coffee

eightpointnine.com’s personalised coffee

November 19, 2011 Food & drink

One of the key things about coffee is freshness. It’s the reason that any coffee shop worth its salt grinds their own beans, with the very best grinding small quantities very regularly. At home, it’s difficult to get a decent grind out of most domestic grinders….blade grinders just obliterate the beans, and they do that [...]

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Laynes Espresso, New Station Street, Leeds

July 2, 2011 Eating out

Leeds is littered with bad coffee shops. They’re everywhere, on every corner, selling their burnt-out espresso watered down with a gallon of milk to disguise the terrible taste of the coffee within. In among all the multinational chains, there are a few independents, places serving the real deal and serving it with passion and skill. [...]

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How to brew coffee with a cafetiere

April 9, 2011 Food & drink

Coffee is easy to make well, and even easier to make badly. There are plenty of methods of making coffee, but the stand-out, everyday method is to use a cafetière, or a French press as it’s known over The Pond. Forget about drip or filter coffee, keep the Italian stove top pot for when you’ve [...]

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How to order coffee like an Italian

October 27, 2010 Eating out

Ordering a cup of coffee in a traditional Italian café at a busy time of day is a little daunting for a visitor. Firstly, the place will be chaotic, full of jostling people knocking back espresso in one gulp. Receipts and coins fly everywhere, and at the centre of it all, there’s a gleaming espresso [...]

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Why Starbucks might be a force for good

May 5, 2010 Food politics

I think that Starbucks gets a lot of unfair flack, and I’ll admit that I’ve dished some out myself in the past. The ‘is Starbucks evil?’ question is one that’s regularly tossed around. I don’t think there’s a definitive answer. Any corporation the size of Starbucks will attract some form of criticism, and Starbucks has [...]

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More great coffee in Leeds – La Bottega Milanese

March 10, 2010 Eating out

There are plenty of places to get a cup of coffee in Leeds, but the problem is, most of them are very bad indeed. If you want the best part of a pint of steamed milk with a shot of badly roasted espresso in it, there’s a Starbucks or one of it’s clones on nearly [...]

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Opposite Coffee, Leeds, redux

December 13, 2009 Eating out

I’ve written before about Opposite in the Victoria Quarter in Leeds, and I don’t normally write about places a second time, but this story needs telling. I spent yesterday morning trudging round the centre of Leeds with the rest of Yorkshire looking for elusive Christmas presents, things for those people who’ve got everything and need [...]

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Librairie Salon de Thé, Bécherel, France

August 26, 2009 Eating out

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Opposite – real coffee in Leeds

August 7, 2009 Eating out

I wrote last week about the new Starbucks stealth cafés that are springing up in Seattle, and as an afterthought added that Opposite in the Victoria Quarter probably serves the best coffee in Leeds. This doesn’t do Opposite justice. Opposite’s original branch is opposite the Parkinson building at the University of Leeds, tempting academics out [...]

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