Never stop searching
I nearly thought it was all for naught this Monday, back on the coffee shop beat, searching for the perfect place to rest my feet and caffeinate my veins. I again trekked many miles: From Stamford Hill, to Clapton, to Hackney Wick and round the Olympic Park, then on to Homerton, Hackney Central, London Fields, Cambridge Heath, Bethnal Green, and finally from Shoreditch High Street back up to Dalston. It was another eight hours on my feet and I only found one coffee worth a damn (which was a lovely, flavoursome, just-about-perfect espresso from Venetia’s whilst sat in the mid-day sun on Chatsworth Road). I was starting to think there might simply not be enough worthwhile coffee shops to visit in London – an outcome I hadn’t even vaguely imagined to be possible.
Taking a break from the beans for a while, an exhaustive search through the bottom-rack crates in Wayside Community Centre Charity Shop, just a few doors down from Venetia’s, netted more lemons than gems, but the 50p paid for a Bobby Hughes instrumental remix of Phased by Santessa made me forget about my dirty knees and look forward to giving the tune a spin once home.
I covered a large part of southern Hackney in the afternoon, turning up little more of interest than the still further gentrified Broadway Market and a disappointing return to Brick Lane Coffee (certainly in need of a facelift). Some beetroot soup at the noteworthy Little Georgia Café provided the necessary fuel to keep on moving.
It always pays to keep your eyes and mind open as I made the final few steps home to N16 and noted a small black sign with green lettering, upon which it said “The only real coffee in London.” Clearly, I would have to investigate. Situated in the courtyard of Gillett Square, just off Kingsland High Street, is the tiny stall, Kaffa Coffee, named, I would learn, after the Kingdom of Kaffa in what is now Ethiopia and was the origin of Coffea arabica, which grows wild in the mountain rainforests. Marcus, a jovial man with 700 coffee trees planted back home on his family estate, ships the green beans to UK and roasts them himself on stovetop, although he declined to show allow me to assist next time he is roasting, for his method remains a highly-guarded family secret. From the vintage double boiler Gaggia machine, he draws me a long espresso in a pre-heated, handleless cup with an Ethiopian flag on the side. When he places it on the somewhat precarious-looking wooden counter, I immediately notice the greenish-brown crema and take a sip before deciding sugar would only distract from the experience. It was a very enjoyable cup it was indeed and I will be back – probably to again ask him for a job if not make a proposal for him to provide the beans for Digger’s Delight. At £1.20, this is the best value and best coffee of the day. You can come round on Saturday afternoons when they have a pre-clubbing BBQ and every Sunday the women come round to prepare coffee in the traditional Ethiopian way. It's right next to Vortex Jazz, so best to come extra early for the show and grab a coffee along the way.
And, fittingly, here's what Marcus was playing - Ethiopian jazz:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=0uwlEp1pmvg (Mulatu Astatke - Gubèlyé)