The Caffeine Chronicles Part I: Department of Coffee and Social Affairs, Leather Lane (CLOSED)

Update: This Department of Coffee and Social Affairs location is now permanently closed, but you can still find them in Carnaby Street, Soho.

It is now the Easter bank holiday weekend in the UK and I should probably be celebrating chocolate but instead, I have a few coffee-related posts planned in my new Caffeine Chronicles series. This is the first, part II is here, part III is here and this is part IV.

Today, I needed some ground coffee for my new caffeine toy, so I hiked down to Clerkenwell to try out a new (to me) coffee shop on Leather Lane: the Department of Coffee and Social Affairs. I liked the look of the place and a promising Time Out review suggested there would be high levels of caffeine satisfaction.

Lunchtime at the Dept. of Coffee & Social Affairs

Leather Lane was busy and hard to navigate this lunchtime and DoCaSA was also bustling but I managed to grab a table and ordered a double macchiato and a sandwich. The sarnie was nice, if a little pricey: I had mozzarella, tomato and basil on focaccia (£4), which was tasty but probably wouldn't have been filling enough had I not been on my third coffee of the day by this point. 

As for the macchiato it was pretty good, although it felt as though too much water had been run through and there was a very slight burnt taste to my drink. I might have fared better with a single, perhaps. Overall, the coffee was still good.

DoCaSA's double macchiato

With its exposed-brick walls DoCaSA is a funky, friendly place to caffeinate or take lunch. There are plenty of great espresso bars in the area but DoCaSA has been added to my London database as a cool place to hang out with a macchiato and/or refreshments.

The Department of Coffee and Social Affairs. 14-16 Leather Lane, London EC1N 7SU (Tube: Farringdon or Chancery Lane).