Week beginning June 25th - Amy's leaving

One of the absolute best things about living in London is the amount of people you can meet and friends you make from all parts of the world.

One of the worst things, is saying goodbye to them.

This week we say farewell to one of the true legends of Kaffeine, our manager Amy. A person who has set such a very high standards in professionalism, commitment, passion and dedication to both the business and herself, and who has helped grow the business into one of the busiest and most well respected cafes in the UK.

Amy started as a barista in September 2010 and has been the manager of Kaffeine since July 2011. It is a role that she was so excited about taking on, and one she has so well accomplished.

I normally find words easy to write in this section, but in this case I am finding it hard to put across how much I appreciate her time here.

With my hand on my heart, all I can say, is thank you.

She finishes at 4 pm on this Wednesday the 27th. If you are free at all tomorrow and can pop in to say goodbye, you will be more than welcome.

We wish Amy all the very best and am confident that she will have continued success in her career and life in Australia.

We hope she enjoys this weeks menu at Kaffeine, but that it won't be her last.

Traditional bircher muesli with rhubarb and raspberry compote 3.30
Granola muesli with pomegranate molasses and rhubarb and raspberry compote 3.30
Fruit salad (pineapple, mango, strawberries, grapes, passionfruit, peach) 3.50
(add 30 p for granola or yoghurt)
Ciabatta Roll with omelette, pancetta, rocket and tomato salsa 4.70
Ciabatta Roll with courgette omelette, rocket and tomato salsa 4.70
Croissant with Italian roast ham, talleggio cheese, spinach & plum tomatoes 4.70
Croissant with gruyere cheese and plum tomatoes 3.90
Seven seed bakery bloomer toast with homemade preserves 1.70
Cinnamon and raisin toast 2.30
Banana Bread 2.20


Pastries by Seven Seed bakery
French butter croissants 1.70
Pain au chocolat 2.30
Almond croissants 2.70

Baked Treats
Cherry and Oat sweet muffins 2.00
Spinach and Feta savoury muffins 2.00
Melilot friands 2.00
Super moist chocolate brownies 2.30
White chocolate blondies 2.30
Portuguese tarts 1.90
ANZAC cookies 1.70
Afgan biscuits 1.70

Lunch

French retro baguettes 4.70
Ham, dijon, red onion, gherkin, gruyere, spinach
Sweet corn pickle, mature cheddar, rocket, cucumber, tomato

Foccacias with sea salt and rosemary crust 4.90
Salmon, dill, red onion, capers, aioli, spinach
Ham, red pepper pesto, brie, tomato, rocket

Salads 4.90/5.90
Chicken Adobu with Camargue red rice and Cos Lettuce
Apricots, Spiced Ewes Cheese dressing, Ginger Rye Crackers, spring onion and red chillies
Pak Choi with red Gooseberries and Ketjap Manis

Tart 4.00 or 6.90 with salad
Tuna Spelt Bake with Buckthorn mousse

Weekend Brunch Menu and Guest Espresso
Salads 5.50/6.50
Soft boiled egg with smoked salmon, croutons, hollandaise and baby spinach
Apricots, cherry tomatoes, bufala mozzarella, pesto and rocket
Roast aubergine with sweet chilli, goats cheese and Thai basil

Tart 5.00 or 7.50 with salad
Courgette, leeks, pancetta, free range eggs and cheese

Guest Espresso
Monkshood

Week beginning June 18th - Proof that Ireland and the UK does make good coffee...

I admit that I am not a total expert in the are of Barista Competitions. I do remember before opening Kaffeine taking a 'sick' day off work and going to watch Gwilym Davies in the south east heats with all the Square Mile crew on a road trip down to Lewes where he went on to be the UK and then the world barista champion.

Time, business and a family does not permit me much opportunity to keep up these days, but the staff here do help me keep in contact. For those who do not know, the World Barista Championships were held last week in Vienna and a young man from Guatemala won. I have not seen any of the performances, but one of our staff members did travel over there to see it all happen, so we will wait for his report.

