Coffee- London’s Lifeblood Addiction

In city living, and London in particular, it seems that the bean is an intravenous staple. Coffee first came to London with colonial exploration around the 16th century. Since then, we have been a shaking yet inspired culture powered by the mysterious bean. What are the ups and downs of our fixation?

The Coffee Shop

While the idea of coffee houses strikes many of us as unstoppable capitalist chains making every high street identical, the original 17th Century Coffehouse became a key sight of the Enlightenment. This began in the mid 17th Century in Oxford when the foreign medicinal plant was used recreationally. Scholars exchanged ideas fuelled by the new product.

Unlike the University, anyone could enter the coffehouse and enjoy a vast array of discussion. Naturally this soon spread to London where Coffehouses formed sites of intellectual exchange in the early 1700s. The polite and structured means of debate within these houses meant they became key places for big business, with the famous Lloyds of London starting like this.

This concept of exchange has remained throughout the coffee shop’s history. It is not a partylike, hedonistic atmosphere like a pub, but a site of creation. Authors, artists and intellectuals seem to hold a particular lineage with these establishments.

Today, our thirst (or morning sluggishness) is greater than ever. Coffee shops seem to be a key marker of gentrification as new startups spring up with infinite variations of what remains the same base product. Gargantuan chains like Starbucks and Costa hold the bulk of the market, reaching to every corner from high streets to service stations and vending machines.

London’s own Pret-a-Manger (yes, homegrown in 1987) has formed a strong love-hate relationship with the consumer, and London in particular. Their recent strategy of giving staff quotas of free giveaway coffees to fulfil means many of us enjoy tossing our hair and grinning inanely while making an order.

The Travel Mug

It doesn’t really make sense that the majority of us must spend 2.50 per go. Just one a day is 17.50 per week! Less than half of that is enough for a a good blend to make at home. Some people seem to curb at least the morning cup by taking a travel mug from home. This is an excellent way of keeping coffee warm on the go. The problem? Well- they’re a bit crap. The Titanic was less leaky than most of these devices. How many laptops, chargers, phones and notepads have been sent to a caffeinated brown grave by a ‘sealed’ mug in the bag? Still, at least carrying one on the tube means people steer clear of you. This is only slightly better than the hand-grenade of a takeaway cup.

Wondrous Concoctions

So the justifications of coffee culture are actually quite compelling. Aside from convenience, at home most of us are capable of little more than an instant americano. A trained barista can create a welcoming, frothing, chocolate-topped fountain of pleasure.

However, we have now been seduced by the more controversial fad of the coffee chain. The super-whaccamacciato and the Twattercino with extra syrups. These are like a strange hot ice cream, diabetes in a cup. If you get behind one of their adoring fans, either tell them to get over themselves and get a latte or be prepared to wait out the Crossrailesque construction time.

Crap Tea

Now this is something we care about. The real problem with coffee chains- worse than poor treatment of staff and cunningly avoided taxes- is the tea. While most aficionados would raise complaint if a single bean were just not quite organic enough, these places seem content to hurl a teabag into a mug and blaze it with steaming water.

But then, they’re never going to get you hooked with camilia sinensis, so the sooner you upgrade to the Latte lounge the better for them.

The Freelance Dick

Free Wifi and Powersockets. All you need to attract the biggest table-blockers of London’s coffee culture. A small cappuccino to nurse over an afternoon of novel writing, app coding, or just whatever it is you do with your sticker-covered macbook.

Headphones are essential of course so no one can ask to borrow your spare three chairs. This writer most definitely doesn’t fall under any of these categories…

Mums

And Dads to be fair. But mainly Mums. Prams like siege-engines- I’m sorry, I didn’t realise Cosmo weighed the same as an IKEA sofa. If coffee shops were not already bohemian enough, these inspire you to plot the downfall of the Bourgeoisie as they discuss so much and yet say nothing at all.

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