After experiencing the AeroPress, on to Valdez and Sons, a few blocks away. The special of the day was an iced latte, so I decided to sample it. The milk was poured cold into the cup with ice and then the espresso was added. The drink was quite tasty, with a natural sweetness of the coffee balanced by the milk. It didn’t need sugar, and it was quite refreshing.

The final stop on my tour: Milkbar. The menu looked suspiciously similar to that of Flat White, and when I asked about it, they told me that the two cafés were indeed owned by the same person.  I decided to try their signature drink, a flat white, and was rewarded with another small ceramic cup (despite the number of times I’ve been there, it always takes a while to get used to the small sizes of cups in the U.K.!) containing the drink with a decorated rosette on top. It too was delicious.

With that, my tour was finished. I consumed four different coffee drinks and enjoyed them all. Each of the locations was in a relatively small area of London, but my map showed about another two dozen to try. My thanks to Coffee Kids for creating the map!  (Have I mentioned lately that they are a great organization and deserve support?) I’m looking forward to my next trip to London to explore the other unique cafés on the map!

For a city so long synonymous with tea, London has become increasingly identified with coffee. It boasts three large chains of coffee shops in addition to Starbucks, which entered the London market almost 20 years ago. Caffe Nero, Costa, and Coffee Republic each have hundreds of locations, which is remarkable given the size of the market. (By comparison, the United States has about the same number of large coffee shop chains, yet with about five times the population.) And as the London market has become more sophisticated, smaller independent stores have opened, offering different drinks and more sophisticated coffees.

Jeremy Torz of Union Hand-Roasted has been roasting specialty coffee in the U.K. for almost 20 years and prides himself on offering the finest coffee he can source from around the world. At the recent Caffè Culture show, his stand included a brew bar to allow patrons to sample different coffees prepared in various ways. I selected a Hario pour-over from Japan and then chose among three different coffees from Rwanda. This level of diversity – three coffees from Rwanda! – is remarkable and shows the lengths to which Jeremy goes to procure the best beans possible.

Coffee Kids is a terrific non-profit organization devoted to helping coffee-growing families improve their quality of life. Coffee Kids connects producers with consumers to help educate people about the difficulties of growing coffee and living on that income. (I’ve written about these guys in the past; I encourage you to check out their website. Suffice it to say that they exist on donations alone, and any amount is welcome in helping them improve the lives of others.) Many of Coffee Kids’ donors are large and small coffee companies, and to help encourage the support of indie cafés, they created a map of London with nearly two dozen listed. Not knowing the local indie coffee scene well, I decided to investigate.

Armed with my map, I took the tube to Piccadilly Circus and began walking up Regent Street. The first shop I found was Lj Coffee House, a tiny storefront with a few tables and some overstuffed chairs. The menu proudly proclaimed that they served Union Coffee. I asked for a “flat white,” the Australian import that’s rapidly becoming popular in London. It’s espresso with steamed and foamed milk, like a cappuccino, but quite small.  Served with a latte art rosette on top, it was delicious. The coffee was strong and smooth, and the silky texture of the milk made the entire drink creamy. A perfect start to my tour of some of London’s indie cafés!