What I do know is that once again, Ireland and the UK have been dominant in the placings. A lot of talk goes about by certain people that you cannot get good coffee in this part of the world, that they do not know how to make coffee etc etc. But what I wish to highlight and congratulate here, is the amount of people who do make exceptional coffee and have been in the competitions to prove it.

Again, I am not an expert, but this is what I do know:

2012
Ireland - Colin Harmon - 3rd place
UK - Maxwell Colonna-Dashwood - 6th place

2011
UK - John Gordon - 6th place

2010
Ireland - Colin Harmon - 4th place

2009
UK - Gwilym Davies - 1st place
Ireland - Colin Harmon - 4th place

2008
Ireland - Stephen Morrissey- 1st place

2007
UK - James Hoffman - 1st place

How fantastic is that! I think it's brilliant. And what not many people really know is how much time and effort these guys put into their performances and how committed they are to it all. It deserves a massive congratulations, in fact anyone who competes at this level should be highly congratulated. Well done.

We hope you enjoy the menu this week.

Traditional bircher muesli with rhubarb and raspberry compote 3.30
Granola muesli with pomegranate molasses and rhubarb and raspberry compote 3.30
Fruit salad (pineapple, mango, strawberries, grapes, passionfruit, peach) 3.50
(add 30 p for granola or yoghurt)
Ciabatta Roll with omelette, pancetta, rocket and tomato salsa 4.70
Ciabatta Roll with courgette omelette, rocket and tomato salsa 4.70
Croissant with Italian roast ham, talleggio cheese, spinach & plum tomatoes 4.70
Croissant with gruyere cheese and plum tomatoes 3.90
Seven seed bakery bloomer toast with homemade preserves 1.70
Cinnamon and raisin toast 2.30
Banana Bread 2.20


Pastries by Seven Seed bakery
French butter croissants 1.70
Pain au chocolat 2.30
Almond croissants 2.70

Baked Treats
Blueberry and elderflower sweet muffins 2.00
Curried corn savoury muffins 2.00
Melilot friands 2.00
Super moist chocolate brownies 2.30
White chocolate blondies 2.30
Portuguese tarts 1.90
ANZAC cookies 1.70
Afgan biscuits 1.70

Lunch

French retro baguettes 4.70
Duck with tarragon mayo, tomato, spinach, avocado
Tuna with rouille, capers and rocket

Foccacias with sea salt and rosemary crust 4.90
Ham with blackcurrant, brie, rocket and red onion
Mushrooms and welsh rarebit with spinach

Salads 4.90/5.90
Prawns with crunched peas, black currants, sea arrow grass and fennel
Ginger curried chick peas with water mint, cucumber, goats cheese, bourbon and rose dressing
Wild watercress with beetroot, walnut, apple and cinnamon dressing

Tart 4.00 or 6.90 with salad
Artichoke and parmesan

Weekend Brunch Menu and Guest Espresso
Salads 5.50/6.50
Soft boiled egg with smoked salmon, croutons, hollandaise and baby spinach
Apricots, cherry tomatoes, bufala mozzarella, pesto and rocket
Roast aubergine with sweet chilli, goats cheese and Thai basil

Tart 5.00 or 7.50 with salad
Courgette, leeks, pancetta, free range eggs and cheese

Guest Espresso
Monkshood

The menu for 11th June and why I love London

I have been living in the UK now for 10 years altogether, and it was just the other morning, as I came up from Oxford street early in the morning and looked at all the British flags they have up and down Regent/Oxford streets at the moment, that I realised again how much I enjoy living here. It gave me a real sense of pride.

I then thought about the Diamond Jubilee, of course the Olympics, then thought about Euro 2012, Wimbledon, the summer (I know) and how fabulous it is to be in the UK at this time. But then I thought even more and remembered back to a speech I made at the Cafe Society awards two weeks ago about how proud I am to be the owner of a hospitality business, in a city that is now known as one of the great food capitals of the world.

I also thought about our daughter Layla, and all the opportunities that she is already having by living here, and all the opportunities she will have in her future. She has already been to Spain, France and Italy on holidays and she is only just two!

