Too Much Coffee

Got a day off today so I thought I'd visit a coffee shop I had heard whispers about. Unfortunatly I got there just after they had closed.

It doesn't look like I missed much however, a quick chat with the propriatress revealed a consumer/pro-sumer super-auto machine and coffee bought from America.

Dejected I popped up the city centre to do some banking and Christmas browsing and saw that the Thorntons chocolate shop had been remade into "Thorntons Cafe". Behind the bar a La Cimbali M39, a machine I personally rate, looked clean and a LaCim grinder along side it. Was craving an espresso so thats what I got. It doesn't seem like they do too many of these as he took a moment to find it on the till and then it was presented in a cappuccino cup...

The shot itself was about the right dose, I think it poured in about 16 seconds (single basket) the crema was thin but probably wasn't helped by that fact that the diameter of the top of the shot was about 4cm. It didn't taste bad atall but not the syrup-y sweet shots that I love from when I get them in London. I would say its the upper bar of the chains but suffers from the usual problems. Prices were reasonable and it came with a lovely little truffle.

Would go there with friends, avoiding Starbucks or Costa but not with coffee friends.

I will find a good coffee shop in MK if it freaking kills me.....

Ah the big concrete jungle that is MK. I could never find a decent shot there, though Oxfordshire is no better for coffee as far as I can tell.

I FOUND ONE!!!

I cannot beleive a) I put off trying this place for so long b) This is actually good. OK 'This' is a shop that's been in Milton Keynes for ages, very obivous and yet somewhere I never felt the urge to try. It's a Internet Cafe technically, called "Xpresso Net" perhaps the X was what put me off...anyway I had assumed it was an Internet shop with a coffee sideline and had ignored it for ages, today I decided to stop judging the shop by it's cover and actually go in and give them a shot...or let them give me one. I was pleasantly surprised, though the coffee was dark roast it had character, rather than tasting just like coffee, it had some fruityness to it and was really drinkable. Upon conversation with the owner I found out their coffee is imported from Italy, (a Turin based roastery although the name didn't stick) but I'm not about to complain, it's just great to finally find a decent independant coffee shop in Milton Keynes. If you're in MK and want to try them out they're based in the SnoZone which looks like a giant drinks can essentially. Towards the back (if you're looking at it longwise).

I FOUND ONE! I FOUND ONE!!!

Congratulations! I've never been to Milton Keynes, but if I ever get there...

DeMartini comes to mind when you say coffee and Turin. They do some amazing blends.

Nice one .... now just all the concrete and confusing grid system to sort out

It still amuses me that everyone who lives here see's it as the only logical way to organise roads and everyone who doesn't gets immensely confused by them

Lines and lines and lines ........ I'm easily confused at the best of times