Coffee in a Van, Coffee From a Man, Coffee coffee coffee

It’s time to review more coffee shops and this time round some more random choices.

Coffee from a Van seems a bit dodgy, a van in a run down, almost completely empty Market, seems Very Dodgy, A man trying to sell me coffee for £6.50 seems wrong!

But that’s what happens if you go down to Hoxton Market on a Saturday, there is indeed a man standing (usually) in a Military Uniform at the back of a Transit Van, with a coffee machine loaded in the back. We have been past a number of times, but never dared to try the coffee proffered by him, but the other day we happened to stop next to said van and he asked the question.

“Do you like coffee?” What were we to do, we had to say yes of course! (We couldn’t lie!) We ordered the usual, Soya Mocha, to which at first he didn’t seem to have any Soya, but after some routing around a new bottle was discovered and he took the order, the offer of real Belgian chocolate, marshmallows and whipped cream on top, was too much for the coffee and the price (£6.50+), so we opted for the simple version.

Then we got to talking and we happened to mention these reviews and suddenly the Belgian Chocolate and Marshmallows were being whipped out, we stopped him from the Whipped Cream – people don’t seem to think that Whipped Cream constitutes Dairy, or lactose, probably because it comes from an aerosol can!

The order took a bit of time, probably not that long but it was so cold, it felt like hours! But the results were good, the marshmallows were a bit over the top but the rich chocolate really added to the drink and the coffee was pretty good, it was also hot too!

T4 Bubble Tea

T4 Bubble Tea, Liverpool St

We spent far too long walking around the Liverpool Street area trying to find a coffee or Bubble Tea, that wasn’t a thimble of white froth, or that had milk alternatives – most just had diary milk and nothing else!

So we found T4 and then stood at the door and shouted to the counter inside, over the noise of the radio playing and the machines buzzing and grinding away. The staff strained to hear our questions and were of no help, when we tried to make sense of the confusing menu.

We ordered a coffee based Bubble Tea and a Chocolate Based Tea, Something about ballet, the chocolate one didn’t come with Tapioca Pearls even though we went through a whole shouting conversation about what we needed to add as extras and the Coffee one was a weird mix of coffee and Earl Grey Tea.

The drinks were ok and tasted a bit mhhhh in the end.

Aroma – Clapton High St

This is not a regular haunt of ours but having found ourselves in the area, we needed a coffee, there are a few shops along the road but this looked the most appealing and best presented, in other words it didn’t look scummy or like a workman’s cafe.

Inside was a mass of tables and chairs, books and objects just waiting to be laid out for when people can once again sit and have a coffee – oh remember those days, no us either, it’s been so long.

The woman serving was really happy to see a customer and the standard 2 Soya Mochas were delivered in what could have been record time. Granted it was a little on the warm side and not hot as we like them, but overall the taste was good and we walked and sipped, happy with our choice.

should we be back there again Aroma would be a good place to return to.

Dot Dot Bubble Tea Stoke Newington Church St

Once again we found ourselves in Stokey and needed coffee, we have tried most of the coffee shops in the are and noticed the new little Bubble Tea Shop near the end of the Trendy road, amongst the Indian Restaurants and kid’s Shops.

We ordered a Black Sugar and a Coffee Tea, Hong Kong Style, hot and with Soya Milk, the Barista was eager to tell us they have a Vegan style and went into such detail about that we ordered, then started to talk to another customer/friend and we think she neglected to write down that we wanted our drinks hot – it’s still not hot enough for iced drink, no it really isn’t -.

What we got were tepid drinks with a ton of ice cubes in them and the sugar was all at the top, as if they put it in having forgot. The flavours weren’t bad (at first with the sugar) but became sour/bitter after the first 2cm of drinking. We may go back if we are in the area, but we would have to be louder and more rambunctious in our ordering!

Kentish Town Neighbourhood Organic

Another day, another area of London we aren’t in that often, but we looked and found a few coffee shops along Kentish Town Road, but most seemed to serve the standard thimbles of froth, so we kept looking, Neighbourhood Organic is a big shop and the number of customers sat outside bode well, plus their cups were bigger than the others we had past.

A standard order as usual, plus a cookie and a muffin, we did look at the savoury food, but the prices were all way too high to justify £4.50 for a single piece of breadcrumb Halumi whereas the sweet foods were around £1-2 each.

The service was pretty quick and there was plenty of them and were all pleasant too.

the coffee though still not hot, was pretty good and the cakes weren’t bad either.

Well there you go another round up of Independent Coffee and BubbleTea Shops in and around London. It’s good to see them opening again, maybe next post will be about how we actually sat inside and drank. But until then, we hope you enjoy our latest round-up!