There’s no doubt that we’re spoilt for choice when it comes to great local cafés, but my top spots for a seriously good cup of coffee are:
1. Tamp Coffee
This cool little café serves excellent speciality coffee, including a top-notch Colombian single origin arabica. Don’t miss the traditional Argentine empanadas either.
2. Chief
Coffee is taken seriously here, with freshly ground beans from the likes of Allpress, Workshop, Assembly Coffee and Five Elephant (from Berlin). You can also play some pinball while you wait!
3. Urban Pantry
This friendly, award-winning Antipodean-inspired café serves its very own blend of coffee, the ‘Urban Pantry Blend’, which gets made nearby in Wimbledon and makes a superb flat white.
Be a barista...
Don’t know your cappuccino from your cortado? Try a speciality course.
1. Popular café chain Artisan runs a friendly coffee school in Ealing, where you can learn everything from latte art and how to homebrew, through to professional roasting and barista skills
2. As well as roasting its own coffee on site, Credo Coffee in Brentford offers a wide range of accredited and non-accredited courses, from barista skills and brewing to sensory analysis and machine maintenance
3. In Wandsworth, cosy café Flotsam & Jetsam hosts a regular Barista Basics evening class. Aimed at all levels, you’ll learn some basic barista skills that you can use at home.
4. Visit the ‘coffee training lab’ at Kiss the Hippo in Richmond to learn key techniques in brewing, creating latte art and more. Its Home Brewing workshops are led by Head of Coffee and current UK Barista Champion, Joshua Tarlo.
