british coffee

Agatha Christie once said : 'Coffee in England always tastes like a chemistry experiment'

But she was born in1890 and my quote was very true for a long time. I too remember when you could hardly tell the difference between tea and coffee in certain establishments (Lyon Corner House for instance!)

The only "real' coffee to be had was by buying it in specialist shops where they roasted the beans themselves.I remember a shop quaint olde worlde shoppe in Stevenage Old Town that roasted it's own beans in their shop window. Unfortunately they roasted them for about the same time the British used to boil cabbage = far too long! The smell coming from the roasting beans always seemed to be burnt and oily.

This meant I drank Camp coffee which was, and still is, a glutinous brown substance which consists of water, sugar, 4% coffee essence, and 26% chicory essence.
Or instant coffee when it carried in it came into common use after the war.
The British public only moved on to proper filter coffee after perhaps drinking it while abroad in the mass tourist travel boom back in the 70's.

The Dutch coffee company Douwe Egberts introduced individual filter coffee sometime in the 80's and i remember especially looking for pubs that had a sign for it outside ! At last real coffee !

From then it's been onwards and upwards to the espresso/latte culture we have today.

Of course Starbuck's has been a HUGE source of inspirtation. Go to the Starbucks’ website to find salvation of a store near you !