Espresso Mundo

A look at the blossoming coffee culture developing in the UK.

Windsor

Part 1

England is regarded as a nation of tea drinkers as we all very well know.
Well before the days of the opium wars (1830’s) and the occupation of India (1750’s), the British had already perfected the art of tea drinking.
These days it's still a custom in the U.K to have afternoon tea, complete with silver ware, cucumber sandwiches, scones with clotted cream and rose petal jelly at one of the many posh hotels or tea houses in London.

Kings and queens have even appointed tea merchants to supply their royal needs with this most flavorsome and fragrant commodity in return for their royal seal of approval.

But times have changed, and so has the way the British enjoy their beverages, no longer is tea the king on the street.

Over the last few years there has been big changes in the UK regarding the way people have their hot beverages, and with these changes there are two new competitors in the island making their presence felt , and these two are loaded with the right fuel a busy city like London needs to get trough the day.
Their names are...





Coffea Arabica & coffea canephora Robusta. "When roasted and often combined they're widely known as espresso coffee".

It eventually had to happen, the Espresso revolution has finally arrived in Britain and everybody wants to be a part of it, Why not, when you are dealing with the second highest traded commodity on the planet after oil.
Britain's Coffee culture has the potential to be worth 100's of millions of pounds per year, and within a short period of 10 years has developed so fast , that there are now more than 10 different brands of high st chain stores competing for your morning Cappuccino, and Londoners cannot seem to get enough.

These chain stores have basically taken just about every high st corner, are more focused with market share, profits, annual turnover and keeping their share holders happy than providing a great cup of coffee, provide the average Londoner with anything from a 4 oz cup of espresso to a mega 16 - 20oz cup of milky, well can't call it coffee but basically milky solution.

Standards in Coffee making have been thrown out the door, within these stores, and it’s very rare to have a wonderful espresso experience when purchasing a product.
Apart from the poor quality coffee made within the walls of these stores, when purchasing espresso to take home either in bean or ground form the product is often very old and quite stale that no amount of clever fancy packaging will help its identity.

It is a sad fact that London’s population or for that matter the UK's had to have their coffee culture beginnings like this and it’s also the unfortunate love affair with brands that exhibits the UK’s coffee culture to flourish.

Apart from the big chain stores, there are also the independent stores, owned and operated by small business people, there are 100’s of these!
But just like the bigger stores their coffee quality and skills are very poor.
From my observations customers are not aware what a good cup of coffee is or should taste like.
Customers just take anything that is given to them, even worst Barista’s are so badly trained they too don't have an idea about producing a fantastic tasting / looking coffee.

So we end up with a situation were the customer believes that what they just purchased is a perfectly made and tasting coffee.
Customer not knowledgeable + Barista badly trained = Very bad coffee experience.

Even supermarkets have joined this flourishing coffee culture. When I visited the coffee isle at my local supermarket the equivalent to Coles supermarket in Australia - while doing my weekly shopping, I was totally amazed at the amount of coffee available

Part 2:

Bath

In the old days when you bought coffee from your local supermarket it was a choice of either Continental blend , Italian Roast or French roast , these days you have Mocha Kenya , Brazil Santos , Ethiopian Harrar and Colombian Antigua to name a few. Then there are the multinationals companies and smaller local coffee roasting companies with their selections of blended coffee and single origin coffee.

The super market itself also has a wide selection of self branded espresso coffee.

Then you have the choice of adding to your selection: Fair-trade, Organically grown or Rainforest alliance, ohh and lets not forget Decaffeinated coffee.

There are so many choices available to the average person to choose from these days that picking the right coffee to complement your wonderful dinner party, morning cuppa or if you are opening a espresso bar is very confusing, you have to either be very knowledgeable about the product, consult a coffee expert in the case of opening a espresso bar or allocate at least 15 minutes towards research while shopping to read the informative labels on the packaging before making your choice.

But unfortunately there's is a problem among all this hype, excitement and development and it's quite hard to say this because the UK’s coffee industry has so much to give.

With the current Barista Champion currently a British, a well established coffee school in London and the annual Café Culture expo
And it’s hard to say this….

