People who follow me on twitter may have seen me talking about us working on supplying a coffee shop in the London area. For a long time I’ve look enviously at the scene in London and for a long time wanted to supply a shop that we can send our international friends who come into the capital, who want to try our coffee.

I wanted this to be on the best possible equipment with talented baristas who care. Its would be nice if it was an amazing environment and good food to go with it too. With the world barista championships upon us, this became even more important to me and I’ve never been able to say go to ……… to try our espresso.

This has been made harder for many many reasons. Its a strong hold of Monmouth, Union and Square Mile, all of these companies are my friends who do a great job. Being in the area and on the ground, they have a big advantage of being able to offer support training and back up when needed to new start up companies, and can also give them far better coverage than our little operation.

So the shop we supplied needed to be established, not supplied by one of my three friends and all of the above (talk about being picky) and self sufficient in training and in needs that a new shop can demand. This is why it just has never happened, until now.

There was a time that in London you used to go to Monmouth, you would go to Flat white and end up in Fernandez and Wells. This was at a time when these were the only shows in town. I loved (and still do) all three, but while the others kept up evolved, not just my opinion but speaking to lots of people in the coffee industry F & W had fell off that coffee map a little. I’m not sure why because Beak Street remained a great place to grab breakfast or lunch, the wine bar in Lexington Street a great place to grab a glass of wine and plate of meats in the afternoon. Added to these two shops is the there was also the opening of St Annes Court, which is a cool bar set up that’s like the other shops in the coolest part of town. But with the new shops opening in London, they didn’t get mentioned half as much as I felt they deserved.

Fernandez and Wells have some of the best equipment available with Synesso’s and mazzers everywhere, and (and I truly mean this) some of the best baristas in the country, understanding coffee, and doing a fantastic job of getting the very best out of their coffee for a long time. There was a time that because of the taste they wanted to achieve they were using 32 g doses (massive up dose) just so they could get what they wanted. Very demanding but thats what happens with truly great shops.

We have been talking to them for a while with it speeding up over the past few months. It had to be the right move for all of us, but I am pleased to say that as of Friday this week we will be the official coffee supplier. We have built them a blend (not sure if they are happy for me to share with you but will ask). They key part being from Friday while the blend rests, and they use there current stocks.

So I’m super pleased, I hope your able to pop in and try the new blend, let me just say, close friends who I have told whats in the blend have gone “WOW thats an expensive blend”

A special thank you to James at Square Mile who without their help I would never have been able to do this.

A map below, there website is here and please tell them when you visit next weekend why your there, and feedback here, to me on email and most importantly to the baristas what you think of the coffee. Everyone who has tried it so far has loved it.
View Fernandez & Wells in a larger map