Then I thought about a show we watched the other night. A three part documentary, it showed life in the three main markets of London, fish at Billingsgate, meat at Smithfields and vegetables at New Spitalfields. A kurdish man at Spitalfields spoke about how he came to London and was able to build himself up to be a very successful operator, because of the opportunities London provided and because he has worked hard to take advantage of those opportunities.

London is a truly wonderful place, my wife and I really love living here. I truly hope that the UK this summer will show the world how great it is, through its tourism, its hospitality, it sporting events and its sporting success, and that people will continue to see the UK as a great land of opportunity where almost anything is possible if you work hard and have passion.

I'm really proud to live here, even though my parents and some life long friends are back in Australia. I think it's a fabulous place, a real land of opportunity and I hope that with all the hard work that a lot of people are doing, it will continue to be so.

We also hope you enjoy this weeks menu, thank you.


Traditional bircher muesli with rhubarb and raspberry compote 3.30
Granola muesli with pomegranate molasses and rhubarb and raspberry compote 3.30
Fruit salad (pineapple, mango, strawberries, grapes, passionfruit, peach) 3.50
(add 30 p for granola or yoghurt)
Ciabatta Roll with omelette, pancetta, rocket and tomato salsa 4.70
Ciabatta Roll with courgette omelette, rocket and tomato salsa 4.70
Croissant with Italian roast ham, talleggio cheese, spinach & plum tomatoes 4.70
Croissant with gruyere cheese and plum tomatoes 3.90
Seven seed bakery bloomer toast with homemade preserves 1.70
Cinnamon and raisin toast 2.30
Banana Bread 2.20


Pastries by Seven Seed bakery
French butter croissants 1.70
Pain au chocolat 2.30
Almond croissants 2.70

Baked Treats
Apricot and Almond sweet muffins 2.00
Coriander, chilli and goats cheese savoury muffins 2.00
Melilot friands 2.00
Super moist chocolate brownies 2.30
White chocolate blondies 2.30
Portuguese tarts 1.90
ANZAC cookies 1.70
Afgan biscuits 1.70

Lunch

French retro baguettes 4.70
Ham, apple butter, gruyere, gherkin, spinach
Aubergine, sweet chilli, goats cheese, rocket

Foccacias with sea salt and rosemary crust 4.90
Roast courgette, pesto, tomato, mozarella, rocket
Pancetta, avocado, tomato, spinach, aioli, and onion jam

Salads 4.90/5.90
Lamb, cherry, mint, swollen spelt and coffee jus
Broccoli, slow roasted tomatoes and mixed foraged herbs i.e. sea fennel, sea rosemary, oyster leaf.
Edamame with buckthorn dressing


Tart 4.00 or 6.90 with salad
Apricot, brie, rocket and sea aster

The weeks menu and an explanation about cascara from lead barista James

“What is cascara?” It is a question either myself or one of the other staff at Kaffeine get asked nearly every day. It is probably the question I would have asked if I had not landed the job as a barista on one of my first visits to this little café in London. Cascara is the husk, flesh or ‘meat’ of the coffee cherry and can be used in a variety of ways. Typically it is steeped with hot water for a few minutes to yield a deep red tea loaded with flavour and, of course, a fair amount of caffeine. So what does this all mean and why am I telling you all this? There have been a few changes at Kaffeine lately and when Peter first approached me with the idea of writing an entry for Kaffeine’s blog about cascara and what we are doing with it I was a little shocked at first and then the ideas started accumulating as I took another sip of my fifth or sixth coffee for the day.

When I first came to Kaffeine over 12 months ago I loved the fact that we delivered water with all of our espressos and macchiato drinks. For me it was a nice touch and something I hadn’t seen in many other cafes at the time. This was great until I had a conversation with a customer one busy afternoon about his experience at a café in America, which changed everything. Espresso was being matched and paired with anything from honey’s through to different types of juice to complement and highlight characteristics found in the coffee itself. For me I loved the idea of offering something to enhance someone’s coffee experience and once I mentioned it to our manager, Amy, she really gave me the confidence to try a few different things.

