciating the subtle differences between two brazilian coffees, for example, you won't stand a chance. Your taste buds will be smothered in a blanket of milk fat, rendering them useless.

Londinium Espresso is all about introducing you to coffee. Black coffee. Water. Coffee. And, er, that's it. There is no where for poor quality coffee or poorly roasted coffee to hide.

You, the consumer, have been served up coffee of continuously diminishing quality since World War II broke out. We believe it's time to take you back.

Historically, believe it or not, coffee was known as a 'sweet' drink. I bet you're thinking 'coffee is not sweet, its often bitter or burnt, or perhaps both. Yes, that's true, but it doesn't have to be that way.

You're probably thinking, ah but, I dont have any fancy expensive coffee making equipment, i cant afford any, its out of my league.

Well, that's not true either. All you need to acquire is an inexpensive blade grinder & a Swissgold filter. You may even have a stovetop coffee maker, or plunger, or filter machine at home, in which case all you need to buy is a grinder. Make sure you keep you equipment clean, ensuring no coffee residue forms in it. You see it is all about accessing great coffee beans.

Forget ground coffee, it is a waste of money. Ground coffee stales in half an hour or so of being ground & therefore you will never taste a fraction of the coffee's original, fresh roasted flavour.

Anyway, I think we have made our point. Londinium is all about black coffee. Great black coffee. Filter, vacuum, espresso, stove-top, the method doesn't matter. It's all about the coffee... not the additives.

We are also on hand to help you solve coffee problems and chew the fat when pondering where to spend your hard-earned cash on your next caffeine toy, all without obligation and as impartial as we can be for coffee zealots!

Grinders: blade & burr

2009-03-08T20:29:00.008Z

This is a bit of a pedantic rant, but I am sick of people proclaiming that blade grinders are no good because they cut the beans and burr grinders are good because they grind the coffee.

Blade grinders have 'blades' but if you feel them you will notice they are not sharp. They don't cut the coffee, they simply 'smash' the beans. As a result the 'grinds' it produces are a vast array of sizes, and equally importantly, shapes. Hopeless for espresso as the water simply takes the coarse of least resistance through the puck of coffee and it produces a curious mix of over & under extracted coffee. Not nice.

Entry level burr grinders don't do a whole lot better either, some of them having plastic/composite burrs which wear smooth fairly quickly, unsurprisingly.

Good burr grinders, i.e. those selling for GBP200 and above in the UK actually have burrs that are quite sharp. As a result they do 'cut' the coffee bean. The correct term is probably 'mill'. These sharp burrs, or teeth if you like, ensure the resulting grinds are very uniform in both size and shape. This is what you are paying for in a top quality grinder.

The need to minimise the heating of the coffee if you are grinding any volume is addressed in three ways; 1) the use of highly conductive material (metal/metal alloy/ceramic) for the burrs to dissipate the heat away 2) larger diameter burrs so the working surface of the burr is increased, thereby spreading the thermal load over a wider area 3) reducing the revolutions at which the burr turns, which in turn requires gearing and usually a more powerful electric motor, all of which add to the cost.

All of the above needs to be mounted into a very rigid assembly otherwise the burrs would be able to flex/move as the resistance of beans stuck the working face of the burrs. This obviously adds to the cost as robust engineering as described above is needed. It demands high quality metals/metal alloys and plenty of them.

The upside is you aren't buying what I like to refer to as 'consumer grade junk'. When the burrs eventually wear out in a high quality grinder (stated as every 400Kg in a Mazzer Super Jolly) you can simply replace the burrs and you have a new grinder essentially. If you are bothered by such things this is the world our grandparents knew and it is a lot more environmentally friendly than throwing cheap, poorly made items out every year or so.

Bodum Antigua grinder at an amazing price

2009-03-04T18:29:00.004Z

Trolling the web just now I found this incredible deal;

http://dbroth.amazonwebstore.com/Bodum-Antigua-Electric-Burr-Grinder-Black/M/B0018OQJ6G.htm?traffic_src=froogle&utm_medium=organic&utm_source=froogle-GB&id=uk

No the grinder isn't suitable for espresso production but it is superb for anything else

I had one for years to test and I was very impressed

Before you ask we are not affiliated to these guys in ANY way, I have not been asked to post this, I was simply checking out the current price, thinking it to be about GBP90 & found this.

How to use a Swissgold filter

2009-02-25T21:20:00.004Z

this is a very crude first attempt at adding video to this blog

New and improved checkout facility

2009-02-24T22:08:00.003Z

Having tried the patience of many of our customers for longer than we had any right to, we have finally upgraded our checkout such that it is more intuitive for those who do not wish to pay by Paypal.

We hope this meets with your approval & welcome any comments you may have.

Reiss.

can coffee be too fresh?

2009-02-24T15:15:00.004Z

for me the answer is a resounding yes. you will often hear it said that coffee needs 48hrs or thereabouts to de-gas and this is true enough.

but with the experience we have built up since 2004 when we started roasting i think the answer is more complicated, there seems to be more to it than simply waiting 48 hrs

the coffee seems to reach a higher 'optimum' if it is left in the sealed bag for about 10 days after the date on which it was roasted. don't ask me why, i'm not an industrial chemist & i suspect a lot of them may not be able to account for the change in full, for if they were coffee would have been synthesised by the large multinational coffee roasters long ago

cut & go by all means when you first receive your Londinium coffee (i'll do this too if i'm out of coffee), but the coffee will taste thin, flat, and wooden relative to what it is capable of delivering to your taste buds. not bad relative to most coffee on offer, but very much sub-optimal to what it is capable of

please dont take from this that coffee doesnt need to be fresh, it does, it is imperative.

the point is, like so often with coffee, that the optimum isnt at the extremes. it is a complex balancing act of so many variables. so next time you hear someone bragging about making an espresso from beans that are still warm out of the roaster, be a little sceptical.

anyway, try it for yourself, the difference isnt simply an academic one for the coffee cone heads, it really is quite noticeable once you are looking for it.

happy drinking!

Consider a lever espresso machine

2009-02-24T13:59:00.003Z

I have been weighing up in my mind for ages whether or not to make this post as lever machines tend to divide the coffee community like a scythe. It is not a sly attempt to talk you into the superb Olympia Cremina we offer, but rather the result of my continual musings on the best machine to sink your hard earned cash into at the lower-mid market price points

If money is no object, or you have a sponsor who plies you with free espresso equipment to promote on their behalf then these considerations fall away obviously, but most people are not currently in that position.

I have come to the conclusion that lever machines cop a lot of unfair criticism. yes i know you can criticise the less expensive machines for poor thermal stability and so on, but are they any worse than electric pump machines at a similar price point?

I would also qualify my comments further i saying that i am thinking about the typical Londinium Espresso customer, i.e. one who is focused on espresso, doesn't need to turn out a large number of coffees in a short period of time, and only occasionally uses the steaming wand.

Yesterday I was in Harrods and it was interesting to see that they now sell primarily 2 types of machines; pod machines & bean to cup. Finito. The vast array of choice they used to offer has all been swept away. Both of these types of machine are pitching to the convenience market, so that obviously reflects what the bulk of the market wants.

I was offered the opportunity to sample the coffee from the bean to cup machines and i have to say i was very disappointed. Was the coffee offensive? No, not at all. In fact it was completely the opposite of the that; bland, primarily due to being underextracted. It was the same last time i tried a bean to cup machine. Despite the 'oh yes sir its 15bar all round on this machine' i remain unconvinced. I also suspect the grinders aren't even on nodding terms with what a Mazzer delivers. I find this unacceptable at this 'top of mkt' price point.

Was the machine easy to use? Certainly. Did it look nice? Yes, although the flimsy plastic cowlings and fake chrome on plastic isn't really acceptable at this price point in my opinion. These bean to cup machines are not inexpensive, and place you up into the Olympia price point for the top models. For me there was no comparison. The Olympia makes coffee as good as a commercial machine, and given the poor coffee and lack of care associated with almost all retail coffee offerings the coffee you make at home on an Olympia will be on a different planet to your local cafe and at a fraction of the cost once you have the machine.

Anyway, the point is that the entry level bean to cup models of this particular brand started at £650. While i dont doubt they are available on better terms elsewhere i started thinking that for a lot less money, assuming you are an espresso fanatic (i.e. not a milk fiend) and dont need to crank out a row of espressos in a hurry, then a lever machine like the La Pavoni really does make sense. A good friend of mine has owned his for many years now. He hammers the daylights out of it every day. Ok, sure he is a single guy & not catering to 10 supper guests at a time, and tends to drink espresso or macchiato.

During that time he has had to service the seals on the machine, but this is true of any espresso machine after 5 years of daily use. The espresso he makes from the La Pavoni leaves all the bean to cup machines i have tried for dead.

Sure, i am the first to admit that a bean to cup machine offers convenience, you dont get coffee grinds spread all over the kitchen, etc, etc.

But...Londinium Espresso really is a place for purists, people with a focus on ultimate quality over convenience. A perfect espresso made with care on a Saturday morning, or after lunch on a sunday.

if your espresso needs are as i describe above you should give the La Pavoni, and the other lever machines some serious consideration. Lever machines do take a little bit of effort to master, but it isnt that difficult & we are very happy to help, without obligating you.

Bella Barista also have a spring lever machine (Ponte Vecchio from memory) on their website, which i havent tried myself, but from what i can see it is very attractively priced. You also have the Elektra machines, and no doubt there are others which i am not aware of

At the price point a La Pavoni delivers far far better espresso than an electric pump machine. Put the money you save on the La Pavoni into a great grinder, at least a Rancillo Rocky, or step up to a Mini Mazzer if you can. The La Pavoni grinder is OK, but it is a bit flimsy in construction.

The trick to the lever machine is weighing the ground coffee until you are able to simply visualise what 8g (or whatever weight you want to go with) looks like in the portafilter before you tamp it. The other thing is to shift the lever so the piston is in the open position and allow the coffee puck to pre-infuse for around 8s before moving the lever to force the water through the coffee puck.

I readily concede that they are not the weapon of choice for lattes & cappuccinos, or rolling out 10 espressos in a hurry for a dinner party.

In addition to the performance considerations the lever machines are easily maintained, they are silent in operation (having no electric pump) & in my opinion they are a lot more attractive.

So in summary do give a lever machine some serious consideration, depending on what your needs are.

Coffee isn't Coke

2009-02-23T10:49:00.004Z

What do we mean?

Well the primary attraction to coffee for me is it is one of the last non-homogenous products in our daily lives

It is a truly natural product and as a result it delivers a vast palette of variances that reflect all the external factors that the coffee has come into contact with on its journey from soil to cup, often from one side of the world to the other.

One of the challenges for a roaster of coffee is to work with this variance in the coffee and consistently deliver coffee to the customer that tastes as close as possible to the previous batch

The same bag of coffee will also taste different on your taste buds at different times of day, and at the same time of day on different days

For espresso use coffee needs to be ground slightly more coarse on days with high humidity, and slightly less on days with less humidity, and so on

So the focus for Londinium Espresso is to demystify the diatribe of the coffee world where boffins and madmen lurk to a simple set of rules and advice that will place you in the right 'zone' with your coffee

From this point you will develop the confidence and experience to fine-tune your method for your unique set-up. It is highly unlikely that any two of our customers have exactly the same set up, and even if the machine and grinder are identical, with identical degrees of wear on the grinding burrs and so on, your technique will differ and you will produce slightly different results from the same coffee beans

It is not possible to set down a rigid set of rules, which if followed by two different people on two identical set-ups would produce identical espresso. Similar, yes, but still with differences.

For us this is a beauty of coffee, not a short coming. Large multinationals have spent, and continue to spend, millions to synthesise the unique taste of coffee in order to deliver a homogenous product to the market at a very low marginal cost of production. The fruits of some of these efforts can be seen in instant coffee, coffee powders, coffee pastes, and probably the most recent development, the Nespresso style pod technology.

We are the first to recognise that such products offer convenience. We would just ask that you don't confuse them with coffee, which is what Londinium Espresso offer you. Coffee by definition can never be a convenience product. Coffee is an affordable luxury.

Even the most straight forward of preparation methods (a grinder and a Swissgold filter) does not come close to a pod system for convenience, but the result is coffee, a fantastic respite from the daily rountine of life.

A taste which carries your imagination to far off plantations in exotic locations with a dense jungle canopy overhead to filter the beating sun with just the first sip. All this while your cursor sits on cell 'C12' of your Excel spreadsheet in some bland city office block. What a bargain!

From the FT: Reaching for the Starbucks

2009-02-21T10:24:00.007Z

We have decided to republish this article directly from the FT in full, as it says the same as what we have been saying ad nauseum. That is to say, Starbucks is not about espresso. We have placed the key paragraphs in bold and italics.

By Christopher Caldwell

Published: February 20 2009 19:17 | Last updated: February 20 2009 19:17

The decision of Starbucks to begin marketing Via, its own brand of instant coffee, is a powerful symbol of something – either of the unexpected resilience of innovative companies or the collapse of the whole logic of the consumer economy.

The struggles of Starbucks are well known. Its stock lost half its value last year, and store sales were off 9 per cent in the most recent quarter. The company announced in January that it would shed 6,700 jobs and close 300 more outlets, after shuttering 600 last year. Other espresso chains are nipping at its heels, some with better services (such as Caribou in the US, where high-speed internet is free), some with lower prices (such as Dunkin’ Donuts). Home-grown competitors are rising in important markets – for example Costa Coffee and Caffè Nero in Britain. People differ on whether Starbucks has expanded too fast – losing sight of the bohemian ambience that was its main selling point – or whether peddling coffee for several dollars, or pounds, a cup is a non-starter in this straitened economy.

Whatever the problem is, it is hard to see how instant coffee could be the way out of it. One prong in the Via marketing strategy is to sell it through the discount retailers Target and Costco for about $1 a sachet. That is a lot of money. While there is a logic in selling premium coffee at a premium, there seems to be little in selling so-so coffee at five times the price of other so-so coffee. The second prong is to sell it, starting in March, in Starbucks stores in three cities – Seattle, Chicago and London. That makes sense: 81 per cent of the coffee drunk in Britain is instant, and the world instant coffee market generates $17bn (€13.5bn, £11.9bn) in sales. So perhaps Starbucks can sell enough in prestige markets to convince shoppers elsewhere to buy it in bulk.

That would be in character. Ever since it began expanding, Starbucks has worked by paradox and misdirection. It is supposed to be a chain of espresso bars but, in the US at least, it has been years since most Starbucks have stocked proper espresso cups. A shot of espresso comes as a little puddle rolling back and forth at the bottom of a pint paper cup meant to hold some other concoction, most likely one with lots of steamed milk and syrup. Starbucks is basically a malt shop and this should not surprise us. Creamy foods are always popular in booms. The great food fad of the 1920s, the historian Frederick Lewis Allen tells us, was “Eskimo Pie”, and US ice cream production rose 45 per cent in the seven years to 1926. The genius of Starbucks is to keep its identity as a coffee shop, letting its customers feel more virtuous than if the place they habitually nip off to at 10:15am were called the Dairy Tub, or something like that.

This makes the shift to instant coffee easier. If you are selling milkshakes, the quality of the coffee is not that important, any more than the quality of scotch is important to someone whose favourite drink is scotch-and-coke. But there is a problem with instant, too. Part of what Starbucks founder Howard Schultz calls “the Starbucks experience” has always been a matter of class. Starbucks has managed to give its customers the feeling they are “in” in two ways.

