The Hilton Brighton Metropole‎, Brighton, UK

Large expensive hotels often make great coffee. My experiences have almost always been great but it often comes at a price (and with a biscuit).

My customer from the previous post also bought me a coffee here to make up for the bad experience previously. I had explained the blog and he wanted to make right and make he did. Unfortunately I was so thirsty for damn fine coffee that by the time I realised how good it was I only had a sip left. I savoured that last mouthful.

This had been well made and had all the flavours in balance. It had the strength and that elusive sweetness without that super bitter muddyness. It was a great coffee.

The next day I returned in the morning for another meeting and sank two in a row in the hope of the same hit but it did not happen. I had missed out by not enjoyng every drop of that first taste. A lesson learnt.

Regular Black Americano

Strong and smooth tasting

Fist had the sweetness

Nice Crema

Damn fine biscuit

£4.25

The first was excellent and the next two were just not quite the same. It shows the Barista can make all the difference between great and mediocre. If you get a chance have a coffee here and hope you get the right guy.

Map
http://www.hilton.co.uk/brightonmet

Regency Restaurant, Brighton, UK

I was kindly taken to lunch by a customer. He was unsure of where to go and as we were on the sea front I suggested we head west; I knew there were restaurants I had not yet discovered there.

We stopped at a good looking fish restaurant and sat down on a warm but blustery afternoon in Brighton. The Regency is apparently a well known place for tourists; the building is elegant and the location excellent but other than that I could not see what the attraction is. The Haddock was well cooked with a crisp batter, the chips were surprisingly poor. For a two product vendor getting it 50% wrong is unacceptable.

After business had been discussed and the world put to rights I settled down for a mug of the good stuff but it was not that good at all.

The coffee came quickly in an overly small mug of little charm and character. It looked and smelt like it had been languishing in a warming pot for too long. The taste confirmed this fact as well as someone having been frugal with the beans or over zealous with the water.

Regular Black Filter

Weak and watery

Overly bitter

So nondescript I can barely write anything

£? He paid

Get the fish, leave the Joe.
Map
http://www.theregencyrestaurant.co.uk/

...that other vice.

As well as coffee there are some other great drinks. One of my favourites is the excellent Bourbon, Makers Mark. I'm going to celebrate it here on this blog, right now.

Love it.

Original coffee moleskin

I found the moleskin which contained my initial coffee tasting from around London and even some abroad.

Slightly different approach and I did SCORE! The first entries are from Australia and move onto London. One day I may even write this up.

Burger Chain Coffee Smackdown

I had a sudden desire to find out who would win in the coffee stakes between the much maligned McDonald's and the flame grilled rival Burger king. The desire stemmed from an extremely hungover/ drunk moment in Slough McDonald's the morning after a wedding. Morning was truly morning after being gently woken by my family before 6. I had a coffee and thought how really not very very bad it was.

I soon found that this was not even a fight as burger king makes instant.  Although they don't claim it the packaging leads you to believe it is real but you can't hide that difference in taste no matter how luxurious a brand you use. From my fuzzy memory McDonald's was as good as, if not better than many of the dedicated coffee houses.

I got a chance to try McDonald's again in Sweden.


The price was good and my ordering in Swedish was not that bad (although the man replied in English). The first thing that struck was the crema, it looked very odd, fluffy and white; some how it was synthetic. The liquid also looked too thin and didn't have much of a strong aroma. But after these poor first impressions it tasted, well not bad at all. In fact this coffee had quite a unique taste that was hard to pin down. It was not overly bitter or watery, it could have been stronger and perhaps fresher but not an all together unpleasant experience

• Regular Black Americano
• Medium to low strength
• Smooth taste but little aroma
• A little bitter but not overly so
• Weird frothy crema
• Small cup
• £1.00 (10K)

A unique tasting coffee  that could have been a little stronger and the beans a little fresher but surprisingly not awful. Max burger was also pretty good but that is for another day.


Map
http://www.mcdonalds.se/

World Barista Championships

Mike Phillips from the USA won the World Barista Championships. This year it was in London and a crying shame for I missed it.


Man I want to try this guy's joe.


However the sunny side of this situation if that they provide this awesome map of coffee houses to try in London: 
http://www.worldbaristachampionship.com/2010-london-coffee-map.html

Cafe Espegards, Gotland, Sweden

We found this small cafe open on our second attempt. A recommended family business (1 man, 1 wife, 8 daughters, man someone wants a son badly) from the Gotland food tour guide and just up the road from our cottage, I was confident of something special. 


We went through the Americano explanation again but this did not worry me now, and at this point the matriarch took over from the waitress and was our barista. 






The coffee came in a smart Lofbergs Lila cup. It smelt good, strong with a rich aroma but joyfully no burning. It looked just right with an oily gleam that you could just see like a slick under the crema. Taste wise it hit the spot but there was one issue, it was too strong. A rare complaint for me but I was overpowered by this cup.

Regular Black Americano

• Extremely high strength
• Overly strong taste
• Good aroma, 
• Small amount of crema
• Perfect small cup
• £2.50 (25K)

Served up alongside some scarily good home made berry pie (just like a crumble and we also tried the apple) and a wonderful setting this was undoubtedly a good coffee only marred by a little too much off the good stuff.