A Good Espresso

The London Coffee Festival is not far away now and we’ve just got our press pass to attend - excited!!!

We’ll be live blogging on Saturday 28th April with pictures of the event, if you want to come along too then sign up here. If you want to meet up to chat about coffee then get in touch through agoodespresso@gmail.com! 

DC

The following is an interview with Sam Brookes - a coffee snob who is proud of his snobbery. So much so that he will be speaking at The Big Chill in London tonight on the topic of coffee snobbery. 

What makes you a coffee snob? What’s your background in coffee?

I would say there are a fair few reasons as to why I’m a coffee snob, but generally it’s because I would rather go without coffee than have a badly made one/ instant/ crap coffee. My background to coffee reads a bit like this – I Come from a family of coff-a-holics, I spend a lot of time in Italy drinking coffee, I trained as a barista with a very traditional Italian, subsequently ran the espresso bar where I trained and now continue to hunt out new places to drink good coffee.

Why is it okay to be a coffee snob? Is it similar to art, music or film snobbery or something different?

Making a good espresso is basically an exact science, shot measures, water temperature, atmospheric conditions etc. And then the milk side of things is an art…It’s not called Latte Art for no reason! So I would say something that combines art and science deserves a bit of snobbery!

What is your perfect coffee?

Hmm difficult question, it really varies on my mood. I would say a cappuccino in the morning and then an espresso macchiato or an espresso through the rest of the day. If I’m not near a good machine then a strong black coffee from a nice blend will do the trick.

Do you have any tips when making coffee?

Find somewhere where you really like and then try to copy them! Ask questions, use their beans, do what they do. From there you should get the basics and you can then start finding out more about what you do and don’t like. Style as well as taste.

Which coffee shops should people know about?

I would always say try and find your local Indi. Find as many as you can and always give a new place a try. Living in London makes it easy to find new places to try. But if you’re in Leeds then you have to try La Bottega Milanese…It’s where I learnt from the master :)

Any last points?

Good coffee shouldn’t be instant and the person making it should know about their blend and what they are doing. If they don’t, chances are you will get a bad coffee. Oh and if there is a spoon anywhere near the milk jug then LEAVE THE SHOP!

Sam and I went to chat about coffee at The Departement of Coffee and Social Affairs and then across the road at Prufrock. I ordered a flat white at each while Sam ordered a double espresso - he must have been wired for the rest of the day!

During our extended coffee break we decided that Sam would come on board and blog for A Good Espresso too - we’ll introduce ourselves properly soon.