The first is through its reputation as a “responsible corporate citizen”. Starbucks offers health insurance to employees who work 20 hours a week or more and has been punctilious about trading only with ethical coffee growers. These choices are defrayed through higher retail prices. Since people who care about corporate responsibility tend to be well-educated, and hence well-paid, caring is a class marker. Corporate responsibility and conspicuous consumption are near relations. You can “feel good” about ordering Starbucks in more ways than one.

The second link to class is through real estate. This may hold the key to the company’s difficulties. Starbucks has had a genius for sizing up properties and picking locations. The company starts, according to the writer Taylor Clark with “a database ranking every US metropolitan area according to the qualities Starbucks found especially desirable – high income, high population and high education”. In plotting its expansion this way, Starbucks not only collected information but generated it. An up-and-coming neighbourhood would have a Starbucks: a superficially similar but stagnant one would not. In the very act of its site selection it became a sort of rating agency. One extraordinary side-effect of Starbucks’ retrenchment is that, as outlets have closed – particularly in struggling cities such as Newark, New Jersey – protests have arisen to “Save Our Starbucks”. Naturally! A closed Starbucks signals a downgrading of the neighbourhood. But picking real-estate winners is not as lucrative now as it was a couple years ago.

Starbucks may have come up against the limits of its model. The chain will have to serve a different function in the bust economy than in the boom. Maybe espresso bars could thrive as purveyors of “cheap luxury”, the way cinemas did in the 1930s. A lot of people thought that the collapse of phoney equity values would make people turn to healthy, high-value food. But, really, that almost never happens – the natural food craze of the late 1970s was a cultural coincidence, not an economic effect. As this paper has reported, people today are turning to fast food, fish and chips and other comfort foods. “The less money you have, the less inclined you feel to spend it on wholesome food,” George Orwell wrote in The Road to Wigan Pier. “When you are unemployed, which is to say when you are underfed, harassed, bored and miserable, you don’t want to eat dull wholesome food. You want something a little bit ‘tasty’.” The taste for the kind of sweet drinks Starbucks serves is unlikely to wane any time soon.

The best coffee in town can be at your place

2009-02-20T01:08:00.003Z

we've said it before, we'll say it again, most cafes buy the least expensive coffee they can find, and anything from italy must be good right, because everyone knows the best coffee comes from italy, right?

er, no, not necessarily at all. they're often the same people who think coffee is grown in italy, when not a single bean is!

lets be clear, we love going to italy & all things italian & some superb roasters practice their art there, but the bulk commercial roasters? tell us your next joke!

quite simply, if you find yourself tightening your fiscal belt at the moment, there is no need to reach for the instant coffee just yet.

for a very modest outlay you can acquire our starter pack and you will find you are serving a nicer cup of coffee at home than you ever had on the high street & staying within your budget at the same time.

come over to the dark side. try londinium.

New in: SWP Cascadia

2009-02-20T00:14:00.001Z

Yes, another decaf coffee

Why? because a customer demanded a decaf, but it HAD to be organic & fairtrade

All we could find right at the moment that fitted the criteria was this or a single origin Sumatran

We decided this was the safer bet as dry processed Sumatran can be rather over bearing as an espresso

This is a blend which we will detail when we load it up on the site

Anyway, we will most likely take delivery on Tuesday

This is a relatively expensive coffee so we have high expectations, particularly as the SWP Costa has set the bar so high

Send us a coffee question...

2009-02-14T00:46:00.001Z

and we will answer it here for you.

Its not all doom & gloom. It's time to deliver value for money, that's all.

2009-02-12T17:13:00.012Z

Despite the dire predictions of the newspapers, it isn't all doom and gloom out there.

I'm not a pushy marketing man with an axe to grind, I'm not about to tell you that houses are gaining value and the world is all returning to normal. What I am about to write is based on what I have personally observed as I beat the streets of London visiting the cafes we serve and the cafes we would like to serve in the future.

There is a near perfect correlation between the cafes that appreciate the quality of the products and services we offer, and success. I can hear you saying, "ah yes, well he would say that", and while I am a hard bitten cynic too, it is the truth.

The businesses who are struggling are those who like to blame external factors for their troubles, for example, "oh we can't change from Illy because we need an international brand to compete with the Starbucks next door". On this particular occasion I then paid for a cup of their Illy coffee to try it. Lets be quite clear, I may think Illy is over-priced, but correctly treated it can make an acceptable cup of coffee; i.e. I am not an 'Illy-basher'. But this coffee was terrible! Why? Nothing to do with Illy! They had paid a premium for the brand, but they were lazy. So neither the machine nor grinder had been maintained, they skimped and used the tiniest amount of coffee ('b/c we are struggling we have to cut corners runs the logic'), it was prepared by someone who didn't want to be there, and so on. They still firmly believe they are struggling b/c of the Starbucks next door, the economy, etc.

As an outsider who had not visited the cafe before I saw things differently. I have driven past the cafe many times, and the daft thing is no Illy branding is visible so they are paying for a premium brand yet it is not visible until you are in the shop. The shop looks attractive as you pass by, it looks inviting enough. Yet the Starbucks next door is full and this cafe is empty. Why? Well it cant be the economy can it? I mean if people really didn't have any money they wouldn't be in Starbucks either.

The money exists, it hasn't gone anywhere. All that has happened is that it has been redistributed (typically from young (buying prop)to old(selling prop)) and people's expectations have changed. So people might not be throwing their money around with gay abandon as they did when they didn't care if they lost their job as they would quickly find another, possibly on better pay, or when their house was appreciating at 15%pa.

They are still spending, albeit more cautiously. So the competition has increased. You just need to ensure they spend their £ with you, not your competition.

Example: Eating in a cafe is no longer inexpensive; today I had a citron tart on a take-out basis for which I was charged GBP3.20, which I thought was rather a lot, but you know I have had them numerous times before from this particular cafe and I really like them. I am still thinking that it was rather extravagant, which it was, but if you really enjoy it you feel you have received value for money & next time you pass that shop there is a good chance you will almost subliminally find yourself opening your wallet again, perhaps not even on the citron tart, you might think oh the citron tart was so good, the raspberry whatever looks good, I'll try that instead this time. and so it goes. Conversely, if the citron tart was disappointing it is a long time before you go back again, especially in the current environment.

The favourite game in the London cafe scene is to sell crap to the passing tourist trade. 'Its crap' you say. 'We know' they respond, 'but who cares b/c they have gone to Heathrow another 1,300 plane loads of tourists arrive from Heathrow tomorrow'. Well that attitude really grates with me and I see no reason why you shouldn't go out of business if you live by that mantra.

People talk. With new methods of instant communication like twitter they talk a lot, and quickly, to many people, all over the globe.

OK, so they mightn't remember the name of the awful places that screwed them as they made their way across Europe, but you will be surprised how they note down and remember the places where they had a good time and left feeling that they had received value for money.

For me 'value for money' is a phrase that we should start thinking about a lot more if we intend to get through this recession. It doesn't mean cheap. Something can be very expensive (i.e. have a very high price) yet be perceived as value for money. Obviously the higher the price the higher the customer's expectations for the product(service) before they consider to have received 'value for money'.

For me value for money is a concept of 'fairness'. You leave feeling you have received fair value in return for the consideration you paid. The colloquial antonym is 'ripped-off' and there are businesses all over London still deploying this approach and wondering why life is becoming more difficult.

Businesses who are prepared to take an honest look at themselves and decide if they are really delivering their customers 'value for money' will survive this downtime. Those who really put their back into it may even thrive. This is not a fanciful notion. We supply a very well run cafe who is in the process of opening another location because they have so many customers they are turning them away, even on a Monday. How? Why? What!

Well they have operated in their current location for a number of years and built up a loyal clientele. They have a very focused menu and do what they do extremely efficiently. Efficiently here doesn't mean 'low quality', it simply means the process has been refined and refined to eliminate wastage and inefficiency, hence the 'focused' menu.

The current economic climate has meant that previously inflexible landlords and their agents have modified their expectations. As a result premises that were previously priced out of reach are now a viable proposition. It will give our customer a second location in a prime retail location with much more foot traffic. It will almost certainly be a success because the owner is 'sticking to the knitting', not diversifying into something he knows nothing about. In addition the owner is hands on. He doesn't pop in for an hour in the morning and an hour at night. He is always there, driving the business forward. At the same time he is gradually adding the systems and controls that will allow him to manage two locations, and refining continually to minimise the negative events.

I have almost come to the conclusion that the retail food business has become overly focused on certification yet still failing to deliver quality. A certified apple doesn't mean it doesn't go stale or that it doesn't bruise. You can have organic this and UK5 that, and fair trade this, and rainforest that, but if the food doesn't taste any good and you try to charge people a daft premium for it in a downturn, don't be surprised if the business is a bit quiet.

How about simplifying it. Take a clean sheet of paper and consider item by item what you are going to sell. Don't add a single item that you dont personally love. Don't add a single thing that you are not prepared to personally enthuse about to your customer at length. When all around is grim it is a delight to speak with someone who really loves the product they are selling. Then work out what it is going to cost, add in all your variable & fixed, direct & indirect costs, add on a premium that you consider a fair and reasonable reward for you effort and see what you end up with.

If you are an existing business and things are tough go back to the Landlord and spell it out. Not in a threatening manner, but perhaps take some accounts or at least key figures for the last say 3 years with you and demonstrate how things have deteriorated. Explain that you want to continue the business, but the current level of rent is strangling the business and if you are unable to make significant reductions you will have to relocate or possibly close the business. Negotiate. An intelligent landlord will much prefer to reduce the rent than take a bet on how long it might take to find another tenant who is willing to pay the same amount as you are currently paying.

A classic mistake that I see so often is shops that stock far too many things. This is doomed to fail in my view. You are not a supermarket. It is especially problematic if you are dealing in perishable items. You must identify a theme or a niche. This doesn't mean tacky, it means specialisation. It means becoming famous for something. One thing. As already mentioned, news spreads fast these days, good or bad. If you are in London and you become famous for something, don't be surprised if you have people from all corners of the globe coming to experience your take on 'value for money' for themselves. Set your sights high. Lead by example as the owner.

Oh, and another thing I almost forgot. If you pay your staff the minimum wage, with absolutely no form of incentive scheme, don't be surprised if they seem a lot less enthusiastic than you about your goals and objectives. The English may sniff at the Americans, and sure the commission based retail model can produce some pretty obnoxious scenes when executed poorly, but on the whole I think it is preferable. I firmly believe that people who work hard, shoulder more than their share of the burden, go the extra mile if you like, need to be rewarded, and why not some filthy lucre?

If someone has gone beyond the call of duty and furthered your global reputation for excellence in whatever it is you want to become famous for, then give them a share of the spoils. I fully appreciate that it can be difficult to get the balance right, but I do not accept this as an excuse for simply doing nothing. In its crudest form you may simply declare that it is a discretionary bonus that will be paid weekly in whatever way you see fit. Some weeks it might all be paid to one person, other weeks it might be split equally, and so on. Some weeks nothing may be paid at all, whatever, its your scheme, just make the rules clear and abide by them. It may not even be money, but it needs to be something of value to the person concerned that clearly conveys that their additional contribution is valued.

Leaving cafes aside for a minute, there are businesses like our own that still need goods and services to survive. Sure, we may buy in smaller more frequent lots, or spend more time looking for the best deal, but there are a lot of things that we still need. Life goes on as the saying goes.

Let's ignore the media & the politicians, they won't get us out of this mess. Most likely small businesses will. How? By knuckling down and ensuring their customers perceive that they are receiving 'value for money'. Just remember that approximately 95% of employees in the UK work for a firm that employs 5 or fewer people. Small firms (10-50 employees) generate more than half of the UK's GDP. Most people don't receive huge bonuses. Most people are remarkably like you and I, so let's roll up our sleeves and make a difference by creating 'activity' which creates demand for goods and services. The money hasn't gone anywhere, it has just stopped circulating because people's expectations are fragile at the moment.

If you operate a small business and would like to bounce ideas around feel free to get in touch....we're real people.

Chimney sweep blends

2009-02-05T12:41:00.006Z

Cooking food at high temperatures, for example grilling or barbecuing meats, can lead to the formation of minute quantities of many potent carcinogens that are comparable to those found in cigarette smoke (i.e., benzopyrene). Charring of food resembles coking and tobacco pyrolysis, and produces similar carcinogens. There are several carcinogenic pyrolysis products, such as polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons, which are converted by human enzymes into epoxides, which attach permanently to DNA.

The above statement applies equally to coffee that has been roasted very dark, which is generally pursued when you are using very low grade coffee and the sooty taste is deemed preferable to being able to taste the coffee itself.

We're not health fanatics at Londinium, but we think this issue has been given scant attention to date, whilst caffeine seems to have received a disproportionate amount of coverage and if you believed even half of it you would have thought it would have exterminated the human race long ago.

All things in moderation we say, and if you seek out high quality coffee beans and roast them with care there should be no need to roast them very dark to the point where the bean is beginning to carbonise/turn to charcoal, even if they are intended for espresso use.

The myth that espresso beans must be roasted very dark must not be allowed to perpetuate.

Espresso doesn't need to be burnt or bitter. It can be sweet and delicate.

Try a Londinium roast.

(the only exception to this is our SWP decaffeinated roast where the green beans have already been turned to a dark brown colour by the decaffeination process before we commence roasting). They also seem to require dark roasting to optimise the taste. Otherwise all our roasts are light.

Monty Python - Conquistador Coffee Campaign

2009-01-31T23:08:00.008Z

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ijIq_-8HJo8&feature=PlayList&p=81E5B2E8DCE45882&index=3

i enjoyed this

Espresso standardisation, or reducing the witchcraft factor

2009-01-28T09:50:00.008Z

In an effort to help you enjoy your Londinium coffee in the way we envisaged we now use Volvic water for all our taste tests.

This isn't a plug for Volvic or that Volvic is better than any other water, it is simply a water with key attributes that are all 'in range' for espresso use (and there aren't many bottled waters that are) and Volvic is readily available as a result of an extensive distribution network.

We hope this standardisation removes one more variable from your espresso equation.

As a reminder; 8g of coffee per shot, grind fine, tamp light, and target an extraction time of around 22s. We could also add water temp measured at the group head of 92C.

If you think espresso beans should be jet black....

2009-01-27T17:37:00.004Z

....then you probably won't like Londinium Espresso

We believe that coffee should be all about the 'terrior', similar to wine.

The concept of terroir developed through centuries of French wine making based on observation of what made wines from different regions, vineyards, or even different sections of the same vineyard so different from each other. The French began to crystallise the concept of terroir as a way of describing the unique aspects of a place that influences and shapes the wine made from it.

Long before the French, the wine making regions of the ancient world already developed a concept of different regions having the potential to create very different and distinct wines, even from the same grapes. The Ancient Greeks would stamp amphorae with the seal of the region they came from and soon different regions established reputations based on the quality of their wines.

If you only roast coffee just enough to caramelise the sucrose in the bean, which off sets the natural acidity in the bean, it is possible to preserve the natural characteristics of the bean that reflect the terroir of the coffee and produce a excellent, albeit unique, espresso

As far as we can tell the practice of roasting the beans very dark is associated with using inferior beans whose unique characteristics are not particularly desirable and therefore you seek to minimise their presence in the cup by roasting the daylights out of the bean. The only exception is decaffeinated coffee where the green beans have already been turned a very dark brown colour by the decaffeination process, and end up being very dark after roasting.

