# coffee in the UK



## sakurablosm (Jul 22, 2009)

I'm not actually from the UK but i was wondering what the mindset about coffee is from people who live there. Here in America coffee is widely preferable in comparison to tea. But it is believed that people from the UK prefer tea over coffee. So is this true? Also i was wondering about the overall quality of coffee. Like is it better at a coffee shop or when it's personally brewed? lastly just how rare are coffee shops? Any type of input would be greatly welcomed!.








Oh and just to make it a bit more personal how do you like your coffee?


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## awlred (Mar 10, 2009)

OK....there are a lot of bases to cover here.

Coffee is probably on par with tea in its popularity I would say. However neither are produced to a high quality very often. Home coffee is primarily made from soluble and tea is usually bagged.

Coffee quality is a bit of a difficult one, there are a collection of bars in certain areas that do high quality coffee but outside of east London they're few and far between. Other than that, anywhere that has a population has atleast one Starbucks for every person.

Most people outside of the coffee scene tend to like their coffee milky and with a lot of sugar in it, mostly due to the habit from soluble coffee which is bitter.

Personally a short espresso or a flat white fill my cup most fo the time but I'm partial to a loose leaf tea, Breakfast, Earl Grey and Oolong are currently rotating for me


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## Glenn (Jun 14, 2008)

Agreed Alex

There are now decent coffee shops starting up in major cities across the UK and some previous 'coffee voids' have been filled.

The UK is still some years behind USA, Europe and well behind Australasia in the concept of coffee being an experience not just a commodity.

Oh, and I like my coffee brewed







Partial to a ristretto, macchiato or a flat white, but equally happy to have a chemex or press-pot.


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## chrisweaver_barista (Jun 14, 2008)

Ok... I think that Alex and Glenn are both being kind about our coffee scene in the UK.

As a sweeping generalisation, coffee at home is instant. I read somewhere that it's closer to 80-90% of coffee drunk at home is instant. People are more often than not unprepared to brew fresh coffee at home, and where instant coffee isn't drunk, it often then resorts to Pod Machines, or very low quality supermarket coffee.

Regarding actual speciality coffee bars, we have very few good ones, probably not many more than 20-30 in the country serving truly phenomenal coffee. The standard seems to be much lower than a lot of countries, especially looking into the chains, though I suspect it to be on par with the american chains.

I know I paint an overall bleak scene, but I do feel that we are far behind most of the world with coffee, and we have a long way to go, saying that we do have a fast growing speciality coffee market, and a great community of enthusiastic hobbyist home baristi.


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## coffee2u (Jun 26, 2009)

chrisweaver_barista said:


> Ok... I think that Alex and Glenn are both being kind about our coffee scene in the UK.
> 
> As a sweeping generalisation, coffee at home is instant. I read somewhere that it's closer to 80-90% of coffee drunk at home is instant. People are more often than not unprepared to brew fresh coffee at home, and where instant coffee isn't drunk, it often then resorts to Pod Machines, or very low quality supermarket coffee.
> 
> ...


Hi Chris - I'm just starting out on this whole coffee niche in UK, and yes I think you are right - I have a 40p jar of Tesco coffee sat in my kitchen now - the thing is - every journey starts somewhere









I am trying out all the packet varieties in tubs and sticks then will progress on to the harder stuff over time.

My experience of "REAL" coffee has always been this strong stuff that makes you feel ill after drinking it - however our taste buds change over time (with age) so now I'm older I'll try again - but I can see why people are wary - I remember being stuck with cups of coffee, thinking gawd, go out the room so I can pour this down the sink!

I expect the French might say it's English taste buds - so used to bland cooking that when we taste something with flavour in it we fall off our chairs in suprise.

A costa coffee has only been open in my town a couple of years and Starbucks is nowhere to be seen.

Personally I think coffee consumption is on the rise, but like you said we are a few years behind the USA - but we do catch up eventually.

I remember when people in UK generally thought that satellite TV was a fad and wouldn't take off and mobile phones - needless to say I had sky in the days it was all still free, and I still have my first vodafone "pay as you go" brought from Argos when 'cheap phones for poor people' first came out.

I'm just waiting for the coffee revolution now


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## chrisweaver_barista (Jun 14, 2008)

I certainly hope that my scathing post on the UK scene didn't rile anyone up, but I think it is important to realise what we've got before we start to work out how to improve it









For two years now I've had a full ban on instant coffee in my house. We try and avoid any convenience food where possible, and don't even have teabags! But for me, the pursuit of taste experiences is a way of life for me.

Where abouts are you based Coffee2U? If you aren't to far from Lincoln, you are more than welcome to visit the shop and have a look around and taste a few different coffees!

Chris, Common Grind, The Angel


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## coffee2u (Jun 26, 2009)

hi Chris I'm down in Weston-super-Mare (Somerset) - I'm thinking of doing a painting like those 1920's coffee adverts and calling it "Weston-super-Mocha" - wadda ya think ?







our sea could be seen as coffee coloured...

RE convenience food, I've quit the microwave meals (microwave broke!) and I mainly eat seafood and salad these days - fresh out of the bag.

One step at a time...


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## grahamy84 (Aug 4, 2009)

I think similar to a lot of café's in America the UK market is being swamped with 'milk bars' passing themeselves off as "coffee houses" *cough* Starbucks *cough*.

In the majority of places when you get a cappuccino for example you get a gigantic cup which is dominated by milk. That is not what a cappuccino is supposed to be. You're supposed to actually be able to taste the espresso. Oh and it's far too hot! Cappuccino should be made to drink right away.

I also think UK roasted coffee on the whole is not a patch on coffee imported from Italy.

http://www.fiorenzato.co.uk


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