The people and places that define London's coffee culture

I used to think coffee was just a means to an end. You put up with the bleugh taste in order to feel more awake. And if you valued that feeling, you could somehow learn to live with drinking caffeinated bin-juice.

Then, on a visit to Auckland many years ago, a friend bought me a flat white. I couldn’t believe the difference: it was all light and smooth and didn’t even need sugar. ‘Wait,’ I thought. ‘Coffee can taste like this?’

That discovery sparked a long journey of learning why people make coffee one way and not another, opening up a world of information that seemed both mind-bogglingly complex and yet ridiculously simple.

I tried to learn different coffee-making techniques and grappled with the insane number of variables involved (the grind size, the roasting date, the temperature of the water, the brew time, the ratios, the texture and temperature of the milk).

I started going to barista competitions, a slightly surreal subculture where people prepare coffee as if it’s an Olympic event – watched by a panel of judges as their performance is streamed live online.

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