While it is true that many coffees are not particularly suitable for use as single origin espresso, many others are. With single origin espresso there is nowhere for the roaster to hide. The margin for error is much smaller, as it can not be masked by subsequent blending. The demand on the roaster for accuracy and precision is much greater. As is the need for good, clean, green coffee, with low defect rates and well graded to ensure all the beans are of a similar size. Otherwise the small beans end up burnt and the large beans end up under cooked and a poor cup of coffee results (a classic case of two wrongs not making a right)

How to make Turkish coffee

2009-01-25T02:17:00.002Z

The Turkish coffee maker, called "cezve", "jezve", "briki", "mbiki", "toorka" or "ibrik", has a wide bottom, a narrow neck, and a long handle. The traditional copper or brass design is preferred. It works best to use a pot to its full capacity, so you may want to own several sizes.

How to make Turkish Coffee
Ingredients:Start by adding to the ibrik 1 tsp of powder-grind coffee and 1 tsp of sugar (traditional but optional) to every 2 oz of water (assuming you will be using 2 oz servings). Add an extra oz of water to the mixture. The combined ingredients should fit just below the neck of the pot.

Brewing: Traditionally, and for the best taste, expect the brewing process to take 10-15 minutes. Slowly bring the mixture to a frothing boil on the stovetop. As the froth gets close to the top, just before it boils over, remove the Cezve from the fire, allow the froth to go down. Serve the froth in equal portions into each cup, then serve.

Serving:Fill each cup a bit at a time repeatedly, so that all cups have an even amount. Advise your guests to allow about a minute for the coffee grounds to settle to the bottom of the cup before gently sipping. Don't drinking the grounds. The result can be a magnificent beverage.

i also remember reading a different variant whereby the water is boiled off, then topped up & boiled off again, then topped up a third time and poured once up to temperature. Comments welcome on the most 'authentic' method

The best water for your espresso machine

2009-01-01T20:39:00.037Z

We have been researching the impact of different bottled waters on (i) the taste of coffee, and (ii) its impact on espresso machines.

We discovered that like many things in life it is a trade-off between the two objectives, i.e. the kind of water you need for great coffee is at odds with the kind you need to ensure no limescale forms in your espresso machine.

Using a water with the lowest 'dry residue' value (expressed in mg/L) you can find will indeed ensure you never see scale in your machine, but unfortunately it will also make your coffee taste overly 'bright' and 'harsh'.

It is complicated by the fact that the bottled waters on the market tend to fall into one of two extremes; mineral waters with very high TDS values, and typically very hard, and the 'arctic' waters with very low TDS values, very low alkalinity and typically a pH of less than 7 (i.e. acidic).

The key parameters and their target values are:

pH = 7.0

Total dissolved solids(TDS), often stated as 'dry residue@180C' = 120-130 mg/L

Hardness = 70-80 mg/L

Alkalinity = 50mg/L

You will soon find yourself saying; "great, most helpful, but I can not find all of these values on the side of the bottle".

This will always be the case for the 'Hardness' and 'Alkalinity' values as they need to be derived and we will show you how to do that below, can frequently be the case for 'pH', and is sometimes the case for the 'dry residue' value. If necessary visit the manufacturer's website, or drop them an email asking for the data.

The next step is to understand why these values are important to coffee preparation

pH
A value from 1 (strong acid) to 14 (strong alkali), with a value of 7 being 'neutral'. It is not a linear scale, but a logarithmic one, like the Richter scale for seismic activity, so even small movements away from the neutral value of 7 quickly become quite acidic or alkali.

Alkaline water can result in dull, chalky, flat coffee. Acidic water creates bright, imbalanced coffee. You want to use water that is 'neutral' for the preparation of coffee.

TDS
As the name implies it measures the solids dissolved in the water. If too many solids are already dissolved in the water it becomes a weaker solvent and will not extract enough solubles from your coffee. Coffee made with water that has a very high TDS value will taste dull and cloudy. Conversely, water with a very low TDS value produces coffee with edgy, unrefined flavours and exaggerated brightness as the water is a very strong solvent.

Hardness
The formation of limescale in your espresso machine is primarily due to the presence of calcium and magnesium ions in the water, measured as 'hardness'. For this reason it is possible to have a high TDS value, combined with a low 'hardness' value, and limescale will not readily form in your espresso machine.

Hard water does not result in a poor cup of coffee, but it will scale your boiler quickly. Water with a hardness above 90mg/L will always be reduced to a hardness of about 90mg/L as any hardness above this value precipitates out upon boiling and deposits on the inside of your boiler.

Alkalinity
Alkalinity measures a solution's ability to buffer an acid, or its ability to resist becoming more acidic.

It is important to understand that it is quite different to 'alkaline' which is a solution with a pH between 7.01 and 14.

Water with high alkalinity neutralises coffee acids, resulting in less acidic coffee. If alkalinity is too low the coffee will be overly bright and acidic.

How to calculate the alkalinity and hardness values
Bottled waters typically disclose their minerals as mg/L or ppm, rather than mg/L CaCO3 equivalents.

To calculate the alkalinity, multiply the bicarbonate mg/L value stated on the bottle by 0.82.

To calculate the hardness, multiply the calcium mg/L value stated on the bottle by 2.5, and the magnesium mg/L value stated on the bottle by 4.2, then add the two resultants together.

Note: boiler corrosion
Acidic water with low alkalinity can potentially cause corrosion in the boiler of your espresso machine.

Worked example:
Brand: Volvic
pH: 7.0
Dry residue @ 180C: 130mg/L
Chlorides: 13.5mg/L
Calcium: 11.5mg/L
Nitrates: 6.3mg/L
Magnesium: 8.0mg/L
Sulphates: 8.1mg/L
Sodium: 11.6mg/L
Bicarbonates: 71.0mg/L
Potassium: 6.2mg/L
Silica: 31.7mg/L

So, pH = 7, good
TDS/dry residue = 130, good
Hardness = (Calcium x 2.5) + (Magnesium x 4.2) = (11.5 x 2.5) + (8.0 x 4.2) = 28.75 + 33.60 = 62.35, about right
Alkalinity = (Bicarbonate x 0.82) = (71.0 x 0.82) = 58.22, about right

Finding a bottled water that is suitable is surprisingly difficult, as detailed in the table below;

PLEASE click on the above table to enlarge it, so that it becomes legible

I trust this blog has assisted you in your pursuit for espresso nirvana and the protection of your espresso machine.

If you have any questions please get in touch & we will do our best to find the answer for you.

Biscuits 'key' to clinching business deals

2009-01-01T15:50:00.001Z

source:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7432092.stm

Can this really help firms do business?

About four out of five UK businesses believe the type of biscuit they serve to potential clients could clinch the deal or make it crumble, a survey says.
The outcome of a meeting could be influenced by the range and quality of biscuits, according to 1,000 business professionals quizzed by Holiday Inn.
The chocolate digestive was deemed to make the best impression followed by shortbread and Hob Nobs.
Lawyers were most impressed by good boardroom biccies, the survey added.

Dunking Do-Nots
Jammie Dodgers and Bourbons were also among the biscuit types thought to help sweet-talk customers.
However crumbly biscuits are a big no-no in the meeting environment, the questionnaire found, with 30% frowning on a regular digestive in the work environment.
And when it comes to helping yourself to biscuits from a communal plate, the most acceptable number to take is two, the research concluded.
However more than half of respondents looked down on dunking biscuits in tea or coffee during a meeting.
A survey released last year, which quizzed 7,000 people, suggested that the custard cream is the nation's favourite biscuit.

We would love to see the results of a survey that compared the outcomes of business meetings that served instant coffee versus freshly brewed gourmet coffee or gourmet espresso based drinks. We expect the results would be just as dramatic. Make your first impression a profitable one with Londinium Espresso in 2009.

Happy New Year!

2008-12-31T15:58:00.000Z

A short note to wish everyone (not just our customers, but also our suppliers, contractors, friends and associates) who has supported Londinium Espresso in 2008 a very happy New Year & thank you again for your contribution in 2008.

We have made a lot of new friends in 2008 and now have a strong network to help us significantly expand the business in 2009. We look forward to working with you in 2009 to make it a lot less grim than the experts tell us it will be. At Londinium we firmly believe that you make your own luck; blaming the Government doesn't get you very far.

Get 2009 off to a clean crisp start tomorrow morning with a cup of Londinium. Make it your New Year's resolution to dump the milk & come over to the dark side! Milk simply suppresses the gag reflex when you drink low grade, stale, poorly roasted, coffee! Ok, it's hyperbole, but you get the idea. Without milk inferior coffee has no where to hide, it really is that simple. It might take 6 weeks to get used to, but after that you will never turn back, and if you are currently a member of the latte/frappuccino with extra cream & caramel club you can look forward to significantly reducing your calorie intake at the same time.

By the feel of things outside it is shaping up to be the coldest New Year's in London in the last ten years, so wrap up & enjoy it!

Ciao,

Reiss.

Wake up and smell the coffee – tea is for morons, by Jeremy Clarkson

2008-11-03T23:36:00.000Z

From The Sunday Times
November 2, 2008

Jeremy Clarkson
I quite understand why people choose to be communists or Australians or tattooed. I may not share your opinions, but I know why you have them and I would fight for you to be able to express them in public.

Obviously not to the death, though. There’s no way I am going to die so that a green person can climb up a chimney and write “Gordon” on it, for instance.

However, while I understand why people want to drive an electric car or cut the Queen’s head off, and even why some people decide to emigrate to Spain, I do not understand why people continue to drink tea.

Recent figures show tea consumption is shrinking, especially among young people, yet Britain is still by far the largest consumer in the world per capita, with each person in the land drinking, on average, four cups a day. This is baffling.

I quite like a cup at around 5pm because this is “tea time”, but the figures suggest that many people are drinking it at “coffee time” as well. Some, since there is such a thing as “breakfast tea”, must also be drinking it first thing in the morning. This is as mad as starting the day with a prawn cocktail – and it all has to stop.

First of all, asking for tea in someone’s house is extremely antisocial because, if you take it with milk and sugar, this is a complicated, four-ingredient request. It’s exactly the same as being offered a biscuit and saying, “Ooh, thanks, but actually I’d prefer a Sunday roast.”

Seriously. That means meat, potatoes and two veg. And there is no difference between this and tea, milk, sugar and boiled water. In fact, it’s worse, because your host will have to find a teapot that hasn’t been used since their wedding day and is at the back of a cupboard behind the equally dusty fondue set.

In fact, the only thing I hate more than people asking for tea is people who ask for a gin and tonic. Why can’t you just have a beer like everyone else? Because now I’ve got to hunt down not just the gin and the tonic, but also the lemon and some ice.

At least with coffee most people have a machine that can deliver a refreshing and invigorating brew at the touch of a button.

Furthermore, coffee drinkers, being more travelled and therefore intelligent, will take it in the European style. Black with nothing added.

Of course, you may say that coffee causes your teeth to go brown and your heart to explode. But tea, if we’re honest, is as healthy as sucking on the pointy end of a machinegun.

Eight per cent of a tea leaf is toxic, around 25% is irrelevant, 2% is nutritious caffeine and most of the rest is acids, arsenic, chlorophyll, salts and tannins – which are useful only if you want to give your stomach lining the texture of a horse’s saddle.

If I were to use the model dreamt up by environmentalists when discussing climate change, I could very easily argue that tea will cause you to lose control of your limbs and that you will have to spend the rest of your life in a wheelchair. Which could happen, for all I know.

Herbal varieties, however, are even more dangerous because if you come round to my house and ask for peppermint tea I will punch you in the mouth. Herbal tea is for nonces. At best, it is pointless. At worst, it is an affected piece of Hyacinth Bucket snobbery designed for the sort of people who spend half an hour deciding whether the wine they’ve been given is all right.

And chai tea? Have you tried that? Well, don’t – because you can achieve exactly the same effect, for a lot less, by drinking your own urine.

Of course, I dare say that some of you at this point are wondering why I am writing about tea in these troubled times. And thinking that, surely, with Peter Mantelpiece back on the front line and the financial markets in disarray, there are more important things to worry about.

Not so. Because when you stop and think about it, how many French or Italian banks have gone bust? And while we wobble, Spain’s Santander bank is stalking the globe like one of the country’s gigantic trawlers, sucking up the broken minnows.

This is because they are all coffee drinkers. They wake up, have an espresso; then, invigorated, they go to work quite literally full of beans.

We, on the other hand, expect to be able to operate on a stomach full of wet leaves. Tea, in actual fact, caused our banking crisis.

And before you point out that America is in a mess and they drink coffee, I should explain that they don’t. They put half a granule in a Styrofoam bucket and call it coffee.

But it’s not. It’s just a cup of warm water, and you can’t operate on that either.

The most popular tea in Britain is the sort favoured by workmen. They like it because it takes an age to make and is far too hot to drink when it’s ready. It is, in short, nothing more than an excuse for not doing any actual work.

That’s why it was so popular with empire-builders. They needed something time-consuming to fill the long, yawning hours. For the same reason, they played endless games of cricket.

Today, tea drinkers are clinging onto a way of life that’s gone. Tea break. Tea time. Tea clippers. It’s got to stop.

Tea should be viewed in the same way as we view coal. Something from the past. Something that is no longer relevant. Something for those who see the world in monochrome, through the eyes of Terry and June.

In an espresso MTV world, tea no longer has any place.

Fine olive oil in New Zealand

2008-10-29T11:50:00.000Z

Why an article on olive oil on a coffee blog I hear you ask? Fair enough, and you might be right, but I have a broad interest in delving into the nuances of things that not so long ago were regarded as commodities; uniform, homogeneous, undifferentiated & price takers in the market place. For hundreds of years now wine has been evaluated in fine detail, then much more recently coffee, and now it seems, olive oil. I found this article interesting, in particular the concerns about the integrity of labeling standards for olive oil & wonder if we should have similar concerns regarding coffee. Enjoy...or ignore!

I found this article on page 28 of the Oct/Nov 2008 edition of the NZInspired magazine & it is reproduced here with their permission.

Could Kiwi extra virgin olive oil be the new sauvignon blanc? Paul Holmes, the well-known New Zealand television and radio broadcaster – and award-winning olive oil producer – certainly thinks so.

Let me tell you straight up why you should be very careful when you buy European ‘extra virgin’ olive oils. Because they might not be extra virgin, that’s why. In fact, they probably won’t be anything near extra virgin. Most likely, they will be processed, manufactured, washed and full of solvents. The truth is, unless you know exactly where the oil comes from and you are sure of the supply chain, or you have seen old Senor Salvatore himself squeeze the oil out of the olives and put it in a bottle, you can count on nothing.

Such is the looseness and corruption of olive oil production and distribution in the principal European olive oil countries of Spain, Italy and Greece.

New Zealand olive oil, however, trades on its freshness, quality and integrity. And we are now making plenty of it, too. The country’s oldest commercial plantings are in their second decade (see Olives in New Zealand fact box, page 30) and between ten to fifteen years ago there was a mass planting of olive trees around New Zealand as growers began to realise the same climate and soils that were starting to produce such excellent wines could do the same for extra virgin olive oil.