"London's coffee culture is a shame"


I'm an Australian living in this great city called London and I love this place, it makes Sydney look like Canberra at rush hour. London is not only a fantastically large city but its also very multicultural and cultural with fantastic theaters and Art Galleries, great restaurants, bars and... Yes...Cafe's.

The reason for writing this article is that I find myself in an island that is just so close to the espresso loving Italians that left wondering why, why is coffee here so bad.
In a city the size of London it takes time and effort to find a café with decent quality coffee and finding an excellent one is even harder, but there are some, Yes there are!

After much research and many, many cafes visited I finally found the answer to London's low [standard espresso ... 1: Not only are barista's in this country poorly trained, but they don't care about the industry and are lazy.
2: There are far too many coffee Chain stores that only care about market share and stock market prices.

3: The industry is far too young but has grown way too fast, Baristas are badly paid and there is also a lack of experienced people in the industry that can pass on their knowledge to the apprentice Barista.

I know what you all must be thinking.

"Go back home"! "How dare you"! "What do you know"!

I am on a quest to educate as many people as possible while here in London regarding coffee (Not that horrible instant stuff) but espresso coffee ...Real coffee!

One critical point is,  people in this country must first know how to differentiate what is good quality and poor quality coffee, they also have to know what they are ordering and Barista's need to know how to prepare these drinks correctly.
During my research when I spoke to a few experienced Barista working in London, they all spoke of the frustration when dealing with customers that truly don't have a clue when ordering espresso coffee.
One of the examples is the classic cappuccino scene "it goes like this".
A customer would order a cappuccino.
You proudly make it perfectly, you take it to the customer and he/she say's "but I ordered a cappuccino"!
You kindly explain to him/her that there on the table is a fine example of a perfectly made coffee.
Then you get... "I would like my cappuccino with no troth just a splash of milk and no chocolate".

Hugh.......???!!!

Now do you understand what I mean by an uneducated coffee culture?

But then to be fair some customers in London do know about coffee and some terminology, its just they don't care when an espresso based coffee is correctly made or not, they just put up with it even though they are paying over £2 pounds for a cafe latte. They know that they will get a bad coffee just about everywhere and It’s because of this anything will do attitude, coffee culture in the UK will not develop like other established ones.
This is where my self and I believe many other committed Barista's in this country, for example 3 members of my team at AWOC (Andronicas world of coffee) would like to make a difference and set a bench mark for others to follow, by making espresso coffee the way it should be. Customers will not only be experiencing perfectly made and tasting coffee but will most importantly be part of a new beginning in a cultural revolution, that will give the multinationals a wakeup call to pickup their( beans).
You might be thinking "Ok then how can you prove this will work."

I can proudly inform you that a coffee culture has been developed and is established solidly in another island and I am proud to have been a part of it, I will explain more.

Part 3




Here in London you can purchase lots of imported Australian and New Zealand products; Fosters beer and Bluebird chips are high on the list of the average Aussie / kiwi living in London , but the one thing myself as a coffee specialists (and I am sure many other coffee loving Australians and New Zealanders living here would agree) believe is the biggest export we could have given England is the Barista.

Yes ladies and gentleman It's only when you are living in a foreign country, that you realize a very important part of your day is truly missing , when that skillfully made cafe latte you purchased every morning on your way to work prepared by your favorite city Barista, made with silky textured milk is no where to be found. Instead you have to take your chances with chain stores and corner shops either fitted with fully automatic coffee machines or a top of the line espresso machine operated by poorly trained employees.
The end result is not just a cup of coffee made very poorly but often just plain awful.


