Roast, London, UK

The majestic Roast sits above Borough Market and is a fine restaurant. Quite clearly full of city types rather than the normal borough mix up of the city, market, creatives and journos it is still a great place to eat even if a little steep. If you want to sample it then Roast To Go down on the market floor is (try devil's on horse back and the roast pork sarnie) well worth it.

We both went for the roast rib of Welsh Black sheep, Roast's awesome roast potatoes, sprouts with stuffing and lardons and a lovely bottle of merlot. The food was excellent and so to finish off we thought we should, for the sake of the blog order a coffee.

The organic Columbian Roast special blend had to be sampled as a filter. Although a little weak it had a fantastic full earthy flavour. This Columbian was one of the freshest tasting coffee's I've ever consumed, you could taste the raw beans. Unfortunately the aftertaste suffered from a little fuzzy muddiness but it was not too bitter so far from a bad experience.

(This photo was been borrowed from the Roast website. Sorry for lack of permission. Will replace asap)

• Black Filter (french press)
• weak to medium
• Great taste but with some fuzz
• Pressed
• Cafetiere for two
• £3.00 a head

A good coffee no doubt. Incredible taste but not enough strength and for the price the overall package this joe did not transcend time and space.

Roast
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Grace's Place, Brighton, UK

They boast the best fresh coffee on Brighton beach front and they probably do have it. Although confusingly they have the word "filter" written after Americano this is only to help punters who don't understand what an Americano is, that is, it is a coffee. Situated right on the beach next to Peter Pan's playground Grace's could easily be a lazy tourist trap but they seem to make a genuine effort with what is on.

It was terribly cold and the coffee hit the spot nicely. Apart from a bizarre overly bubbly crema the coffee had a good taste and aroma. There were no nasty after taste surprises and it had a good strength. This coffee didn't lack anything specifically and certainly was not bad in any way but overall the taste itself did not reach the very top tier  of coffee out there.

• Black Americano
• Strong
• Smooth with a generally good taste
• A huge amount of very bubbly crema
• Regular size
• £1.40

A surprise hit right by the sea. good taste, good strength but not quite top tier. Well worth a taste and certainly nothing better right on the front.

Map - could not find a perfect address so this will have to do.

moksha caffe, Brighton, UK

Moksha is a relatively new establishment near the London road in Brighton. It has the feel of a chain with a highly polished but slightly sterile interior. So although large, roomy, nicely decorated and boasting some original artwork hung well, the synthetic nature of it took something away. The original review was lost to over enthusiastic paper recycling which is good for Moksha as it was not terribly positive, this time things were better.

Surprisingly smooth and with a good strength this coffee elevated itself over the standard station swill. There was the hint of something not quite right, possibly the beans were not as fresh as they could have been which resulted in an odd taste. At first there was no poor after taste, it went down well but suddenly I was caught with a tacky bitter taste in my mouth, thoroughly unpleasant. On top of the frankly crap cup that leaked everywhere this final assault on my person by my own beverage meant that the strengths were outweighed by the negatives.

• Black Americano
• Medium strength
• Flavour slightly poor but smooth
• A little crema
• Large 
• £2.10 (corrected from comments.)

Brewing with the high quality of Union beans I would expect more from what was a distinctly average cup. In a word, mediocre.
*correction - Need to check but I misreported and it is a locally roasted own blend served here.

http://www.mokshacaffe.com/

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Amsterdam, The Netherlands: Weekend break

A slight hiatus in posting is over.

This break has been punctuated with a trip to Amsterdam, a city of many facets. A full and rigorous set of reviews of every cafe and coffee shop was planned for the visit. This action plan fell apart in around 5 minutes of meeting the rest of the party in a coffee shop; apathy set in and the reviews were suspended for the weekend.

Like much of the continent the general quality of coffee is several steps ahead of the UK. It seems even the most terrible dive can rustle up a half decent, well balanced cup of joe to lubricate the body and mind.

The trip consistent of all almost constant coffee consumption so the fact that the standard is that much higher was a blessing.

A couple of places I can pull out from the haze:

Cafe La Grotte where we had a super breakfast, strong coffee and friendly service but quite bizarre cave style decorations.

't BlaueTheehuis (Blue Tea House) in Vondel Park was a great place, I was taken there by my old pal Alf who lives out in dam now. Good coffee and a nice place to take someone on a date as the dark park is romantically lit by the night lighting.

Farm, Brighton, UK

The cafe Farm who this review features has recently opened a small farmers market in the lanes. This kind of venture must be applauded along with their ethos of good locally produced food. The inside of the cafe has a rustic quality and it seems like the kind of establishment where the coffee will be first rate, especially as they serve Monmouth beans (my favourite). It never opens before 9 which seems a little crazy for picking up on the way to work foot traffic and luckily for this blog I was late one day and managed to pop in and grab some joe.

The coffee was rushed and made with very little care; seeing this I thought it would be a disaster and was prepared for a teeth clenching muddy ashtray infusion. Being first in I benefited from very freshly ground coffee which helped with the taste. I was a little surprised to see the barista knocking out some coffee before tamping it down without refilling meaning the actual amount that went in was more like a shot than a double. This left the coffee a little weak for my tastes for the sake of something like 5p. However having said all that it was not that bad, a bit nondescript but certainly not unpleasant. If care was taken and more actual coffee applied there could be a great coffee here. 

After totally failing to take a photo I stole their logo. I hope they don't mind me reproducing without permission. I have a photo in mind so intend to replace as soon as I can.

• Black Americano
• Medium strength
• Slightly bitter aftertaste
• No crema
• Medium to large 
• £1.80

Not a well made coffee but somehow it dragged itself out of being not very good to being roughly around alright. 

http://www.farmsussex.co.uk/

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Blue Bird Cafe, Ferring (Worthing), UK

Cycling in a storm with my brother, each with a child lashed to our bicycles was a challenge. Our goal was to work our way along the seafront to a popular cafe. This dog friendly establishment was rammed with Sunday morning breakfasters, a slight steam in the air  from the condensations of wet bodies meeting warm air. There was a buzz of conversation and a fast service of hot food being brought from the kitchen.

The food was great, reasonably priced, locally sourced and they served chips that were not chips but incredible fluffy roast potatoes. The coffee on the other hand was poor. A cartridge based machine (I didn't catch the brand) which produced poor tasting, lifeless coffee. No aroma, that bizarre air driven crema and a taste closer to the last cup in a cafeteria and not the first of the jug.

• Black Americano
• Medium strength
• Pretty tasteless but not offensive
• Fake crema
• Medium size
• £1.80

Not very good coffee but go for the location, the food and the dogs.

http://www.ferringvillage.co.uk/business-directory/bluebird-cafe.htm
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Mange Tout, Brighton, UK

This café restaurant opens later than my normal walk to work so it is rare for me to get a chance to have a coffee there. I was the first person into the attractive modern airy establishment this morning, unfortunately there will still a strong smell of cleaning products in the air. 


The staff were smiling, calm and laid back; when the order came they leapt into action, swiftly with making the coffee. As this was their first coffee of the day I got beans as freshly ground as they can be, these beans where from the Small Batch coffee company.

It came overly large and this weakened the taste a little but overall it was strong enough and quite smooth. The Joe had a good oily sheen and the only real negatives were that I forgot to drink it right away and a slight overly bitter tang at the back of the palette.

• Black Americano
• Medium strength
• Nice and smooth
• Medium crema
• Medium to large
• £1.80

Not at all bad and certainly the best from this place so far. It even came with a tiny meringue. If I had requested it to be a little shorter this would have been a contender so worth another try for certain.

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