And so it has proved: Nelson’s Moutere Grove extra virgin olive oil was named one of the best 200 oils in the world by the prestigious German hospitality magazine Der Feinschmecker and it also won International Olive Oil Awards in 2001, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, and 2008; Suprema a Situ, an oil produced by the Wellington City Council on, of all places, Mt. Victoria, won a gold medal at the prestigious Los Angeles County Fair in 2005 (of New Zealand’s 26 extra virgin olive oil entries, nine were awarded gold medals and 11 received silver medals); and my own Paul Holmes extra virgin olive oil has won gold and silver medals nationally.

Like so much of the produce that is grown in our fresh air, extraordinary sunlight and young soils, New Zealand’s olive oils are rich in character, very fruity and peppery. In fact, they’re so good you can even drink them: based on strong scientific evidence that is recognised by the American Food and Drug Administration, extra virgin olive oil producers may soon be able to alert consumers to the fact that downing a few tablespoons a day can do your heart a world of good.

With a new understanding of the benefits a Mediterranean diet affords, New Zealand stands to profit greatly from an explosion in the use of olive oil around the world. And extra virgin olive oil, with its powerful antioxidants, its ability to discourage cholesterol, its apparent benefits to the heart (especially following bypasses) and its absence of bad fats is now rated as the best of the bunch.

Unlike some large-scale European producers, the olive oils that New Zealand companies export are genuine extra virgin, the best and most natural form of olive oil (see box below for an explanation of the different kinds of oils available). And controls on the claims that are written on the labels – such as printing the pressing date – are very strict.

Olives New Zealand, an industry body that aims to enhance production and emphasise quality, says the country’s effective border controls have prevented the arrival of major deleterious olive diseases and producers of premium quality olive oil aimed at niche markets are able to trade off and profit from the country’s clean, green image. Also, significantly, New Zealand’s new season extra virgin olive oils are available on the market when the northern hemisphere product is six months old.

It is possible to grow olives in most regions of New Zealand. Currently, the main producing areas are Northland, Waiheke Island, Hawke’s Bay, Wairarapa, Kapiti, Nelson, Marlborough and Canterbury, but there are also smaller numbers of growers in the Waikato, Bay of Plenty, Gisborne and Central Otago. Hawke’s Bay, where I produce extra virgin olive oil amongst the sunny hills south of Hastings at Mana Lodge, produces some 50 percent of New Zealand’s olive oil.

To some, these Kiwi oils are thought to be a little lively to the palate, but according to Rosemari Delegat, of Delegat Wines, one of New Zealand’s largest family-owned and family-managed
winemakers, this was the very problem the New Zealand wine industry faced back in the early nineties when it was trying to establish its sauvignon blancs. Too fruity, everyone said. And, when compared to the wines from France, it must have seemed so. Yet it was just a matter of time and persistence before the New Zealand taste was not only accepted but valued greatly. And the way things are going – and growing – our olive oil industry could be similarly lucrative.

At present, the United States imports around 300 million litres of olive oil a year, most of it from Europe, an increase of more than 70 percent in the last five years. And the subsidised European producers are rubbing their hands with glee. But how much of the oil they send is going to be extra virgin?

Frankly, it’s difficult to know. In August, a New York Times examination of the olive oil invasion from Europe reported a study of 30 olive oils labelled ‘virgin’ that were tested last year by the Food and Drug Administration. Only 18 were labelled correctly. The falsely labelled oils contained a blend of pressed and refined olive oils, instead of only pressed oils, and five bottles labelled ‘virgin’ contained no olive oil at all. So, just under half were crooked.

Olive oil consumption is also soaring in the UK, up 30 percent since 2001. But the British buyer is at the mercy of the racketeers as well. In Italy, back in March, police arrested 23 people and confiscated 85 farms when they uncovered a gang using low-grade oils from all over the Mediterranean and passing them off as the finest Italian product. This gives us an idea of the potential scale of the fraud there. Put a flash label on it and who knows what it is? Some old canola, perhaps, from round the back of a shed in Libya?

Blame the lack of regulatory muscle and those wicked old subsidies for making the rort so tempting. The Italian Farmers’ Union reckons half of the Italian oil sold within Italy alone is either adulterated or not Italian at all. But the Europeans, who produce more than 80 percent of the world’s olive oil, are a very powerful bloc and are able to a great extent resist controls from EU headquarters in Brussels on what goes both into a bottle and onto it.

Sure, the bottle will look smart, the labelling attractive and sophisticated, yet time and again in New Zealand and, as I found recently on a trip to Shanghai, which is being flooded with cheap European olive oil, the Tuscan or Spanish ‘extra virgin olive oil’ is of shockingly low quality.
It is not just flat, inferior oil. In most cases it is stale and rancid and it sits on the tongue like old fat. Good, fresh, extra virgin olive oil does not behave like that. Our best New Zealand extra virgin olive oils dance round the palate, full of life.

My own extra virgin olive oil is now exported to the UK, the US and to parts of Asia, where awareness of the product is growing. It’s also doing very well in Ireland and is used by at least one Michelin-starred chef in Dublin. And one thing you can be sure of, it is fresh, clean, natural, untouched and made with pride.

New Zealand producers are relatively small and new on the scene, so we have to be the best. We do not do corruption. We do not play silly games. We respect extra virgin olive oil, one of the most ancient, historic, most loved and beneficial of foods – and now one of New Zealand’s most promising agricultural export industries.

Paul Holmes Extra Virgin Olive Oil is currently seeking an active distribution partner in the UK. For more information check www.paulholmes.co.nz or email rachaelspeedy@paulholmes.co.nz

THE EXTRA VIRGIN DIFFERENCE
For olive oil to be considered extra virgin it has to be cold pressed, meaning that the pressing takes place at room temperature, with no heat or chemicals used in the extraction of the oil. The olives are crushed and the oil goes straight into the tanks where it rests for a couple of months to settle before bottling. It is declared extra virgin if, when tested, it has a fatty acid content of less than 0.8 percent. Almost all the olive oil produced in New Zealand is extra virgin.
Virgin oils are still produced by pressing or centrifugation and without heat or chemicals to assist in their extraction, but they are the oils that haven’t quite made the premium grade.

The rest of them are not worth touching. ‘100 percent olive oil’, ‘Pure olive oil’, ‘Genuine olive oil’, or ‘Lite olive oil’ are all highly processed oils where the fruit is crushed again and again at very hot temperatures and chemicals, including solvents, are used to flush the last of the oil from the pulp. Some of the oil is so ruthlessly extracted that it needs dye before it is bottled. And ‘Lite olive oil’ is a deception. It simply means the bottle is light on olive oil. Avoid labels that say ‘Packed in Italy’ or ‘Packed in Spain’, as they tell you nothing about where the oil is from, how old it is, when it was pressed, how it was made or whether it is even olive oil at all.

OLIVES IN NEW ZEALAND
It’s a surprise to many, New Zealanders included, to learn there is evidence of olive trees growing in New Zealand as early as 1830. However, it was another 150 years before a commercial olive industry was established. Charles Darwin documented the existence of olives in New Zealand when he visited the northern-most region of the country in 1835. And between 1860 and 1880, two prominent early settlers, Logan Campbell and Sir George Grey, independently attempted to establish an olive industry. Logan Campbell imported 5000 olive seedlings from South Australia but the venture only lasted a few years before it was abandoned, apparently because the yield and flavour of the oil did not match the Italian oils he was familiar with. Sir George Grey’s efforts to produce olive oil also failed but there are no records to tell us why.

In 1877, a report entitled The Report on Olive Culture was presented to the government of the day, emphasising the potential for olive growing in New Zealand. The report was ignored, possibly because of the experiences of Grey and Campbell. It wasn’t until 1960 that olive trees were imported and cuttings also taken from old, well-established trees and planted in trial blocks. Reports said olives should not be grown for oil production, but for fruit for pickling.
In 1971 eight olive trees were donated by the Cretan people in remembrance of New Zealand soldiers. These trees were distributed around the country and those propagated from one particular Cretan tree named Kala produced fruit more suitable for table olives. In 1986, Israeli-born Gidon Blumenfeld retired with his wife to Marlborough and set about developing an olive industry in New Zealand. By 1990, The Olive Grove and nursery were well established and received orders for trees from all around New Zealand. By the mid 1990s, the industry experienced a boom, particularly in Marlborough, the region noted for producing sauvignon blanc. Two specialist associations, The New Zealand Olive Association (now renamed as Olives New Zealand) and Oliveti, were formed to undertake research and provide networking opportunities. And it is only relatively recently the emphasis has changed to the production of high quality extra virgin olive oil. (Source: Olives New Zealand)

Busting up a Starbucks, Mike Doughty

2008-10-27T14:49:00.000Z

I found this track on Last.fm this morning; a bit of a laugh to get the week started

It is also available for download at iTunes i see

Let us know what you think

Have a good week

Reiss.

Credit crunch coffee...the new Londinium starter pack

2008-10-20T20:20:00.000+01:00

This is our latest solution to a problem that has vexed us since 2004 when we began!

PROBLEM: How to introduce newcomers to gourmet coffee at an acceptable price point, while not violating one of our founding principles, which is not to sell ground coffee as we believe it to be a fraud.

Ground coffee a fraud? How? Well coffee beans begin to stale appreciably just 30 minutes after grinding. Buy that exclusive Jamaican Blue Mountain pre-ground, but it simply isnt fresh and you are going to be drastically disappointed & join the ranks of the disaffected who sniff that gourmet coffee isnt worth the price it commands. It is, but only if you get it absolutely fresh. This is the assurance that Londinium Espresso gives you; fresh, 100% true to label, and a consistent roast every time.

None of our offerings to date have been at a price point that inspired the merely curious to enter the world of fine coffee

Our starter pack will now comprise a blade grinder, a Swissgold filter & a bag of great Londinium coffee for just £29.95, including postage & packaging

Yes we know it is a blade grinder and therefore not suitable for espresso, and yes they are inferior to burr grinders, but after years of experimenting and agonising how to introduce instant coffee drinkers to real coffee we think this is the best solution & vastly superior to selling ground coffee & kidding you that it will be fresh (other roasters simply accept that most people in the UK dont own a grinder & succumb to selling ground coffee as it enlarges their target market exponentially).

The Swissgold filter doesn't make espresso, but it produces a first class cup of coffee & indeed many of the world's most exclusive coffees should be drunk as filter coffee as the rigours of the espresso process will ruin them

We feel it is particularly relevant in these challenging economic times and think at this price point it makes an ideal Christmas gift & makes the world of gourmet coffee accessible to a much wider audience.

If you have any questions, please contact us via email or telephone or simply push the Skype button on the 'Contact us' page of the website

Honduras revisited

2008-10-15T00:41:00.000+01:00

As you will see on our website, we have revisited the manner in which we roast our Honduran coffee. As a result we think it serves as a first class light & creamy espresso. If you like a heavy thumping espresso, then this isnt for you. It is just one step up from our soft as silk Mexican roast.

New £2 postage rate for single bag purchases

2008-10-13T21:58:00.000+01:00

This week we have added a £2 postage rate for single 250g purchases

Previously we had a single £4 rate covering up to five 250g bags

We hope this will lower the barrier for anyone contemplating trying Londinium Espresso for the first time

If you have any other questions or suggestions do let let us know; we strive to be as responsive as possible to our customers' requests

Guidelines for getting the best out of your Londinium coffee

2008-10-12T19:09:00.000+01:00

We deliberately haven't called them instructions as we don't know what equipment you might be using, your level of experience, or indeed how you like your coffee to taste, so they we have used the somewhat more flexible term; 'guidelines'.

To those customers who have been forced to contact us in desperation please accept our apologies as we have been lax in not publishing any guidelines before now

Feel free to experiment, or indeed ignore completely if you aren't new to the espresso game.

For example, some Antipodean baristas will be found grinding more coarsely and using all manner of brute force on the tamp to jam in as much as 23g of coffee in a double basket. This is equally valid, just a different style.

Oh, and while we are on the subject of dose weights, if you are wondering why the coffee tastes so grim at your local cafe one of the reasons is likely to be low dose weight. It is not uncommon in for cafes lacking a specific interest in coffee to wind the shot dose down to 5.5 or even 5.0g per shot. This basically results in too much being taken from the coffee (another form of over-extraction if you like), and unsurprisingly their commitment to thrift results in you struggling to finish another disgusting espresso that is burnt and bitter.

1. We suggest 8g of ground coffee for a single shot and 16g for a double shot. These weights are important so verify with fine scales

2. One shot is approx 30ml, two shots 60ml. These volumes are important so calibrate your coffee cup(s) with measuring spoons or similar

3. You need a good burr grinder for espresso (i.e. not a blade grinder)

4. You want an extraction time of 22 to 25 seconds. If you are outside of this range we suggest that you keep the pressure on the tamp constant and only vary the setting of your grinder (finer if your extraction times are less than 22s and coarser if your extraction times are greater than 25s)

5. As an aside, we prefer to grind fine & tamp lightly, as opposed to grinding coarsely and tamping heavy

6. Once you have achieved (1) & (2) above you should find yourself with a deep (at least 3mm) crema with fine bubbles (only visible across strong light) and a lovely golden colour

7. A whitish crema indicates under-extraction, and extraction times less than 20s. The espresso will be watery, the crema thin and lacking density

8. A brown crema indicates over-extraction, and extraction times over 30s. The espresso will be very unpleasant to taste, and will often have a light white spot on the brown crema that appears right at the end of the extraction

9. Note that a variation in atmospheric conditions will necessitate making very fine adjustments to your grinder throughout the day

Let us know if you are still having trouble!

Great coffee at home in the credit crunch

2008-08-12T00:08:00.000+01:00

The vast majority of coffee drinkers assume that great coffee means an espresso machine, which means considerable expense, which means they can not have great coffee at home or at work. The assumption is that you must go to a cafe to enjoy great coffee.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

Great coffee demands great coffee beans, but not necessarily great expense.

All you need is:

1. A coffee grinder (it need not cost more than about £50)

2. Freshly roasted coffee beans from a gourmet coffee roaster.

3. A permanent Swissgold filter that you can throw in the dishwasher and reuse (£10 for a single cup filter or £14 for one that fits into your drip filter machine)

That's it!

So in these economically challenging times you can enjoy great coffee for an initial outlay of around £60-£70, and then enjoy coffee at around £0.30 a cup. If you sign up for the Londinium Subscription you will save a further 20% on the coffee and we pay the postage!

We think that makes sound economic sense in these challenging times.

British Red Cross London Christmas Fair

2008-08-11T18:25:00.000+01:00

We have purchased a stand at the 2008 British Red Cross London Christmas Fair

We are advised that tickets are now available for purchase from the British Red Cross here

It will be held at the same venue as last year, namely;

Kensington Town Hall, Horton Street, London, W8 7NX

This is an opportunity to do all your Christmas shopping under one roof & assist a worthy cause at the same time.

Preview Night: Wednesday 26th November 5:30pm – 9:00pm opened by guest speaker (TBC) Tickets £20 (advance purchase only), includes wine and canapes.

Public Day: Thursday 27th November 10.00am - 4.30pm Tickets £5 on the door (£3 in advance), children free.

The 2008 London Christmas Fair will be the 14th event of its kind and the committee hopes to raise over £35,000 in support of the British Red Cross's vital humanitarian work. This year’s stalls will offer an eclectic mix of merchandise, from funky young designer bags and belts to kichenware, pashminas to pearls, delicious food and drink to exciting Fair Trade goods.