We take our espresso coffee making very seriously in Australia and New Zealand a Barista would never be caught under extracting or over extracting a shot of coffee and wiping a portafilter basket after every shot and texturing milk correctly is as natural to a Barista as remembering your name and your favorite coffee. All this happens after an apprentice Barista learns the trade for over a year with maximum supervision performed by a senior professional barista. Every coffee an apprentice Barista makes within this time is basically X rayed before its received by the customer, any irregularities in the coffee or textured milk and the coffee gets discarded.
As well as learning to prepare great coffee they are shown proper espresso machine maintenance , a clean espresso machine not only looks great and makes fantastic coffee but it shows the professionalism and commitment to the industry the Barista operating it has, keen Barista's will also take part in training sessions at reputable academies to polish up their skills, while there not only will they learn about coffee preparation but will also be participating in tasting of single origin coffee beans and learn about fair-trade and how coffee is cultivated and processed.

A well trained Barista is such a great asset to the café they are employed by and in such great demand that they're regularly being poached by other establishments offering bigger financial packages, for this reason café owners are always on the look out for head hunters and guard their Barista's with great enthusiasm.
One of the great benefits of a well trained professional Barista is that the customer will benefit not only by having a fantastic coffee experience, but will be correctly educated when inquiring about the product or its industry, in fact the Barista becomes something like a member of the family to some, were life long friendships are made.

This is what Barista’s need to be seen doing here in the UK ..

England's coffee culture is very young even though people in this country have been drinking coffee for a long time, records suggest at least 400 years it actually looks like it has been very slow to change, even tough there are establishments that have been operating for over 100 years. In all this time even with better high technical machines and a multinational coffee company in every corner the quality of espresso coffee served in cafe's is quite poor.

Part 4




In comparison Australia was discovered just over 230 years ago.
Coffee culture in Australia did not take off until the early 1990's when Cafe latte, flat white, Ristretto and the word Barista ( in the early 90’s I remember café employers advertising for a cappuccino maker) were starting to become part of the Australian vocabulary... before this it was a bit rough I admit.

 By the early 90's Australia was starting, with the commitment and dedication of a few keen barista's in the city of Sydney and othe mayor cities the monumental task of changing the way espresso was prepared and revolutionize the industry, it didn't happen over night 'believe me' but it did modernize the industry to such a level that old fashion cafe's felt they were being left behind, and started hiring new generation Barista's.

Eventually old fashion style coffee (slapping) "a term used to describe poor espresso making skills " was history, replaced by a professional Barista with modern equipment.
Soon old rundown cafe's were producing fantastic coffee and more than doubling their turnover, coffee art was virtually unknown in Australia, but this same group lead by a well known Australian Barista introduced it to the people and it was received with such delight that customers would come and order their favorite coffee together with their favorite art sketched on it.

Barista's were placed into the spot light and made regular appearances in local and national newspaper's with many of them becoming household names .
This was the turning point for the modern Australian espresso coffee industry and I believe the same transformation can happen in the UK.

I must also state..

Australians can also thank quite a few people for their contribution to espresso coffee down under; coffee plants arrived with the first fleet in1788 and flourished well in the warm NSW climate. (For a while) Everyone …. We were growing coffee well before most parts of the world… by the mid to late 1800’s coffee was then being cultivated very successfully and enjoyed , I assume. The first coffee roasting company started production in the early 19 hundreds or earlier while the first espresso machine was introduced to the country in the early 1950, this machine was so popular that it encouraged the development of an Australian made espresso machine called Boema. In those days it would take months for a espresso machine to reach Australia from Italy so two friends decided to build their own and cut the waiting time for customers, This company has developed into an Australian espresso culture icon.

http://www.boema.com.au/Default.aspx?tabid=57

Most immigrants would pack light when relocating to Australia but Italians used to pack 2 group Faema and Gaggia commercial espresso machines as part of their luggage. Espresso coffee was even introduced in the town of cooma in the snowy mountains where a vibrant coffee culture developed in the mid 1950's caused by the European immigrants hired to work in the Snowy river hydro electric scheme.
I believe one of the espresso machines is in a museum in Sydney.
(It would be great to fire it up and make a few espresso,wonder if it still works)
Imagined driving trough the snowy mountains, in the alpine region of New South Wales Australia in the 1950's and you would stop for a milk shake, but instead found a fully fitted Italian café where the owners could speak very little English.
Now do I believe we can start to understand were the roots of our espresso culture begun , that developed into our own unique and vibrant industry.

To be continued...