Originally published on Tuesday, 16th April 2013

COFFEE GEEKS

Starbucks no more
 

Medium or full bodied? Carafe or glass? Hint of citrus or chocolate and spice? No, we're not talking about choosing a Cab Sauv. These are all recent questions UJ has received while ordering coffee. In the post-Flat White era, baristas are the new sommeliers—and picking up your morning coffee is no longer a straightforward exchange.

The first thing to contend with is milk snobbery. Dare you ask for semi-skimmed with your Ethiopian single estate bean, and you'll be told that this isn't Starbucks, or worse, Harris + Hoole. On the plus side, there are more milk options than ever out there – new spot Embassy East make their own cereal milk (bringing Momofuku slightly closer to home).

Next is the serving style. A recent trip to Rapha resulted in a carafe of coffee and included a very complicated ordering process. The annoying old-school half shot, extra hot, wet, to-go combo has now been replaced with the equally annoying 8oz, full body, Chemex brew served in a glass. (The coffee was good, though, and they are very nice in there.)

Then there's the fact that coffee is encroaching all realms of life quicker than you can say Aeropress. It's on the high street (the new Jaegar boutique has a coffee bar), in office spaces (DunneFrankowski at Protein HQ) and restaurants (Beagle has its own café), and magazines are opening coffee shops (Monocle's new café gets its beans from Allpress).

Which is why we're getting an education. Holy establishment Caravan has just launched Coffee Cupping, a series of fortnightly workshops led by head barista Baptiste Kreyder. After introducing you to different beans, methods and flavours, take your pick from a range of topics, including latte art, espresso making, cupping (wine tasting for coffee) and home brewing.

Might be time to go back to filter.

Info
Coffee Cupping with Caravan, fornightly from Saturday April 13, 10am-11am Granary Building, 1 Granary Square, N1C 4AA, £15 per person

by JC