The British Red Cross helps people in crisis, whoever and wherever they are. They are part of a global voluntary network, responding to conflicts, natural disasters and individual emergencies.

They enable vulnerable people in the UK and abroad to prepare for and withstand emergencies in their own communities. When the crisis is over, they help them to recover and move on with their lives.

We will be donating 10% of all sales revenue taken at this event to the British Red Cross, so we look forward to meeting you there

We will take a machine & grinder along to allow you to sample our coffee, however the main focus will be the sale of bags of coffee beans. It will also be an opportunity to see the Olympia espresso machines & grinder in action if you are contemplating buying one

Please accept our apologies for mentioning C*******s in early August!

To learn more of the activities of the British Red Cross, click here

Transparency & blending

2008-07-25T08:33:00.000+01:00

This is a word we have borrowed from the corporate world. Commonly used when the news is unlikely to be good but no one really wants to talk about it, as in "there is a lack of transparency over the robustness of the economy for Q4 08".

We think the blending of coffee beans also suffers from a lack of transparency. The accepted wisdom is the divine knowledge of the roaster will produce a blend that results in the perfectly balanced cup of coffee.

Blending also offers the roaster the opportunity to create a little bit of 'intellectual property' if you like. The composition of the blend is not usually declared, and therefore if the consumer responds well to the blend the roaster has a product that is difficult for his competitors to replicate. Fair enough.

The most humourous occasion when the virtues of blending were extolled was in a London restaurant where the waiter tried to convince us that some 30 different beans went into the particular blend of coffee that they served. We are happy to admit that it was very good coffee, but we doubt that anything like 30 different beans had made their way into the blend.

In our experience it is fairly difficult to detect the presence of a bean when it is less than about 10% of a blend. If you assume that the 30 different types of beans were not present in equal proportions, then some of the beans must have been present in concentrations of less than 3%. The presence of any bean at the 3% level or less would not be detectable in the mouth, so it seems highly unlikely that you would bother with anything like 30 beans in a blend.

Anyway, the point of the story is to illustrate the lack of transparency that cloaks the blending of coffee.

But there is a second reason why we have an issue with blending:

Assume you have been told exactly what beans make up a blend, and in what proportions.

Different beans are of different densities. This means that any blend of whole beans is going to settle out or stratify fairly quickly, i.e. when you tip the beans into the hopper of your grinder they will mostly be the beans with the lowest density. This means that unless you ground the entire bag in one hit, then stirred up the resulting ground coffee, that coffee you tasted would differ from what the blender had intended you to taste.

All a bit pedantic I hear you shout?

Well, perhaps, but I think it illustrates why we are skeptical about blending.

Our suggestion is that you buy single origin beans and blend yourself, if you want to go down that path. In this way you have the ability to control the proportions of the blend exactly. For example, weigh 5g of beans A & B, 10g of bean C, and 15g of bean D.

In this way you have complete transparency of knowing what you are paying for, and the ability to replicate your results exactly, time after time, when you strike upon a blend that you particularly enjoy.

New in: Rwandan bourbon - fair trade certified

2008-07-22T02:21:00.000+01:00

New in today, as we continue our search for new & interesting espresso flavours. Hope to start test roasting today (Tues 22 July). A bourbon coffee from Rwanda - how cool is that? Very eager to taste this one!

New in: El Salvadorian Pacamara - rainforest alliance certified

2008-07-22T02:19:00.000+01:00

New in today, as we continue our journey of discovery for new & interesting espresso flavours. Hope to start test roasting today (Tues 22 July).

New in: Brazilian pulped natural

2008-07-22T02:16:00.000+01:00

New in today, as we continue our journey for new & interesting espresso flavours. Hope to start test roasting today (Tues 22 July).

Fri 25 July: we like this for its smoothness & low acidity. if we were to offer a criticism, perhaps it is a little bland for some tastes. nonetheless, it will have a broad spectrum appeal because the is nothing in the taste profile to polarise opinions. a 'safe' bet, if you will.

Has anyone used one of these crazy things?

2008-07-22T00:46:00.000+01:00

http://www.williams-sonoma.com/products/sku5279260/index.cfm?pkey=celtnew

Hey its late at night & we stumbled across this new coffee making contraption

It appears to be the classic Italian moka pot with some added functionality which allows it to froth your milk for a cappuccino at the same time

Sure, it's not in line with our 'come over to the dark side' philosophy, but we enjoyed watching the video, nonetheless

Has anyone out there used one & have any comments to post on it?

Gimmick or groundbreaking?

Finally we have our porcelain Ancap cups

2008-07-03T00:43:00.000+01:00

Having couriered many samples between Milan & London, and many more telephone conversations, we finally took delivery of our classic Italian 'thick wall' coffee cups from Ancap today.

Available in espresso (60ml), cappuccino/tea (200ml) & large cappuccino (350ml) sizes. These Ancap cups have a high quality deep glaze, with no pitting in the glaze where the handle joins the base of the cup. Compare the quality with the cheaper offerings more readily available and we think you will be quite surprised.

Sold in boxed sets of 6, complete with saucers.

Londinium Espresso now selling the world's finest domestic grinder & espresso machine from Olympia Express, Switzerland. Estb 1928.

2008-06-26T12:50:00.000+01:00

Londinium Espresso are proud to announce that we have found a machine and grinder that accurately reflects the Londinium philosophy; artisan methods of manufacture coupled with an obsession for quality and that all but lost ingredient in today's modern age; 'feel'.

What do we mean by 'feel'? Well, the Olympia Cremina lever machine allows you to 'feel' very easily the hot water being forced through the ground coffee, including any channels that the water might find in the coffee (not a good look, but great to be able to detect if this is occurring during the espresso process), allowing it an easier path through the coffee and evidenced by a drop in resistance against the palm of your hand.

First class thermal stability in the group head is assured with a lot of chromed marine grade bronze, and a tiny footprint to assure it a place in the kitchens of London. Oh, and did we mention, no noisy irritating electric pump?

A high quality lever machine extracts a lot of subtle nuances from the coffee that an electric pump machine will not. If you have a coffee that is only 'so-so' then an electric pump machine is a good thing as the additional extraction that a lever machine brings tends to be unpleasant. However, with LondiniumEspresso it brings out a whole new layer of taste that was previously hidden in the cup.

The moment you take this machine from the box it becomes apparent what you have paid for. It is the perfect antidote to the throw-away consumerism ethos that defines our modern world. Many, many Olympia machines that are 30-40 years old are still in active service today, requiring only seal replacements every 3 or 4 years. Use bottled water with a dry residue value of less than 5omg/L and you should never need to descale your machine.

Note: These machines demand a first class grinder in order to function correctly, i.e. Mazzer/equivalent grade and above. Why is this? Well you grind very fine with these machines and tamp very lightly - danced on by pixies by way of metaphor - none of this fashionable 35psi to 50psi malarkey with a tamp weighing a couple of hundred grams!

Olympia Express - radically different since inception, just like Londinium Espresso.

Espresso cherry trifle

2008-06-20T18:52:00.000+01:00

We would recommend our Brazilian yellow bourbon coffee for this recipe. Try it!

Photography by Ben Dearnley

Espresso cherry trifle

Cooking Time

5 minutes

Ingredients (serves 4)

2 tablespoons marsala (see note)
2 tablespoons caster sugar
1/2 cup strong espresso coffee, cooled slightly
4 mini jam sponge rolls, cut into 5mm-thick slices
50g good-quality dark chocolate, grated
1/2 cup thick vanilla custard
425g can black pitted
cherries, drained

Method

Combine marsala, sugar and coffee in a jug. Stir until sugar dissolves.
Divide the sponge slices between four 400ml-capacity whisky glasses. Reserve 1 tablespoon of the coffee mixture. Drizzle remaining coffee mixture over the sponge slices.
Top with half the chocolate, and all the custard and cherries. Drizzle with the reserved coffee mixture. Sprinkle with the remaining chocolate and serve.

Notes & tips

Marsala is a fortified Italian wine available from liquor stores. You could use dry sherry, Tia Maria liqueur, Kahlua liqueur or brandy instead.

Source

Super Food Ideas - September 2007 , Page 79

Recipe by Annette Forrest

An overview of different decaffeination processes from Wikipedia

2008-06-19T22:08:00.000+01:00

Swiss water process

The Swiss Water Process is a method of decaffeinating coffee beans that was developed by the Swiss Water Decaffeinated Coffee Company. To decaffeinate the coffee bean by the Swiss Water method, a batch of green (unroasted) beans is soaked in hot water, releasing caffeine. This process is done until all the caffeine and coffee solids are released into the water. These beans are then discarded. Next, the water passes through a carbon filter which traps the caffeine molecules but allows the water and the coffee solids to pass through. The caffeine-free water which comes through, known as "flavor-charged" water by the company, is then put in a similar filtration device, and new coffee beans are added. However, since the flavor-charged water cannot remove any of the coffee solids from the new beans, only the caffeine is released. The process repeats, filtering out all the caffeine until the beans are 99.9% caffeine free. These beans are removed and dried, and thus retain most if not all of their flavour and smell.

Direct method

In the direct method the coffee beans are first steamed for 30 minutes and then repeatedly rinsed with either methylene chloride or ethyl acetate for about 10 hours. The solvent is then drained away and the beans steamed for an additional 10 hours to remove any residual solvent. Sometimes coffees which are decaffeinated using ethyl acetate are referred to as naturally processed because ethyl acetate can be derived from various fruits or vegetables. However, for the purpose of decaffeination, it is not generally possible to create such a large quantity of ethyl acetate, thus the chemical is synthetically derived.

Indirect method

In the indirect method beans are first soaked in hot water for several hours, essentially making a strong pot of coffee. Then the beans are removed and either methylene chloride or ethyl acetate is used to extract the caffeine from the water—as in other methods, the caffeine can then be separated from the organic solvent by simple evaporation. The same water is recycled through this two-step process with new batches of beans. An equilibrium is reached after several cycles, where the water and the beans have a similar composition except for the caffeine. After this point, the caffeine is the only material removed from the beans, so no coffee strength or other flavorings are lost. Because water is used in the initial phase of this process, sometimes indirect method decaffeination is referred to as "water processed" even though chemicals are used.

CO₂/O₂ process

This process is technically known as supercritical fluid extraction. With the CO₂ process, pre-steamed beans are soaked in a liquid bath of carbon dioxide at 73 to 300 atmospheres. After a thorough soaking, the pressure is reduced allowing the CO₂ to evaporate, or the pressurized CO₂ is run through either water or charcoal filters to remove the caffeine. The carbon dioxide is then used on another batch of beans.^[3] This same process can also be done with oxygen (O₂). These liquids work better than water because they are kept in supercritical state near the transition from liquid to gas so that they have the high diffusion of gas and the high density of a liquid. This process has the advantage that it avoids the use of potentially toxic solvents.

Triglyceride process

Green coffee beans are soaked in a hot water/coffee solution to draw the caffeine to the surface of the beans. Next, the beans are transferred to another container and immersed in coffee oils that were obtained from spent coffee grounds.

After several hours of high temperatures, the triglycerides in the oils remove the caffeine - but not the flavor elements - from the beans. The beans are separated from the oils and dried. The caffeine is removed from the oils, which are reused to decaffeinate another batch of beans. This is a direct contact method of decaffeination.

Costa Rican SWP decaf now in stock

2008-06-18T22:30:00.000+01:00

Yes, we took delivery of this premium Swiss water process decaffeinated coffee today. Tomorrow we hope to run test roasts to profile this coffee. We will also try & post some more information on the Swiss water process of decaffeination and how it differs from CO2 (carbon dioxide) and MC (methyl chloride) decaffeination processes so you can appreciate the differences.

Swiss water process decaf - costa rica - due in this week

2008-06-15T04:05:00.000+01:00

In response to customer requests, this week we expect to receive our Swiss water process decaffeinated coffee from Costa Rica. As soon as it arrives we will add it to our product collection for you.

Mail order coffee

2008-05-28T21:53:00.000+01:00

Why choose Londinium Espresso for your coffee beans? Well, as a mail order coffee roaster the only opportunity we have to influence your opinion of us is through our product. We have no elaborate shop where the aromas of the world's exotic coffees waft paste your nose as they are ground, no ornate brass ware to measure your beans out in front of your eyes, no attractive sales staff to make you feel as though you will join the social elite if you buy our product. You see, we very much stand or fall on the opinion you form about our product in the privacy of your own home or workplace, uninfluenced by what the 'expert' in the shop might be suggesting that you should be able to detect in the roast. And so, there is no room for us to employ puffery or indeed any other claim that is not going to measure up when you first taste our product. Londinium - you be the judge.

Coffee problems?

2008-05-21T19:45:00.000+01:00

Call us & we'll do our best to help you solve it. We're passionate about coffee & that means helping you enjoy a great cup everyday.

The finest cup of coffee you have had from your equipment or your money back

2008-05-20T23:20:00.000+01:00

Today's blog merely underlines how serious we are about great coffee. Our promise is that our coffee will give you a better cup of coffee out of your equipment than anyone else's. Fullstop. Otherwise you get your money back. This isn't mere puffery. If we didn't believe this was the case we never would have started Londinium Espresso as we wouldn't have had a unique selling point. We are incredibly fussy about the beans choose to stock, buying a single bag to test, before ordering a larger quantity. The household brands in coffee have a finished product cost that is considerably less than the price we pay for our raw green beans. The only thing our products have in common with theirs is the name. In all other respects they are entirely different. Then we take a lot of care with the roasting process, much of which we have custom built oursselves, as we could not find satisfactory solutions in the market place. Finally we carefully inspect the roasted beans to remove as many defective beans as possible. People who just want a cup hot, bitter-burnt liquid will not see the point in paying a premium for our products. People who would like to discover what coffee tastes like just might. So if you are looking to differentiate your independant cafe from the high street chain cafes, are a business who understands the impression that fine coffee creates with your clients, or a connoisieur purchasing for your private consumption, please try Londinium with confidence. We will be more than happy to return your money in full, in the unlikely event that we do not meet or exceed your expectations. We have travelled the world extensively prior to establishing Londinium Espresso, and are confident that we are purveying some of the finest coffee in the world to our discerning customers.

Summer's here ... time for the Londinium affogato!

2008-05-11T21:14:00.000+01:00

You simply won't believe how good this is on the hot afternoons that are forecast to continue all this week. If you can make a great espresso, you can make a great affogato. Take a cappuccino or similar sized cup & place a very generous scoop of fresh creamy vanilla ice-cream (the full cream Devon ice cream is ideal). Then grind your favourite Londinium Espresso coffee, place the cappuccino cup with the ice cream under the group head of your espresso machine, and draw two shots of espresso over the ice cream. Then leave for 2 minutes before eating so the espresso softens the ice cream & the ice cream chills the espresso. Enjoy! We bet you won't be able to resist a second one. They are the ultimate summer treat.

The Londinium Espresso cup is on the way

2008-05-02T01:45:00.000+01:00

Today we received from Italy our sample cups. We will be placing an order next week, so look out for them on our website in the not-too-distant future. Espresso just isn't espresso without the proper thick walled porcelain cup. Yes, there are numerous cheap, thin-walled versions available that we think are simply a corruption. Also have a look at the glaze where the handle is joined to the body of the cup - cheap cups will almost always exhibit pitting in the glaze in this area where air bubbles have formed when the cup has been fired in the kiln. We think these will also make a great gift for the coffee connoisseur in your life. They will also be available in cappuccino and latte sizes, as shown in the photograph.

how much ground coffee should i use in the Swissgold (one cup) filter?

