Since today's my last day here in London sitting in a filthy little internet cafe, I thought I'd post my opinions about the coffee I've had:
Toast's place - brilliant. Love his L'anna
and homeroasted stuff, thanks for lending a pillow!
Flat White - they're using a blend developed with Squaremile now, and their short black (as they call it, ultra dense thick fuuuull bodied ristretto thingy) is awesome. Thick thick short dense chocolaty fruit bomb, certainly not what I'd expect from such a short shot. Talked to the barista (Dwayne?) a while and he seemed really passionate about everything coffee and also loved their new blend. You Kiwis have an interesting way of squeezing the flavours out of the puck!
Also tried the flat white (awesome) and a piccolo latte, which is something like a single ristretto in a very small glass topped with very nice latte art, the perfect milk drink for me not-so-milk-drinker. Surprisingly bright and fruit cutting through the milk. Thanks toast for the recommendation!
Fernandez and Wells - Cakeboy, thanks for the recommendation! No regrets their either. Very nice staff, had a brilliant breakfast and a very nice double espresso off the monmouth blend. good coffee good food, nice combination. But - I've never seen a barista working so messy with the grinder covered in grounds ... they've got a very strange dosing style, but still the coffee tasted very nice.
Squaremile - I'll leave that to when I'm home. We're about to cup some very special coffee tonight
London doesn't seem so bad when you're having nice coffee all day long.
edit: I totally forgot - Monmouth Coffee!
Last year I had a really strong cup of brewed coffee there, last week it was rather the opposite. A nice brewed cup of some Guatemalan Coffee IIRC, just a tad little overextracted/they could've dosed a gram or so more, but nevertheless still a nice cup. Very nice place to sit too, if you get a seat that is!