Coffee

[Nick Armstrong]

Does anyone remember Carwardine’s in London? They had a shop at the bottom of Southampton Row near Holborn in the 70s and used to roast the coffee on site – there was an absolutely heavenly aroma coming out of the extractor. I sometimes just used to stand outside on the pavement for a few minutes and breathe it in, on my way to Skoob’s bookshop in Sicilian Arcade. The Carwardine one I liked was Kenya Peaberry. Used to grind the beans up in a little Moulinex grinder – hair-raisingly dangerous and probably banned now.

I used one of those - two blades inside that whizz round, activated by a little button on the side of the lid when you put it on? Trouble is, they smash the beans and lead to a lot of dust, rather than grinding to the required degree.

Don't remember Cawardines, but there is a little place on my route home, on Connaught St, W2 (just at the back of Tony Blair's modest London pied-à-terre) called Markus, one of the earliest in London it seems http://www.markuscoffee.com/ I love the slideshow of B&W photos of that corner of post-war Bayswater on that page.

Some fabulous aromas drift around, even as far as Hyde Park if the wind's in the right direction. Mind you, haven't smelt it lately - hope it's still going. Maybe Cherie didn't like the smell

[Richard Tarleton]

Maybe Cherie didn't like the smell

Have you tried the coffee in Matrix Chambers, Calibs?

[MrGongGong]

This is highly recommended

http://www.monmouthcoffee.co.uk/shops/bermondsey

[JFLL]

I used one of those - two blades inside that whizz round, activated by a little button on the side of the lid when you put it on? Trouble is, they smash the beans and lead to a lot of dust, rather than grinding to the required degree.

That sounds like the one, Caliban. Ours might still be buried somewhere in the basement, I think. You had to be very careful in timing just how long to keep the button depressed, otherwise, as you say, you got coffee dust instead of ground coffee. No such thing as settings in those days, of course, let alone anything to prevent you setting the blades whirring with the top off and slicing off your finger. Still, they were handy and didn't take up too much space. I'm afraid we gave up grinding our own long ago.

[Nick Armstrong]

Have you tried the coffee in Matrix Chambers, Calibs?

I believe I have. Nothing special

[teamsaint]

I'm with you there RT. Milk is an adulteration in coffee; likewise for tea (which should be brewed in a pot with loose tea incidentally, but that's another thread. )

When I was a student my Indian landlord was doing some work and made himself a cuppa. Brought up on Lapsang, I was astounded to see him throw tea leaves, water, sugar and milk in a pan, boil it up for 10 minutes and then just tip it into a mug. Well, I just assumed he knew more than me, so thats how I do it to this day.

Well, I don't really.
But milk in tea is just fine.Just not too much.

Nice coffee is great but its a bit of a hobby. Pipe smoking is similar, but probably cheaper. And you get to listen to Jazz and Finzi.

[jean]

Does anyone remember Carwardine’s in London? They had a shop at the bottom of Southampton Row near Holborn in the 70s and used to roast the coffee on site...

I don't remember it, but I do remember the one under the arches near Waterloo Station - what was it called?

I've use a Bialetti stovetop machine since I lived in Italy. It's sort of nostalgic for me now. And Lavazza coffee, usually.

As for milk - I like coffee macchiato, which an Iltalian friend always translates as spotted, unlike the Virgin Mary, who (as everyone knows) is unspotted (immaculata).

[Pabmusic]

Sounds of tumbling coinage in the City of London

This may be a useful lead

https://en-gb.facebook.com/BarakoBean/info?ref=stream

Well there you are!

[JFLL]

As for milk - I like coffee macchiato, which an Iltalian friend always translates as spotted, unlike the Virgin Mary, who (as everyone knows) is unspotted (immaculata).

Lovely term that, isn't it? I also like caffè corretto, a 'corrected' coffee, espresso laced with grappa, sambuca etc.

[Barbirollians]

I am with Claudia Roden - a cafetiere makes the best coffee at home. A Bialetti is OK used with the right sort of beans but I have never been able to make espresso anywhere near as well as just about every cafe in Italy I have been to .

[jean]

Nothing does that - certainly not a cafetiere!

Continuing the theme I started above, you can even get an espresso ristretto, which is twice as strong.

I remember once, when I was teaching some Italian students, we had an exercise in the textbook which had them imagine they had a friend staying, and they needed to go out early and leave instructions for the friend to make their own breakfast.

They looked at each the in puzzlement, and said there was no need for such instructions - the friend could just go to the bar on the corner.

[vinteuil]

... your cafetiere is all very well - and I don't say "no" when offered coffee from one - but for me the coffee it produces is never hot enough by the time it's ready - and the same goes for the filter or jug method.

My normal method is a stovetop bialetti with lavazza from the black packets; usually macchiato, cortado, or noisette depending on which language I'm affecting on the day. Sometimes I use a little krups machine which does produce a decent small espresso .

I gave up that ponceying-around faff of grinding the beans in my undergraduate years...

I mean, if you're going to grind them, at the very least you should also roast them to your particular desired toastiness...

There was a Carwardine's in Bath - a rotating roasting machine in the window - glorious smell...

[jean]

It just occurred to me to look up ristretto.

It's more complicated than I thought:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ristretto

[johnb]

Does anyone remember Carwardine’s in London? They had a shop at the bottom of Southampton Row near Holborn in the 70s and used to roast the coffee on site – there was an absolutely heavenly aroma coming out of the extractor. I sometimes just used to stand outside on the pavement for a few minutes and breathe it in, on my way to Skoob’s bookshop in Sicilian Arcade. The Carwardine one I liked was Kenya Peaberry. Used to grind the beans up in a little Moulinex grinder – hair-raisingly dangerous and probably banned now.

In the 1967 I moved to Bristol from the outskirts of Manchester. One of the great pleasures that I discovered in Bristol was the plethora of coffee shops, all of which roasted on site (there were three within 400 yards of my student bedsit). The majority were Carwardines but there were also many others as well. The Carwardine shops had a wonderful range of both freshly roasted coffees and leaf teas. The aroma of the roasting coffee and visiting the local Carwardine to buy freshly roasted beans and leaf tea is something that I greatly miss and feel it is a great loss. I wonder whether on-site coffee roasting was a casualty of Health & Safety or EU Regulations as it seems to have completely disappeared.

The Carwardine coffee shops were converted to have a few tables in order to serve coffee in the shops and then, finally, the original company went bust. There is still a Carwardine coffee roasting business based near Bristol and (seemingly) a handful of shops.

[vinteuil]

I used one of those - two blades inside that whizz round, activated by a little button on the side of the lid when you put it on? Trouble is, they smash the beans and lead to a lot of dust, rather than grinding to the required degree.

:

I note with interest that both Brillat-Savarin [ 'Physiologie du Goût, ou Méditations de Gastronomie Transcendante' ] and Balzac [ 'Traité des Excitants Modernes' ] agree that coffee beans pounded in a mortar make a much better coffee than coffee ground in a mill.

Actually Balzac has more interesting things to say about coffee than Brillat-Savarin. I liked his anecdote about Rossini, commenting that coffee could keep you going for a couple of weeks or so - long enough to write an opera -

"... [ le café] ... Son pouvoir n'est ni constant ni absolu. Rossini a éprouvé sur lui-même les effets que j' avais déjà observés sur moi.
- « Le café » m'a-t-il dit, «est une affaire de quinze ou vingt jours, le temps fort heureusement de faire un opéra.» "