2008-04-25T15:55:00.000+01:00

you might like your coffee strong, but please trust me on this; if you take the finest coffee in the world & make it too strong the delicate, unique flavours that you have gone to so much trouble to acquire will disappear & it will taste like a heavy caramel concoction.

so if you are looking for a starting point, and perhaps it is slightly on the weak side but at least it is an unambiguous measure, i would suggest 3 level desert spoons of freshly ground coffee beans with the isomac grinder set to position 6 (i.e. with the '6' at the front of the grinder) for a cup that will hold 250mL of water.

obviously a finer grind means you need less coffee & vice-versa for a coarser grind.

hope this helps. if you are having trouble, please call & we'll try & sort it out over the phone

reiss.

Demystifying how to prepare a great espresso

2008-04-23T18:26:00.000+01:00

One of my goals in this blog is to de-bunk a few myths about coffee in general, and espresso in particular.

So we can keep this blog entry focused, let's assume you already have a suitable grinder & machine & coffee.

What now?

Firstly, unless you have some magic machine that I haven't had the opportunity of using yet, dump the first espresso out of the machine, whether it is the first cup when switching on or if the machine has been sitting unused for an hour or more (again just a guideline)

The golden rule I want to establish in this blog is 'the crema tells you everything'.

The crema on an espresso will tell you whether it is fit to drink without placing the cup anywhere near your lips.

The crema should be light golden colour. I recognise that it is slightly difficult to describe in words & publishing photos leads to chaos as everyone's screen shows colours slightly differently, but the following guide lines will at least get you into the 'zone' of espresso satisfaction, well on your way to nirvana.

Perhaps the easier way to describe the colour of the crema is what it shouldn't be.

Think of all the possible colours that the crema can adopt as a spectrum, ranging from whitish through the light golden colour already mention then on to the chocolate tones.

This colour spectrum is the espresso's built-in instrument panel telling you where in the range your espresso lies, all the way from chronically under-extracted (very light whitish tones) to chronically over-extracted (very dark chocolate tones). All you have to do is learn to read it by paying it a little more attention.

Once again, I am reluctant to dish out absolutes as my experience suggest that people's taste vary a little, but the key thing is to take note of the appearance of the crema before you taste the espresso, then taste it. If you like it, pause & take another good look at the remaining crema & commit it to memory. This is your target for next time.

Before we dive into under & over extracting, and what to do about it, lets talk about keeping the 'tail' out of your coffee. What's the tail I hear you ask?

The tail is just a word I have assigned to the light coloured splodge that will corrupt an otherwise perfectly drawn espresso right at the end. It will also be foamy/bubbly, unlike the extremely fine bubbles of the crema up to that point.

OK, great I hear you say, 'I have seen that bubbly white splodge on my otherwise perfect crema' but what can I do about it?

Well if you observe the stream of coffee as it flows from the bottom of the porta-filter you should see that it flows in a fairly continuous shape and then at some point just before the end of the extraction the stream will quaver or change shape. At this precise moment you need to quickly & carefully remove your cup out of the stream (by the time you have turned the button off it will be too late & the tail will still end up in your cup!)

But be careful - don't stick your eye so close to the machine that you are at risk of hot coffee spurting into your eye. Similarly when you deftly move the coffee out from under the stream do so in a smooth manner, not violently or you will most likely end up with hot coffee on your hand.

So, back to under & over extracting.

ANY WHITISH colour tones in your crema & you are under-extracting. What to do about it? Well, if you are only slightly off try tamping the coffee into the porta-filter with a little more vigour, or possibly place a little more coffee into the porta-filter. If this isn't enough, then set your grinder to a finer setting & try again. Yes, its trial & error, but not the rocket science that some would want you to believe.

ANY CHOCOLATE colour tones in your crema means it is over-extracted. What to do about it? The opposite of under-extraction. Possibly you have put in too much coffee, although you will usually be aware of this as you will struggle to get the porta-filter to locate onto the machine. More likely you have packed the coffee in with too much vigour. This is the most common scenario when you change to a Londinium coffee for the first time, as the coffee is so much fresher than most other coffee that there is a lot more oil still present in the bean which helps the grinds to stick together, unlike a stale coffee where the oils have long since departed and you are trying to force dry grinds to stick together. Failing that you might have to back your grinder off so it grinds slightly coarser.

...time is up for the moment, but those simple rules should get you well on your way to coffee nirvana.

reiss.

A profile of Galapagos coffee

2008-04-23T17:57:00.000+01:00

Trolling around the internet I found this informative profile on Galapagos coffee published by the Ecuadorian Ministry of Agriculture, which might be of interest if you are considering placing an order for our first shipment of this fabulous coffee. In stock now.

http://www.sica.gov.ec/ingles/cadenas/cafe/docs/gourmet.htm

Recycle your coffee grounds

2008-04-11T11:25:00.000+01:00

Spread your used coffee grounds over planted areas to provide nutrition to the soil & believe it or not, keep bugs away in an environmentally responsible way.

Daily caffeine 'protects brain'

2008-04-08T20:54:00.000+01:00

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/fr/-/1/hi/health/7326839.stm

click the Skype button to talk to us

2008-03-25T20:23:00.000Z

if you would appreciate speaking with a real person to address your coffee dilemma click on the 'Contact us' page of our website & then click on the Skype button.

fast. free. personable.

even if it says 'I'm offline' there's still a good chance someone will answer. if not, please leave a detailed message & we will return your call as soon as possible.

londiniumespresso... gold coffee. gold service.

fresher than fortnums!

2008-03-23T17:14:00.000Z

Go on, take the Londinium challenge! Buy some Jamaican Blue Mountain (JBM) at Fortnum & Mason and compare it with ours. If ours doesn't come out on top we will refund you in full. Notice the foaming when the hot water hits the grounds? That is a key indicator of freshness. In our view JBM isn't really at its best when prepared by the espresso process, but we have clients who beg to differ so we have optimised the roast so it performs as well as can be expected in the espresso process. If you want to experience JBM at its best prepare it with one of our Swissgold filters & sit back to enjoy what is the most perfectly balanced coffee in the world.

I was somewhat disappointed with JBM when I first tried it as I expected it to taste completely different to any other coffee. Then I realised that isn't what JBM is all about. Sure there are coffees that are more acidic, sweeter, fuller bodied, and so on. What makes JBM famous is the encapsulation of a perfect balance of all those elements and more, in a single origin. If you consider it in this light I think you will be very impressed.

Swissgold KF4 filter

2008-03-21T22:38:00.000Z

The KF4 Swissgold filter, which is designed to replace the paper filter in automatic drip coffee machines, is now in stock. Transform the quality of the coffee that you serve to your clients by acquiring one of these affordable permanent filters (no more frantic trips to the shop just before that important meeting to get some more paper filters! - we've all been there). Remember though that even a Swissgold filter will not cause delicious coffee to flow from a dirty machine!

Easter with Londinium Espresso

2008-03-19T12:15:00.000Z

It is not too late to order some Londinium coffee to enjoy with your Easter eggs & hot cross buns over the weekend.

Tired of 'consumer grade' junk? Invest in some heavy machinery.

2008-03-17T21:13:00.000Z

We have had our Olympia Cremina 2002 espresso machine since January 2005 & have nothing but praise to heap upon it. Yes, it takes a while to master the manual lever machine, but the rewards when they come, will compensate you ten-fold. The funny thing is these machines are priced at about the same level as other 'top-end' domestic machines. The difference is the Olympia machines have been built since 1928 and they haven't succumb to the desires of the cost accountants to strip every ounce of quality out so they just last till the end of the warranty period. On no, not these babies. They represent one of the few remaining products on the planet that are still made the way they were 80 years ago when they started. Don't just take our word for it; if you scan the web you will find people who have Olympia espresso machines that are still in active service after 30 years or more of regular use, save for replacing the seals every 3 years or so, which all machines demand. And with a manual lever machine there is no electric pump to replace, and no unpleasant noise that all vibrating electric pumps create. Furthermore the machine is very compact, which is critical in most London kitchens where space is at a premium. Use a bottled water with a low dry residue value, and you can look forward to never having to descale your machines - we have never had to in 3 years & there is no trace of limescale on the machine. Finally you will find that the Olympia machines extract subtle nuances from the coffee that few other machines will ever achieve. Yes, the price is high, but we still consider these machines represent value for money. Buy once, buy right. Made in Switzerland near the Italian border & built from heavy chromed bronze & stainless steel & machine screws. If you are considering purchasing one of these machines and have questions, feel free to give us a call.

New at Londinium Espresso this week!

2008-03-16T22:32:00.000Z

This week we launch Londinium 'five stars', the 5 bag selection of 5 different coffees at a 20% discount. We have also repositioned our starter pack at £50, rather than £100, by swapping out the Isomac grinder for a Krups grinder making the world of fine coffee more accessible than ever before. If you have any coffee questions, please ask.

Single estate - Rainha Farm Brazilian Yellow Bourbon in stock now

2008-03-14T12:06:00.000Z

Londinium Espresso is pleased to announce the arrival of another exclusive single estate coffee into stock this morning, Brazilian Yellow Bourbon from Rainha Farm estate. It is no secret that we have been disappointed by many Brazilian coffees in the past, so we have gone for the best. The good news is this coffee produces a rich chocolate toned Swissgold filter cup which we were impressed with. But the biggest surprise was yet to come. We made an espresso and we found it stunning. We are currently of the view that it might usurp the No.15 roast as our premier espresso roast - what next! The No.15 still holds its crown as the smoothest & creamiest espresso, but this yellow bourbon will appeal to those who like their espresso to have more weight in the cup, a fuller flavour, whilst not displaying low levels of acidity. We expect this coffee to be a Londinium favourite for a long time.

Java Blawan Estate in stock now

2008-03-14T11:40:00.000Z

Londinium Espresso are pleased to announce that they have received their awaited shipment of single estate coffee (Blawan), from the island of Java. We took a guess as to how dark we should roast this legendary coffee & I'm ashamed to say we blew it. Burnt notes were detectable. Arrgh! We have roasted a fresh batch today which we will rest overnight & try tomorrow, or perhaps Sunday. We have high expectations for this famous, classic coffee.

Jamaican Blue Mountain No.1 Flamstead Estate in stock now

2008-03-14T09:37:00.000Z

Jamaican Blue Mountain No.1 (the highest grade), from the Flamstead Estate has just been booked into stock. Order yours while stocks last.

Entry level grinder: Krups GVX2-12 burr grinder

2008-03-04T11:01:00.000Z

If you are contemplating the move to buying whole beans, but do not wish to spend too much on a grinder then the Krups GVX2 might be exactly what you are looking for. No, it is not suitable for espresso as it will not grind the coffee to a uniform size, which will become more noticeable as the burrs wear and become blunt. The container that holds the ground coffee is also susceptible to static charge which will cause the coffee grinds to stick to it. From time to time the beans will also fail to drop down into the grinder, causing it to spin freely at very high speed. But if you do not need to make espresso, and say team it with the Swissgold filter you will still be able to enjoy exquisite Londinium coffee for a very modest outlay. This grinder is sold at John Lewis for £40 last time we checked, and is also available online at Amazon & elsewhere at even lower prices.

Cupping - the correct adjectives to describe what you taste and smell in the cup

2008-02-11T19:49:00.000Z

This list needs to be refined, but it provides us with a starting point. What is important in cupping coffee is that the accepted adjectives are used. I am not sure I agree with all of the comments that follow each adjective, but we can edit those in due course. For example, there are various characteristics listed below that are said not to be 'undesirable', yet I personally detest them in my coffee. As long as you use the accepted adjectives, I think whether or not a certain characteristic is 'desirable' is highly subjective, and largely a matter to be determined by you, the cupper.

Aroma

Animal-like - This odour descriptor is somewhat reminiscent of the smell of animals. It is not a fragrant aroma like musk but has the characteristic odour of wet fur, sweat, leather, hides, or urine. It is not necessarily considered as a negative attribute but is generally used to describe strong notes.

Ashy - This odour descriptor is similar to that of an ashtray, the odour of smokers' fingers or the smell one gets when cleaning out a fireplace. It is not used as a negative attribute. Generally speaking this descriptor is used by the tasters to indicate the degree of roast.

Burnt/Smoky - This odour and flavour descriptor is similar to that found in burnt food. The odour is associated with smoke produced when burning wood. This descriptor is frequently used to indicate the degree of roast commonly found by tasters in dark-roasted or oven-roasted coffees.

Chemical/Medicinal - This odour descriptor is reminiscent of chemicals, medicines and the smell of hospitals. This term is used to describe coffees having aromas such as rio flavour, chemical residues or highly aromatic coffees which produce large amounts of volatiles.

Chocolate-like - This aroma descriptor is reminiscent of the aroma and flavour of cocoa powder and chocolate (including dark chocolate and milk chocolate). It is an aroma that is sometimes referred to as sweet.

Caramel - This aroma descriptor is reminiscent of the odour and flavour produced when caramelizing sugar without burning it. Tasters should be cautioned not to use this attribute to describe a burning note.

Cereal/Malty/Toastlike - This descriptor includes aromas characteristic of cereal, malt, and toast. It includes scents such as the aroma and flavour of uncooked or roasted grain (including roasted corn, barley or wheat), malt extract and the aroma and flavour of freshly baked bread and freshly made toast. This descriptor has a common denominator, a grain-type aroma. The aromas in this descriptor were grouped together since tasters used these terms interchangeably when evaluating standards of each one.

Earthy - The characteristic odour of fresh, wet soil or humus. Sometimes associated with moulds and reminiscent of raw potato flavour, a common flavournote in coffees from Asia.

Floral - This aroma descriptor is similar to the fragrance of flowers. It is associated with the slight scent of different types of flowers including honeysuckle, jasmine, dandelion and nettles. It is mainly found when an intense fruity or green aroma is perceived but rarely found having a high intensity by itself.

Fruity/Citrus - This aroma is reminiscent of the odour and taste of fruit. The natural aroma of berries is highly associated with this attribute. The perception of high acidity in some coffees is correlated with the citrus characteristic. Tasters should be cautioned not to use this attribute to describe the aroma of unripe or overripe fruit.

Grassy/Green/Herbal - This aroma descriptor includes three terms which are associated with odours reminiscent of a freshly mowed lawn, fresh green grass or herbs, green foliage, green beans or unripe fruit.

Nutty - This aroma is reminiscent of the odour and flavour of fresh nuts (distinct from rancid nuts) and not of bitter almonds.

Rancid/Rotten - This aroma descriptor includes two terms which are associated with odours reminiscent of rancidification and oxidation of several products. Rancid as the main indicator of fat oxidation mainly refers to rancid nuts and rotten is used as an indicator of deteriorated vegetables or non-oily products. Tasters should be cautioned not to apply these descriptors to coffees that have strong notes but no signs of deterioration.

Rubber-like - This odour descriptor is characteristic of the smell of hot tyres, rubber bands and rubber stoppers. It is not considered a negative attribute but has a characteristic strong note highly recognisable in some coffees.

Spicy - This aroma descriptor is typical of the odour of sweet spices such as cloves, cinnamon and allspice. Tasters are cautioned not to use this term to describe the aroma of savoury spices such as pepper, oregano and Indian spices.

Tobacco - This aroma descriptor is reminiscent of the odour and taste of tobacco but should not be used for burnt tobacco.

