Cafe Culture
Filtered : News on the caffeine scene
From the coffee trade magazine Boughton’s Coffee House (www.coffee-house.org.uk) The coffee-bar chain Costa has announced that within two years all its coffee will be certified by the Rainforest Alliance, with a third of its coffee due to be certified by September…Also working with the Rainforest Alliance is PG Tips, whose teas are to be served in all 1,200 McDonald’s restaurants across the UK. At least 50 per cent of PG Tips tea comes from Rainforest Alliance-certified farms, and the intention is for all supplying farms to be certified by 2010. McDonald’s also switched to Rainforest Alliance-certified coffee from Kenco last year and suggests that the move contributed to an increase in the number of cups of coffee sold every day.
Starbucks has opened its first British drive-through coffee house, on a site in Cardiff which includes a business park, a retail park and the International Sports Village, a giant undertaking which the Welsh Development Agency has called ‘the UK’s most exciting regeneration project’.
Costa (what, them again?) has opened its first outlet in Moscow, with plans to open around 200 more in Russia in the next five years. The coffee shop concept is new to Russia and a recently acquired habit for a small number of Russians. It is reported that coffee shop coffee is expensive by Moscow standards, with a cappuccino costing anything from £2.50 to £5.
The sudden death has occurred of a giant in the coffee business in Scotland. David Williamson, managing director of the Glasgow-based coffee importer and roaster Matthew Algie, has died suddenly at the age of 42. Mr Williamson was a sixth generation descendant of the founder of the 144-year-old company. During his tenure, Matthew Algie doubled in size. The company sells coffee to 60 per cent of the UK’s four and five-star hotels, including Gleneagles, and also supplies the House of Commons and the Scottish Parliament. Mr Williamson’s great-great-great-grandfather, Matthew Algie, established the company in 1864. It has around 40 per cent of the UK Fairtrade coffee market
Square go
Free Wi-Fi
Other free Wi-Fi spots (with purchase) around town include: Cargo (Edinburgh Quay), All Good (107- 109 Morrison St.), Fair Trade Coffee Shop (30-31 Albert Place), Sygn (15 Charlotte Lane), Baroque (39-41 Broughton St.), La Favorita (325-331 Leith Walk), Black Medicine (2 Nicolson St. & 108 Marchmont Rd.), Joseph Pearce (23 Elm Row) and La Cerise (199 Great Junction St.).
A tall, half-whip skinny capp to go, please
Understanding the vast range of coffee drinks available today can be a real challenge. Starbucks in particular has a bewildering array of coffee choices which practically requires customers to learn a new language. Just as we were coming to terms with classic coffee terms such as mocha, cappuccino, latte and skinny, along come a bunch of new ones. Try impressing counter staff by asking for one of these: a Java Chip Frappuccino (a mocha frappuccino – a frozen coffee drink - with chocolate chip toppings blended in, topped off with whipped cream and chocolate drizzle); a Misto (half coffee, half steamed milk and some foam); or a Mocha Valencia (an orange-flavoured mocha).
Opening shots
New cafés and café-bars are popping up like toast
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Café Culture @ Home Domestic Bliss
Cafe Bars
Just the tonic
CM Design Consultants of Glasgow have given Tonic a stylish new look, with the bar’s signature deep burgundy tones on the walls, walnut panelling and leather upholstery off-set by a walnut and slate-effect flooring. The ice-white tables, shaped like elegant martini glasses, are from Casamania in Italy and are a first in Scotland. Other design features include dramatic mirrors and leaded-glass pendant lights.
Tonic is currently recognised by the drinks industry magazine, Theme, as Scotland’s Classic Bar of the Year, while Sam Kershaw has twice won the Scottish Bartender of the Year Award by Theme.
For barflies with w-a-y too much time on their hands comes Barbore.com, the Edinburgh–based website ‘for those of us who get emotional when too much lime goes into our Mount Gay Extra Old daiquiris’. Example on the subject of spacethemed cocktails: ‘I like to garnish a white Russian (straight up) with a coffee bean and make it look like a meteorite coming from space with some fresh espresso and a straw to do the tails.’ Some people should serve more and sample less…
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