Espresso, by nature, is a really heavy and over the top style of coffee and it was important to me to serve it alongside something light, refreshing and, as good as a glass of water is, something a little more complementary than lemon and mint. The cascara cold brew we are currently serving alongside our Red Brick Espresso from Square Mile, in my opinion, really does leave your palette feeling refreshed and the hint of bergamot, supplied by 1g of high quality loose leaf tea, accompanies the finish of the Red Brick Espresso as well. We plan to change the recipe of the cold brew as Square Mile change the blend for Red Brick Espresso so this means there will always be something new, interesting and a little bit different sitting adjacent to your espresso or macchiato in the future.

I am very fortunate to work with people who are not only talented, but also incredibly passionate about what they do. Our chef, the one responsible for the wonderful combinations of flavours that look unusual on paper but somehow work, is also responsible for probably one of the tastiest cascara drinks you will ever try. We had this idea several months ago in the depths of winter about how nice it would be to offer an iced drink for the summer that didn’t have any coffee in it. I couldn’t fathom the idea of a cold drink in a café without caffeine so we talked for a bit over a few of our lunch breaks and decided to try something with cascara. We tried the same recipe with two different types from El Salvador. One was intensely sweet and the other was more fruity and smoky, a more typical cascara flavour, and more to our liking too.

The cascara we are using at the moment comes from an award winning farm in El Salvador, La Ilusion, and is supplied by Has Bean. The final results of our experiments are quite something. Again it was important to me that the flavour of the cascara be the highlight of this drink and the delicate floral notes and refreshing taste of dried fruit is at the core of this summer special. The cascara is reduced with watermelon, apple, mint, cardamom and chillies before being poured over lots of ice and finished with sparkling water. The sparkling cascara is quite caffeinated, so don’t feel like we are trying to rob you of your fix, and totally refreshing in the warmer weather.

So why do I keep on going on about this product? It is unique, interesting and damned tasty. Not only that, but the flesh of the coffee cherry is typically discarded during the coffee production process and often left to rot, so if we can find ways to use more of what the coffee producers are working so hard to deliver it can only be a good thing. So what is cascara? With a little imagination it can be whatever you want it to be.

So please enjoy this weeks menu, and if you do come in, ask us for an iced cascara. They are amazing....

Traditional bircher muesli with rhubarb and raspberry compote 3.30
Granola muesli with pomegranate molasses and rhubarb and raspberry compote 3.30
Fruit salad (pineapple, mango, strawberries, grapes, passionfruit, peach) 3.50
(add 30 p for granola or yoghurt)
Ciabatta Roll with omelette, pancetta, rocket and tomato salsa 4.70
Ciabatta Roll with courgette omelette, rocket and tomato salsa 4.70
Croissant with Italian roast ham, talleggio cheese, spinach & plum tomatoes 4.70
Croissant with gruyere cheese and plum tomatoes 3.90
Seven seed bakery bloomer toast with homemade preserves 1.70
Cinnamon and raisin toast 2.30
Banana Bread 2.20


Pastries by Seven Seed bakery
French butter croissants 1.70
Pain au chocolat 2.30
Almond croissants 2.70

Baked Treats
Sea buckthorn and flat peach sweet muffins 2.00
Brie and red pepper savoury muffins 2.00
Melilot friands 2.00
Super moist chocolate brownies 2.30
White chocolate blondies 2.30
Portuguese tarts 1.90
ANZAC cookies 1.70
Afgan biscuits 1.70

Lunch

French retro baguettes 4.70
Onion Squash with saute mushrooms, spinach and brie
Pancetta with apricot, rocket and basil cheese

Foccacias with sea salt and rosemary crust 4.90
Ham, gherkin, red onion, dijon, gruyere, rocket
Smoked salmon, dill, red onion, capers, aioli, spinach

Salads 4.90/5.90
Bullrush, wild fennel, borlotti cooked in tomato, baby spinach
Black Mustard Leaf with Roasted Beef, Pear, Blues Cheese
Roast Courgette with wild wild rocket, lemon and parmesan


Tart 4.00 or 6.90 with salad
Creamy Onion and thyme tart