Winey - This terms is used to describe the combined sensation of smell, taste and mouthfeel experiences when drinking wine. It is generally perceived when a strong acidic or fruity note is found. Tasters should be cautioned not to apply this term to a sour or fermented flavour.

Woody - This aroma descriptor is reminiscent of the smell of dry wood, an oak barrel, dead wood or cardboard paper.

Taste

Acidity - A basic taste characterised by the solution of an organic acid. A desirable sharp and pleasing taste particularly strong with certain origins as opposed to an over-fermented sour taste.

Bitterness - A primary taste characterised by the solution of caffeine, quinine and certain other alkaloids. This taste is considered desirable up to a certain level and is affected by the degree of roast brewing procedures.

Sweetness - This is a basic taste descriptor characterised by solutions of sucrose or fructose which are commonly associated with sweet aroma descriptors such as fruity, chocolate and caramel. It is generally used for describing coffees which are free from off-flavours.

Saltiness - A primary taste characterised by a solution of sodium chloride or other salts.

Sourness - This basic taste descriptor refers to an excessively sharp, biting and unpleasant flavour (such as vinegar or acetic acid). It is sometimes associated with the aroma of fermented coffee. Tasters should be cautious not to confuse this term with acidity which is generally considered a pleasant and desirable taste in coffee.

Mouthfeel

Body - This attribute descriptor is used to describe the physical properties of the beverage. A strong but pleasant full mouthfeel characteristic as opposed to being thin.
To an amateur coffee taster, body can be compared to drinking milk. A heavy body is comparable to whole milk while a light body can be comparable to skim milk.
Astringency - The astringent attribute is characteristic of an after-taste sensation consistent with a dry feeling in the mouth, undesirable in coffee.

Valentine's Day at Londinium Espresso

2008-02-07T19:11:00.001Z

Ever had a Valentine's Day that left you burnt & bitter? Well this year be prepared with Londinium Espresso. If the day goes well you can relax, safe in the knowledge that 'inviting them back for coffee' isn't going to disappoint. It will mark you as an individual at the cutting edge of couture coffee. And if things don't go as well as you'd planned, you've got the finest coffee in the land all to yourself. Have some on hand to cover either eventuality!

Coming soon: long term review of the Olympia Cremina 2002

2008-02-02T12:57:00.000Z

we've had ours for 3 years, with nothing but good things to say (once we learnt how to use it!). built like Stonehenge (to last). no electric pump to replace. largely unchanged since 1928. voted best espresso machine by the New York Times (from memory) a few years back. the price is high, but you do get what you pay for. new electric pump model now onsale - lets hear from you if you have one of these.

Friday's tip

2008-02-01T18:28:00.001Z

Well , you can dismiss this suggestion with a 'yes he would say that wouldn't he', but in my experience it is worth dumping the first espresso that you draw from your machine.

This applies whether it is the first shot when you turn it on, or if the machine has been sitting idle for some time. Try it, I think you might be surprised at the results, particularly if you are only drawing off one for yourself, then you will always be having the first one out, and most likely disappointed with the results.

thought for the day...

2008-02-01T14:28:00.000Z

in life, you get what you pay for...if you're lucky!

At Londinium Espresso the focus is on quality at a fair price. There is an ocean of poor quality coffee, freely available on every corner. There is some expensive coffee out there that is not true to label, or more often does not taste true to label because it is stale.

Why would anyone buy pre-ground Hawaiian Kona or Jamaican Blue Mountain? It's pre-ground; that means its stale before it leaves the store.

Why would anyone buy these coffees as a blend, particularly if the proportions are not disclosed - how much of the premium coffee are you actually receiving for your money? The delicate flavours of the premium coffee are swamped by the presence of an inferior coffee. What a waste of money.

All this leaves you bitterly disappointed when you expose it to the only opinion that really counts; yours. And possibly embarrassed if you have served it to your friends.

We don't think it's a contradiction to say we offer premium coffee beans that represent excellent value for your money. That's why we have the Londinium Guarantee. If it isn't the smoothest cup of espresso you've had, send it back for a prompt refund from ourselves.

At Londinium Espresso you get what you have paid for: premium coffee that meets or exceeds your expectations.

If you would like a particular coffee that doesn't currently appear on our website, get in touch & we will promptly acquire it & roast it fresh for you.

in life, you get what you pay for...if you're lucky!

the Londinium advantage

2008-02-01T00:08:00.000Z

At Londinium Espresso we have spent some time designing a custom shaped bag that the postman can fit through your letterbox. So what I hear you ask, 'how does that help me?' Well, it means you can be at work getting on with your life and when you return home, instead of having a nice little 'sorry we missed you' card from the courier, you will have a gleaming gold coffee ingot from Londinium Espresso. You see, we are always thinking about little ways that we can make it easy for you to access great coffee. I you have a coffee related question, call us or email, and we'll try and find an answer.

Send us a coffee question

2008-01-31T18:13:00.000Z

...and we'll post the answer on this blog. if you have a new machine and are disappointed with the results, start by weighing your coffee. 7 grams for a single shot, 14 grams for a double. Sure, you don't need to do this once you have great coffee cascading from your espresso machine, but if you have tried everything else, it is worth going back to first principles. If you can not get that weight of coffee into your porta-filter, and tamped down say 3mm below the top of the porta-filter, then your grind is top coarse, and vice-versa if the measured amount drops in with space to spare. It sounds fanatical, but you will have to make adjustments for extreme weather conditions, particularly for changes in humidity and also as the coffee ages. For example, when you use Londinium Espresso you will most likely find you need to back the grind off (i.e. make it more coarse) initially. If you have it lying around for a while, just tweak the grind one increment finer. Remember to wait for any coffee that was ground at the earlier setting to pass through the grinder, before making it finer again if necessary. Hope this helps. Reiss.

How long does coffee keep fresh?

2008-01-31T01:24:00.000Z

While coffee is like wine, in that you can have a lifetime of enjoyment familiarising yourself with different styles from around the world, coffee does not improve with age. You need to start thinking of coffee in the same way as you do fruit, which it is. Fresh is best. Ground coffee begins to stale after 30 minutes. For whole beans that are exposed to air, for example sitting in the hopper of your grinder, you will notice a drop off in the fabulous crema after 10 days. Sure, it will still be miles ahead of 99% of the coffee on the market, but none the less expect to notice the decline around the 10 day mark. This is significant to any espresso enthusiast as it impacts crema production, and as a result many of the subtle exotic elements of the coffee's unique taste signature begin to disappear. And how long do our beans keep in the bag before a similar drop off is observed? Well, as you go beyond 5 weeks after the roast date (clearly stamped on all our bags) you will start to notice a drop off. Granted, it will still be miles fresher than 99% of all the coffee on the market, but that isn't what you or us are here for. We are both in pursuit of espresso excellence. For this reason we only sell 250g bags to our residential customers, and reserve the 1000g bags for our commercial customers who will consume it before any drop off in freshness occurs. By the way, our coffee doesn't stale any faster or slower than anyone else's, so next time you see a 'Best Before' date of 12 months into the future, I am you'll be thinking the same thing as us...Sure, it won't make you sick, but espresso is hardly an exercise in survival is it? It is the hedonistic pursuit of the 'ultimate cup'.

The Londinium Glossary - Part IV

2008-01-29T23:32:00.000Z

Grind size: the degree of fineness to which the coffee beans are ground. Grind size varies from extremely fine (powder) for Turkish coffee, to coarse for plunger coffee and vacuum coffee makers. The method by which you make your coffee determines how fine a grind you should use. The key components are, the method, the coffee, the weather (in particular humidity), and tamp pressure. If you find yourself using excessive tamp pressure, yet you are grinding fairly fine, the is most likely nothing wrong with your machine. It is you coffee that is letting you down. Try a bag of Londinium Espresso and be astounded at the difference. You will not have to grind as fine, which means your grinder will last longer, and you will not have to exert much pressure with the tamp. Life is easy with Londinium Espresso.

Intensity: the term used to describe the degree of a coffee's impact on the palate. For example, Robustas are regarded as high intensity.

Maragogype: the 'elephant' bean. A variety of arabica bean almost double the normal size. Often superior in quality & priced accordingly.

Milds: a term often used when referring to washed arabica beans.

Mocha: the name designating coffee from Ethiopia and Yemen, originally shipped from the port of Mocha. Before the commencement of coffee growing in Asia and the Americas, the word 'mocha' was often used to refer to black coffee, and I believe it still is in Austria.

Pacamara: an excellent hybrid arabica bean combining Maragogype and Paca varieties and grown primarily in El Salvador.

Porcelain: the ideal material for coffee cups as it is a good insulator and does not taint the coffee.

Qishr: the Yemeni term for a brew made of dried and lightly roasted coffee cherries that have had the beans removed.

Robusta (Coffea canephora): one of the two major species of coffee, the other being arabica. Robusta accounts for 25% of all coffee consumed worldwide. Robusta beans are stronger than arabica, and much less subtle. They may be bitter, and generally have a higher caffeine content. Note: the best robustas are better than the worst of the arabicas.

Tamp: usually a flat faced metal instrument, often solid to give it some weight, used in the hand to compact the ground coffee into the porta-filter. It is a critical step in the production of espresso. If the pressure exerted is too light, air pockets will be left between some of the grinds and the water will quickly channel through these pockets as they represent the 'path of least resistance' through the coffee. It will result in underextraction, characterised by little or no crema, and any crema will be very pale in colour. If the pressure is too great it is possible that no water at all will make its way into the cup. In less extreme situations the water will eventually makes its way into the cup but the crema will be a chocolate colour, possibly with a light stain on the crema at the very end of the extraction. Both under and over extracted espresso is very unpleasant to drink, even if you have great coffee. Personally, with Londinium Espresso on board, and a moderately fine grind size, you should not be exerting much pressure with the tamp at all. I lightly tip the ground coffee into the porta-filter so it is raised up in a pyramid shape, then I lightly sweep the tamp straight across the top of the porta-filter to level it off, then I am looking to depress the level of the coffee by probably only 3mm, so it just has enough room to lock into the holder on the espresso machine. You will hear/read of people advising about 30, 50, even 70lbs of pressure. In my view this can only be the case if their grind is far too coarse, or the coffee is stale. You should only ever exert light pressure on the tamp with Londinium Espresso.

The Londinium Glossary - Part III

2008-01-29T22:56:00.000Z

Viennese coffee: black coffee topped with a little whipped cream. served in a glass.

Espresso: from the Italian 'to put under pressure'. Prepared with at least 14 bar of pressure in the now famous espresso machine. May use either a manual lever to force the hot water through the ground coffee or an electric pump (either vibrating or rotary). The resulting beverage has a thick texture and should have a deep luxurious crema if the beans are fresh. Correctly prepared, espresso should be mellow and sweet. With Londinium Espresso it does not have to be burnt and bitter. Surprisingly, the espresso method results in coffee with a slightly lower caffeine content than other methods as the water is in contact with the coffee for a much shorter period of time. A single shot of espresso is usually made with 7 grams of finely ground coffee, and is served in a small but extremely thick walled china cup. The thickness of the cup wall effects the 'mouth feel' of the espresso. Espresso served in a full sized coffee cup will not be enjoyable, largely because the crema will dissipate quickly over a larger surface area, and it is in this emulsion that all the delicate elements of the espresso's flavour are trapped.

Caffe corretto: espresso spiked with spirits, usually grappa. As you might expect, it has a kick like mule.

Caffe macchiato: (Italian for 'spotted') espresso with a few drops of milk added

Caffe mocha/Bicerin: 1 part espresso, 1 part hot chocolate, 1 part steamed milk, added in that order.

Doppio: double espresso (2 shots). Standard issue at Londinium Espresso - a single shot really isn't enough!

Espresso con panna: espresso with a small teaspoon of whipped cream

Espresso ristretto: (Italian for 'cut off') usually made by loading enough ground coffee for a double shot, but only drawing through the volume of water that you would for a single shot. So, an espresso of twice the concentration. Only for the brave.

Marocchino: a caffe macchiato topped with a pinch of cocoa.

Granita di caffe: coffee poured over shaved ice and frequently topped with whipped cream (i.e. con panna)

The Londinium Glossary - Part II

2008-01-29T22:28:00.001Z

Irish coffee: A marvelous Irish invention. Brewed coffee spiked with whisky & topped with cold whipped cream. Ideally, the coffee should be sipped through the cream and not mixed into it.

Monsooned coffee: In India green coffee beans are purposely exposed to the monsoon winds for several weeks, a process which moistens the beans and develops a distinctive flavour that in former times characterised beans after a long sea journey from India to Europe.

Dry-Processed: coffee beans dried in the sun, with little rinsing or sorting. Typically results in a poorly graded coffee, as a result of the impurities that remain mixed up with the beans. Dry-processed coffee beans are sometimes referred to as 'naturals'.

Green coffee beans: Fresh coffee beans that have been wet or dry processed, graded, and are ready to be roasted.

Organic coffee beans: coffee beans grown without chemical fertilisers or pesticides. Consumers should be aware that many small growers do not use chemicals anyway, simply because they can not afford them, but their product may not carry organic certification. This is particularly true for coffee grown at high altitudes where few insects or bugs may be present and therefore chemicals not really necessary, combined with very inaccessible terrain making it difficult for chemicals to be transported to the plantation, and of course poverty.

Washed coffee beans: wet-processed coffee beans, which are repeatedly rinsed and sorted. Because of this, washed beans are superior in quality to dry-processed beans.

Vacuum coffee maker: water is placed in a glass globe. A second glass globe is inserted into the top of the first, with a rubber seal binding them together & a unique glass rod acting as the filter. Medium ground coffee is placed in the upper globe. A heat source is placed under the lower glass globe. As the water in the lower glass globe expands it is forced into the upper globe. When all the water in the lower globe has been forced into the upper globe, the heat source is removed. The lower globe then cools, creating a lower pressure in the lower globe, than in the top globe, and so the coffee is sucked back down into the lower globe. The most famous and spectacular of these is the original one, being the Cona, from England.

Crema: the foam that gathers on the surface of a good espresso, being an emulsion of the essential oils contained in the coffee. For any given roast, the fresher it is, the more crema you will see on your espresso. It really is that simple. The crema should not be too pale in colour, nor should it be even close to approaching a chocolate colour. The colour of varnished pine is approximately the colour you should be targeting, or possibly a shade darker. The bubbles in the crema should be so fine that they are barely visible across the light.

Londinium Espresso: bespoke coffee roasters

2008-01-29T01:09:00.000Z

Londinium: the best in bespoke suits. Londinium Espresso: the best in bespoke coffee. The smoothest espresso you have ever drunk, or your money back. If you are ready for bespoke, you are ready for Londinium Espresso. If you want a particular coffee...just ask! We are bespoke, remember?

Prospective customers

2008-01-27T00:19:00.000Z

If you are currently buying your coffee beans from Monmouth Coffee, Bullet, Sacred, Has Bean, The Bean Shop, Roast and Post, then you are no doubt a connoisseur of coffee.

We respect our competitors, as they are with us in the crusade against poor coffee.

However, we are the new boys in town & we are keen for your custom.

Do give us a try - I think you will find our roasts will meet or exceed your expectations, and just in case it is not to your liking we back every roast with a 'prompt 100% money back guarantee'.

We also strive to back our products up with first class service. So even if you don't need to order coffee beans today, but you have a coffee related question, do give us a call & we'll do our best to find you the solution.

