RE: My Actifit Report Card: January 2 2019
Well for starters, Happy New Year! Let's hope it is a wonderful, productive, and happy one!
I LOVE coffee and am amazed how much more Coffee has taken hold of Britain. Over the past few years I have watched it really go crazy. At one point, a few years back, on my arrival I thought, "Heavens, this is like the 90's in American" back when the coffee craze was really spreading to the East Coast (it was in West coast much earlier) and all sorts of small independent coffee shops were opening.
People were meeting at coffee houses, art and music were appearing with them etc. So, as I was young and at Univeristy at the time, they always have a special place in my heart and I still prefer to go and work in them when I am in a place where I can find one.
What is nice is it still has the wonderful energetic independent feel to it here. Back in the US in most small places now, the small coffee house is gone. There is the big chain (starbucks or worse Dunkin Donuts) serving lattes and caps so the small guy was pushed out. In big cities there are still a few independents, but not like it was in the 90s.
Here, in our small village, I couldn't believe when we found, at the end of one of our footpaths, a converted old farm building that is an independent coffee bar that would happily live in New York City or Seattle, it is amazing.
Let's hope the British are smart enough (and I think they are ) to keep the independent spirit alive. I keep seeing more Starbucks here and there, but let's hope they aren't allowed to take over as they did back in the usa.
Happy packing!
Happy New Year, certainly I hope it is a Happy and Healthy year for you as well.
Yes, in the UK we have a thriving independent coffee shop industry, there are very big chains of course, and even emerging medium size chains - but also many small owner operators that are really keen on quality and also adding value - nowadays the cappuccino and latte machine is just part of a whole brewing bar where you can choose Hario drip filtered or Aeropressed single origin coffee's.
And more and more outlets are starting to bring roasting coffee into the front of house coffee shop, it's interesting you mention a coffee shop in a converted barn because Surrey Hill's Coffee did that, although now it is just their roastery and they have a cafe in Guildford.
Coffee is definitely evolving in the UK, and it's becoming more Speciality with people taking more attention then ever of the origin of coffee - where it is grown - not just country but plantation, farm, farmer - true providence of product. Which can only the benefit the growers, it's helping drive prices up because people are looking to enjoy quality produced product from small holdings instead of commodity grade coffee from massive plantations which is often nondescript.
#thealliance #witness
Yes, knowing origin is so important. This was more important in US for awhile and still is in large cities or more 'upscale' areas, but unfortunately now that places like Mcdonalds and such offer 'lattes' many smaller towns and vast areas of the US are again just serviced by a few chains that own everything and there is little variety and they don't support farmers but in fact take advantage of low wage workers in other countries, oh well. Let's hope the world IS changing for the better.