Singles and A Taste of Bitter Love

One of the things that I have had a tremendous bit of fun with while in London, is drinking single shots of espresso.  It is something that we never do, or rarely do, in North America anymore.  Truthfully, the only time that I drink a single shot is in and around barista competitions, as baristas are required to pull single shots.  One of the things that I normally don't like about singles is the funky taste of metal on the coffee as a result of it running down the spout [on that front, James just showed my his spanky teflon coated basket and portafilter, which would aliviate that concern for me].  The beauty of singles while doing a crawl, is that you can try more coffee without losing your ability to hold a cup from caffeine overdose.

While touring around in London these past days, I have been evaluating espresso like I normally would while judging a barista competition.  Today especially I made note of the espresso served to me at this tiny little cafe on Hackney, A Taste of Bitter Love.  This tiny cafe serves up Square Mile espresso, and make all of their food in-house.  The raspberry pastry that I had this morning for breakfast was AMAZING.  The single espresso pulled and served in porcelain (first one in London) was perhaps a bit light in colour, but otherwise it was a great shot.  In fact, it was better than most of the shots that I had during the recent barista competition.  The persistency and consistency of the crema was great, and it was a very tasty balanced shot of espresso, so much so that I ordered another.  It was served with a petite little glass of water and the environment it was served in was quaint and quirky with all of these old vinyl records strune about.

It was great to start off the morning in a little cafe where it is clearly evident that Passion is the main ingredient in all they do.  When in London, you must make a trip to East London (276 Hackney Road) and have some coffee at A Taste of Bitter Love.  Nothing bitter about the coffee to be sure.