Thank you for visiting

Reiss.

The Londinium Glossary - Part I

2008-01-26T13:43:00.000Z

Today's blog is the start of the Londinium glossary of coffee. The idea is to provide you with a point of reference for any terms that you may be unfamiliar with, so here goes:

Acidity: a quality highly prized by connoisseurs, and more commonly found in high altitude varieties of coffee bean. Generally, the more acidity a coffee has, the less suitable it is for a straight espresso and the more suitable it is for a filter cup coffee.

Arabica: the fruit of the Coffea arabica bush, being one of two major species of coffee (the other being Coffea canephora, or Robusta as it is more commonly known), both believed to have originated in Ethiopia. Arabica coffee accounts for approximately three quarters of global coffee consumption. It is usually superior in quality, and lower in caffeine than Robusta.

Aroma: the fragrance given off by coffee as it is prepared, and in the mouth as it is being consumed. As we are only able to detect four tastes with our tongue, the aroma of coffee is vitally important to being able to detect the subtle nuances of a fine coffee's taste signature.

Barista: the person who has been trained in the correct preparation of espresso, upon which they often develop their own specialities, such as 'latte art'.

Bean (coffee): the seed of the coffee bush, found inside the fruit (the coffee cherry). It is typically referred to as the seed when cultivated, and the bean when subsequently marketed.

Blue Mountain: possibly the most famous coffee bean of all, and one of the most expensive. It is produced in the Blue Mountains of Jamaica. The taste is subtle, with underlying chocolate notes. Should always be sold as a single origin coffee (i.e. unblended).

Body: the term used to describe the texture of the brew, the impression the texture leaves in the mouth, and the length of time that impression lingers. A full bodied coffee is thick textured and has a lingering taste in the mouth. The espresso process generally produces a coffee that is full bodied, although in my view this more a reflection of the process than the coffee beans used.

Cafe Allonge: A French term to describe diluted espresso. The Italians use 'Americano'. i.e. a full size coffee cup to which a shot/double shot of espresso is added, then topped up with hot water.

Cafe Liegeois: A French term referring to cold coffee poured over vanilla ice cream & topped with whipped cream.

Caffeine: an alkaloid stimulant contained in coffee beans. The caffeine content can vary by as much as fifty percent between arabicas and robustas. Generally speaking, caffeine is not harmful to your health unless consumed in irresponsible quantities (say 30 cups per day), you are pregnant, you have a heart condition, or you are sensitive to caffeine.

Caracoli: usually a coffee cherry will contain a seed comprising two beans. On occasions only a single bean develops, effectively a mutation. As the flavour is more concentrated in a single bean, caracoli beans are highly prized, especially those of the arabica variety.

Coffee cherry: the fruit of the coffee bush, which is round in shape and bright red in colour. The coffee beans are the seeds of the cherry, usually two, but occasionally a single bean (caracoli).

Chocolatey: the term used to describe the highly prized aroma found in the great arabicas, such as Jamaican Blue Mountain, New Guinea Sigri, and Australian Skybury.

Decaffeinated coffee: coffee from which the caffeine has been chemically removed. Approximately 78% of decaffeinated coffee utilises fairly unpleasant chemicals to do so. The only exception is the 'Swiss Water Process', which is different to the 'Water Process' which uses chemicals. The taste and aroma of coffees that have been decaffeinated is diminished, but espresso suffers the least.

Coffee is a 'health drink' says Italian

2008-01-24T16:53:00.000Z

Click here to see a recent BBC article on coffee & health

Dr Trombetti says she hates the stuff herself - but points to a welter of scientific evidence to back her case. Coffee contains tannin and antioxidants, which are good for the heart and arteries, she says. It can relieve headaches. It is good for the liver - and can help prevent cirrhosis and gallstones. And the caffeine in coffee can reduce the risk of asthma attacks - and help improve circulation within the heart.

There is no denying that coffee is not for everyone. If you drink too much it can increase nervousness, and cause rapid heartbeat and trembling hands. Pregnant women, heart patients, and anyone with a stomach ulcer are usually advised to avoid it. And even Dr Trombetti says no one should drink more than three or four cups a day.

Morning coffee is 'meal in a cup'

2008-01-24T14:22:00.000Z

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7206801.stm

Don't just take our word for it! Click on the above link to see the latest from the BBC. Caffeine isn't the issue, too many calories is. Consume less fat & eat more fresh food. Obesity-related health issues are now the number one killer in much of the developed world.

Londinium Espresso is the solution. Just add water.

A modern interpretation of the Cona

2008-01-23T22:24:00.000Z

Click here to see the Cona concept 'reinvented' in Manhattan. It looks like they have just swapped the methylated spirit burner for a halogen heat source. The rest is instantly recognisable.

The Cona

2008-01-23T01:24:00.000Z

Today's post throws the spotlight on a little known, but personal favourite of mine; the Cona coffee maker. I don't think it is hyperbole to say it is an icon of the coffee world. The vacuum coffee maker is the purists' way to enjoy coffee because the coffee only comes into contact with glass, and the water infuses with the coffee at the perfect temperature. OK, it isn't espresso I hear you scream, but I like to throw light on unique products and encourage you to try something from the time of your grandparent's youth that is still selling today. How many things can you say that about? The all glass Cona coffee maker is a work of art even when it is not in use. It is best suited to those few moments we have today when we are not under time pressure, such as serving coffee after dinner. Its detractors will say that it is fragile, slow, and the glass needs to be kept clean, all of which is true. For my money, the experience it provides outweighs the negatives. It is at the complete opposite end of the spectrum to an espresso, both in terms of the length of time it takes to make the coffee, perhaps 25 minutes, and in taste - it is a very delicate method of extraction, ideal for coffees with very subtle nuances. The legendary Cona was perfected in England way back in 1910! The Cona firm still exists in Wimbledon today. If I have whetted your appetite click on the link here: cona.co.uk (don't be put off by the slightly off-beat website, the product is a gem and the service is like the product - old fashioned, but first class). And to answer the cynics (I am one myself, after all), no I am not in anyway connected or affiliated to Cona, or any of its subsidiaries, employees, or officers, other than being the proud owner of the Cona Classic Table Model 'C'. If you know someone who loves classic cars, cameras, etc, or indeed has any appreciation for old machinery, I think this would make a superb gift.

If it's freshly roasted coffee you want...

2008-01-22T03:50:00.000Z

You've come to the right place.

We stamp the date the coffee was roasted on our all bags, not the expiry date, so you know exactly how fresh your coffee really is.

Each bag has a one-way valve to allow the gas that freshly roasted coffee gives off escape so the bag doesn't rupture, so dont be surprised if your coffee bag arrives 'inflated'.

We also use a triple wall bag to protect the coffee and ensures it arrives at your door the way you like it: fresh.

We back it all up with fast, friendly service. And if you're not completely satisfied you can return the product and receive a full refund. That's The Londinium Guarantee.

Move up to Londinium Espresso today. We guarantee you won't be disappointed.

The Limoncello Express

2008-01-22T00:29:00.000Z

1 part Londinium espresso

1 part Limoncello

Pour the Limoncello into the espresso

Garnish with a twist of lemon

Serve.

The Roaster's Reprieve

2008-01-22T00:23:00.000Z

2 parts Londinium Espresso

2 parts Kahlua

A dash of Galliano (to taste)

Place ice in cocktail shaker, add all the ingredients, shake, then pour into a Martini glass.

L2 Martini

2008-01-22T00:07:00.000Z

1 part Londinium Espresso

1 1/2 parts Vodka

1 1/2 parts Kahlua

1 part white creme de cacao

Pour ingredients into a shaker filled with ice.

Shake vigorously.

Strain into chilled Martini glasses.

The Londinium Martini

2008-01-18T02:02:00.000Z

1 1/2 shots of Londinium Espresso No.15
1 shot of Bourbon
1 shot of De Kuyper Creme de Cacao Brown
1 shot of Amarula Cream
1/2 shot of Double Cream

Shake the first 4 ingredients together with ice and strain into a chilled glass.
Carefully float the double cream in the centre of the drink.
Garnish with a dusting of cocoa powder in the centre of the drink on top of the cream.

Enjoy!

Londinium Espresso in Russia

2008-01-18T01:40:00.003Z

2 shots of Londinium Espresso No.15
1 shot of Russian Vodka
1 shot of Amarula Cream
2 teaspoons of castor sugar

Shake the Londinium Espresso No.15, Vodka, and sugar, together with cubed ice.
Strain into a tumbler style glass.
Carefully layer the Amarula on top.

Garnish with 3 Londinium Espresso beans.

Enjoy.

Your requests

2008-01-16T01:46:00.000Z

Well, here's an opportunity for us to show you that we listen. If you would like to buy a particular freshly roasted coffee from us that you can't see listed, just reply to this post & we'll accommodate the most popular requests wherever possible. Let's see what comes in!

NEW: The Londinium Subscription

2008-01-16T01:40:00.001Z

For those of you who have not had a chance to visit our website lately, today we launch The Londinium Subscription. How does it work? Well quite simple, really. We recommend you try a couple of our roasts until you find something you like. Then once you found something that appeals, sign up for The Londinium Subscription and we will post you a bag of your favourite Londinium roast every week. It really is that simple. Oh, and we'll pay the postage for you. And, you will still receive the usual 5 bags for the price of 4 deal.

A word about value

2008-01-02T02:27:00.000Z

Gosh, £5 for a bag of coffee, that's rather a lot isn't it? Well think of it this way, you should be able to make a cup of any kind of coffee with 20g or less of coffee, even allowing for wastage and those who 'like it strong'. That's at least twelve & a half cups of coffee from a 250 gram bag for £5. Less than 40p a cup. That's before we get to talk about the gulf in quality. Now compare that with the prices charged on the high-street and I think you get a better measure of value. Londinium Espresso: luxurious. healthy. unique.

Acid test

2007-12-27T21:43:00.000Z

Not sure how good the coffee in your cup really is? Well make a fresh cup & don't add milk sugar, or indeed anything. Leave it for an hour to go stone cold, then try it.

Drinking your coffee when it is completely cold will help you to identify any undesirable tastes lurking in your cup, such as burnt or bitter notes. Try it and see what you discover.

Reiss/

Xmas update

2007-12-19T23:17:00.000Z

Well we have achieved some of our objectives, but unfortunately not all, before our self imposed Christmas deadline.

You will see we have our website up, and I am pleased to tell you that we have the Swissgold (1 cup) filters in stock now, and we will also stock an entry level burr grinder before the end of January to give anyone who would like the opportunity to start buying their coffee as beans and grind as required, rather than purchasing ground coffee.

You do not need to lay out several thousand pounds on an espresso machine and grinder to expose you taste buds to first class coffee. Once you taken the first step in that direction of course, do not be surprised if you do find yourself begging for a bright & shiny espresso machine long before next Christmas!

So our first task for 2008 is to get the coffee flowing again in our enlarged premises roasts that we moved into last week.

Don't be surprised if you see my personal favourite in the line up (I will state my bias clearly right now, it is from Papua New Guinea). While not best suited to espresso, in single origin form at least, I think our PNG coffee has an unparalleled exotic richness in the cup when paired with the Swissgold filter. I would also concede that it is not to everyone's palate, but teamed with a fine Swiss chocolate with a high cocoa content it is undeniably a personal favourite.

On the topic of favourites, so many people have told me over the years how much they enjoy Brazilian coffees. Well I have heard it from too many for them all to be wrong, but I must concede that I have never had the opportunity to have a really satisfying coffee from Brazil. It is one of my goals for 2008 to hunt down & learn how to roast to perfection a coffee from Brazil.

In the meantime enjoy a safe & refreshing Christmas-New Year & we look forward to seeing you early in 2008.

Merry Xmas,

Reiss.

Coming soon...

2007-11-22T03:38:00.000Z

Christmas is just around the corner, and so is our shiny new website. When we pull the covers off you will have the finest coffee money can buy, delivered right to your door. You will also be able to post us questions about how you get the best out of your coffee equipment, whether it be a £5,000 state of the art espresso machine or the humble filter cup. Your satisfaction is our primary concern. Anyway, come back soon & we look forward to serving you with your favourite coffee in December.

Thanks for stopping by,

Reiss.

Tornados prefer Londinium Espresso

2007-11-20T00:09:00.000Z

The picture on the right was captured surreptitiously late last night at great risk to the camera man as he caught world exclusive footage of a tornado noisely slurping a freshly drawn Londinium Espresso before hissing off into the night. (p.s. we know this one is over-extracted!)

The Londinium Espresso Blog

This blog has moved

NEW! Olympia steaming jug

Visit to Olympia Express, Switzerland

fresh is best

Daterra 3 weeks after roasting

NEW in: Hawaiian Kona extra fancy

Anyone for Cuban coffee?

Trafficcafe.tv

What is Londinium Espresso all about?

Grinders: blade & burr

Bodum Antigua grinder at an amazing price

How to use a Swissgold filter

New and improved checkout facility

can coffee be too fresh?

Consider a lever espresso machine

Coffee isn't Coke

From the FT: Reaching for the Starbucks

The best coffee in town can be at your place

New in: SWP Cascadia

Send us a coffee question...

Its not all doom & gloom. It's time to deliver value for money, that's all.

Chimney sweep blends

Monty Python - Conquistador Coffee Campaign

Espresso standardisation, or reducing the witchcraft factor

If you think espresso beans should be jet black....

How to make Turkish coffee

The best water for your espresso machine

Biscuits 'key' to clinching business deals

Happy New Year!

Wake up and smell the coffee – tea is for morons, by Jeremy Clarkson

Fine olive oil in New Zealand

Busting up a Starbucks, Mike Doughty

Credit crunch coffee...the new Londinium starter pack

Honduras revisited

New £2 postage rate for single bag purchases

Guidelines for getting the best out of your Londinium coffee

Great coffee at home in the credit crunch

British Red Cross London Christmas Fair

Transparency & blending

New in: Rwandan bourbon - fair trade certified

New in: El Salvadorian Pacamara - rainforest alliance certified

New in: Brazilian pulped natural

Has anyone used one of these crazy things?

Finally we have our porcelain Ancap cups

Londinium Espresso now selling the world's finest domestic grinder & espresso machine from Olympia Express, Switzerland. Estb 1928.

Espresso cherry trifle

Espresso cherry trifle

Cooking Time

Ingredients (serves 4)

Method

Notes & tips

Source

An overview of different decaffeination processes from Wikipedia

Swiss water process

Direct method

Indirect method

CO2/O2 process

Triglyceride process

Costa Rican SWP decaf now in stock

Swiss water process decaf - costa rica - due in this week

Mail order coffee

Coffee problems?

The finest cup of coffee you have had from your equipment or your money back

Summer's here ... time for the Londinium affogato!

The Londinium Espresso cup is on the way

how much ground coffee should i use in the Swissgold (one cup) filter?

Demystifying how to prepare a great espresso

A profile of Galapagos coffee

Recycle your coffee grounds

Daily caffeine 'protects brain'

click the Skype button to talk to us

fresher than fortnums!

Swissgold KF4 filter

Easter with Londinium Espresso

Tired of 'consumer grade' junk? Invest in some heavy machinery.

New at Londinium Espresso this week!

Single estate - Rainha Farm Brazilian Yellow Bourbon in stock now

Java Blawan Estate in stock now

Jamaican Blue Mountain No.1 Flamstead Estate in stock now

CO₂/O₂ process