Coffee Appreciation

Square mile is good, not an allpress fan as it’s the stuff not good enough for Assembly and too much of a dark roast.

https://www.welcometotheparadox.com/

These guys know their stuff and normally have a good selection available

Batch Baby on De Beauvoir Road probably have all you could ask for

The last two comments get my approval - best coffee places in East

Great, will have a wander…

Isn’t that Volcano?

Well spotted, they are both ‘coffee roasters I’m not a fan of’ though.
If it’s the only choice for a take-out I’ll have a milk based drink but not an espresso or filter.

Yep same

I’m still waiting for a glass aeropress

I'd keep a heavy duty first aid kit very close by a glass aeropress haha.

Thanks for the nice words once again on here, and particularly to Tom, 37 from London who put The Guardian in touch. Amazing, thank you 🙏

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Can you explain the point on Allpress/assembly?

For home espresso I’ve found Allpress to be the best quality/value in London. No association, but they’ve got 20% off till tonight with code SEPTEMBER20.

Saved search on eBay/gumtree/bidspotter is the key. I picked up a mazzer super jolly a few years back for £70, it’s completely overkill but amazing

First aid kit? A couple of bags of your own blood would make more sense

Good tip. Though if you're ordering a single bag it's hard to argue against Square Mile really. £15 for 350g and free shipping, vs £11 for 250g shipped from Allpress with that discount.

I recently got a gift of some decaf from the Algerian Coffee Store in Soho, their medium roast. It was nicely dependable for a daily espresso making milky drinks, and 500g was a nice compromise between the competing anxieties of dial-in wastage and the beans going stale. Never been into the shop but I imagine it's one of those traditional places with buckets of beans everywhere, could be a nice throwback to visit.

Picked one up off here for about £90 and modded myself to single dose. It’s banging!

It’s here!
£138 on the uk site, with 10% off when you sign up, so about £125. Which is about what I paid for my Gaggia classic, lol.

I want one, because fucking look at it (oink oink here comes the capitalist piggy), but still, 125 pounds quid is not messing around.

Did you use a kit to mod to single dose? I’ve kept mine with the paddle and use a dosing cup on scales to measure out each shot

Only thoughts are that owning a roastery means it’s probably best to run it at capacity so the diffusion line is for some cafes and probably concession cafes in big offices etc where they are marketed as ‘premium’ even though they are not.
Assembly is the premium stuff that the average coffee drinker would never pay for at £16 for 200g. That said the espresso blends for cafes are mostly Brazilian based so possibly not a huge increase per Kg over Assembly.
Just my theory not facts.

Are there any particularly "good" supermarket milks for steaming? In Ireland the best option was always Avonmore Super Milk, which you sadly cannot buy here ..

A deep clean of our kitchen has revealed this. And a hario V60 Drop assist thing. Anyone want both/either?

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not sure why i bothered to look into this, but Allpress has no relationship to either Volcano or Assembly, so far as I can see.

Allpress was sold to Asahi in 2021.

Volcano is the supermarket friendly brand of Assembly Coffee, which is what @hangedup said upthread.

Was it Allpress that was backed by the NZ government? Or was that a different brand?

according to the Allpress website, Micheal Allpress got going with some money he borrowed from his dad and a $5000 loan from NZ Govt.

Seemly he's "branched out" into making olive oil since selling up to Asahi.

Ooh yes please if you’ll post. Happy to sling you some quids for the effort. Have pm’d