Plymouth

[Bren_D]

I found some good, if not great coffee in Plymouth yesterday at a little place on North Hill I had forgotten about, Carpe Diem. I was on a bus into town that pulled up for some traffic lights near the bar and noticed what looked like a Faema out of the corner of my eye. Enough to convince me to get off the bus a few stops early.

The lass working was happy for me to come in nearly half an hour before they were supposed to open, but made me wait for a coffee until she thought the gorgeous 2 group Faema they have was warm enough. A good start Grinding to order, although I was the first and only customer so I'd have to go in during the day to see if that always happens, running a few shots through before making mine and going to the effort to warm the cups she used for my drinks impressed me. As did the prices, I'm happy to pay £1.40 for an Americano and £1.50 for a flat white. Alas, the coffee wasn't much better than Costa. I don't know whether the beans were a little past their best or it was the blend they were using, but they had the equipment and staff to be making brilliant espresso rather than good espresso.

But that seems to be the case for a lot of places mentioned around here, the extra expense of better beans wouldn't be worth it for a place like Carpe Diem who take most of their money from food and booze. At least I have my alternative to Costa and a far nicer place to sit and enjoy a drink.

[Bertie_Doe]

Thanks for that Bren, thus far I haven't found a decent coffee in Plymouth yet, although there must be a couple, if you search hard enough. We're due to do our monthly shop in Plymouth on Saturday, so I'll give it a whorl.

Paul

[Bren_D]

Thanks for that Bren, thus far I haven't found a decent coffee in Plymouth yet, although there must be a couple, if you search hard enough. We're due to do our monthly shop in Plymouth on Saturday, so I'll give it a whorl.

Paul

The only good espresso I've had in the south west was in the Exeter branch of Boston Tea Party. I went in there to kill an hour or so and try the espresso to tease my cousin about the quality of the coffee in his favourite hangout. At least I killed the time. It was on a par with the slightly better than average shots I manage and certainly far better than the Nero, Starbucks and Costas within spitting distance of the place could have managed. The coffee I had in Carpe Diem was far nicer than Nero and Starbucks manage and the right side of Costa without worrying what most of us can make at home, but any improvement on the chain coffee I can get in Plymouth is a good thing.

Having said that I'm yet to make my way to Relish, but it would take about 2 1/2 hours and three buses or two buses and two trains in each direction to get there. Wadebridge isn't the easiest of places to get to from SE Cornwall when you can't drive, is it

[Bertie_Doe]

It was on a par with the slightly better than average shots I manage and certainly far better than the Nero, Starbucks and Costas within spitting distance of the place could have managed.

Funnily enough, I rather like the taste of what Nero (Gatwick) has to offer. We did a weeks Thomson cruise to Spain and Morocco. The ship's coffee and those I sampled at various ports, were pretty grim. One exception was Caffe Pepe's in the mountain village of Mijass, which was quite drinkable.
On returning to Gatwick on the evening of Fri 21st, we had 8 hours to kill, waiting for the 'flying egg whisk' Dash 8, to shuttle us back to Plymouth. Nero's turned out to be a life saver. Firstly I was attracted by the long queue waiting for coffee (a good sign) and they were serving in espresso cups - not the 10oz paper cups that the Gatwick competition were using.
Ok so tastes differ, but their's reminded me of a smokey Sweet Maia's Amber Blend. I guess they have to roast it dark to cut thru the cow juice. I like my roasts dark and mysterious

[Bren_D]

It was on a par with the slightly better than average shots I manage and certainly far better than the Nero, Starbucks and Costas within spitting distance of the place could have managed.

Funnily enough, I rather like the taste of what Nero (Gatwick) has to offer. We did a weeks Thomson cruise to Spain and Morocco. The ship's coffee and those I sampled at various ports, were pretty grim. One exception was Caffe Pepe's in the mountain village of Mijass, which was quite drinkable.
On returning to Gatwick on the evening of Fri 21st, we had 8 hours to kill, waiting for the 'flying egg whisk' Dash 8, to shuttle us back to Plymouth. Nero's turned out to be a life saver. Firstly I was attracted by the long queue waiting for coffee (a good sign) and they were serving in espresso cups - not the 10oz paper cups that the Gatwick competition were using.
Ok so tastes differ, but their's reminded me of a smokey Sweet Maia's Amber Blend. I guess they have to roast it dark to cut thru the cow juice. I like my roasts dark and mysterious

I've had some nice shots in a Nero up in London, but the two in Plymouth make awful espresso I was as excited as one can be at a chain opening up when I saw the Nero signs and about as disappointed as possible when the coffee was so crap.

[Bren_D]

Walking through town earlier I noticed a sign in the window of the new Surfing Life store advertising a coffee bar. In need of a hit I thought I'd give them a go and went in with little or no expectations hoping to be pleasently surprised.

The coffee bar was a thing of beauty, a lovely looking two group machine, a decent grinder (A Mazzer perhaps, I recognised the hopper and doser) lovely comfy sofas, plasmas showing surfing videos and good music. But there didn't seem to be anyone behind the counter. I could have gone behind there myself and pulled a shot or two and emptied the till in the time it took one of the three members of staff up there to notice me.

When a lass finally came over I ordered a double to see what she was up to doing with the equipment. A barista she wasn't. I think she sent me over to sit down and offered to bring my coffee over to me so I didn't watch how she made it too carefully. I don't know why she decided to pour my double into a single cup and a shot glass, but that set the alarm bells ringing. After 30 seconds she had what was a reasonable looking double ristretto, but she decided to leave the pump running for nearly a minute after that before pouring the coffee into a larger cup and running some more water through the machine, getting rid of what little scum, sorry crema that was left. I think she was making it up as she went along.

I wont go into how bad it tasted She did serve it with some brown sugar, though, so she got something right even if she handed me a little jug of milk to go with my americano sized, dishwater tasting espresso.

She then beggared off and left me waiting at the counter to pay for my drink. I left a couple of quid and walked out a little poorer and still in need of caffeine

Somewhere like that could be a goldmine if they employed a semi-decent barista. Their only competition is the big three chains so if word got out that they sold better espresso they would fly. They had the coffee bar itself sorted and the gear was fine, a shame about the staff.