The Caffeine Chronicles: The Black Lab

There are a few Clapham coffee shops that I've been meaning to check out for a while, but I don't often find myself in south-west London. A lazy Sunday brunch at The Dairy — a creative modern-British restaurant on Clapham Common — presented me with the perfect opportunity to visit The Black Lab, a coffee house that is just across the common. And when I say 'just across the common', I mean the small wedge of common near the Tube, not somewhere in the vicinity of Battersea.

The tables on the broad pavement outside The Black Lab were almost all occupied on the sunny, if not terribly warm, May afternoon I stopped by. I had already experienced a couple of hours of déjeuner sur l'herbe, or, at least, brunch sur le trottoir, so I sought shelter inside. There are a dozen or so small tables and the décor is cosy, comfortable and cheery.

The coffee menu is extensive — so much so that it took me a while to work out what to order. On the filter side, I spotted a Kenyan cold brew and a Colombian batch brew, but then I spotted a flask of what I assumed was a hand-brewed filter being delivered to a customer. Sadly (but understandably), The Black Lab only serves hand-brewed filters at the weekend (they are planning to bring in more brew methods). Too cold for cold brew, I decided to go for a piccolo in the end. Technically, I ordered a 4oz (£2.50, I think), as they serve their espresso-based coffees based on volume, rather than name. The sandwiches and cakes were being rearranged but I spotted a tasty-looking caramel shortbread and couldn't resist ordering a slice (£3.25).

Although The Black Lab was pretty busy, with plenty of drink-in and takeaway orders, my coffee and cake arrived promptly. The piccolo, with some impressive latte art and in a fine black Acme cup, looked rather good, and it tasted great too. The coffee was a Brazilian Recreio variety from Square Mile, which I've had a few times before and which has a rich, chocolatey taste. In fact, it went perfectly with my chocolate-caramel shortbread!

Feeling bad for being such a filter snob, I decided to take a cup of the batch-brew filter coffee to go (£2.50). It was a Colombian variety also from Square Mile and once it had cooled down, it was pretty good, although I think some of the subtler, more delicate notes might have come through more effectively with a good V60 pour.

The Black Lab is a lively but relaxed place to stop for a great coffee made by skilled and friendly baristas.

The Black Lab. 18 Clapham Common Southside, London, SW4 7AB (Tube: Clapham Common). Website. Twitter.

Coffee, Cupping and Cocktails with The Roastery Department

I've long been a fan of the cafes in the small but growing Department of Coffee and Social Affairs empire. There are nine now, in various locations from Piccadilly to Spitalfields, each serving speciality coffee. Last year, they launched their own roasting department called — you guessed it — The Roastery Department, who organised a coffee cupping and cocktail event for bloggers last week. The invitation was a bag of Costa Rican beans; how cool is that?

We gathered in the newly refurbished basement of the Spitalfields Department of Coffee, where we were welcomed by Department of Coffee CEO Ashley Lopez, Roastery Department head roaster Dumo Mathema and account manager Thom Bevan-Jones, as well as Bertie Sewell from green-coffee trader, Schluter Coffee.

Bertie talked about the importance of building good relationships with farmers and producers in order to secure the best quality beans in a sustainable way (the 'social affairs' aspect of the Department is just as important as the 'coffee'). Dumo then gave us a whistle-stop tour of coffee-processing techniques, from washed and natural to honey-processed (which doesn't actually involve honey; it just refers to the sticky, sugary substance that surrounds the coffee seed after the pulp is removed). Changing the processing method can alter the flavour of the coffee considerably, as can all the other variables, including the roasting itself. There are computer programs that can help you determine the best roast profile for a particular coffee, but when you have a guru like Dumo, you don't need them.

I've done a few cupping sessions and I still need a lot more practice, but each time, I learn a little more. Dumo showed us how to sniff the freshly roasted dry coffee grounds, then add hot water and sniff again. Next, we had to break the crust — piercing the thick layer of grounds floating on the surface of the water with a spoon and dragging backwards. After scooping away the grounds, it was finally time to perfect our slurps; not the most glamorous skill in the world, but it was kind of fun. Slurping just requires you to take a small spoonful of coffee and to slurp it back as hard as you can, ideally spraying the coffee across your palate to really appreciate those subtle notes. As it was an evening event, spittoons were provided (what did I just say about glamour?), but I have long since acquired the ability to drink coffee all day and night without any impact on my sleep.

Armed with an SCAA flavour wheel, we had to guess which coffee was processed using which technique and to describe the flavour profiles. The flavour wheel includes terms like 'rubber', 'skunky' and even 'onion', which, in case you hadn't guessed, aren't usually signs of a good coffee. 'Strawberry', 'jasmine' and 'chocolate', on the other hand, may be more appealing, depending on your taste in coffee.

I always say that my favourite coffees come from Central America — I'm partial to Costa Rican and Guatemalan varieties, in particular — yet whenever I do a blind tasting, it's usually the African varieties that I prefer. The natural-processed Ethiopian Sidamo, which was fruity and sweet, ended up being my favourite. The Roastery Department arranged some fantastic goodie bags for us, which included a bag of freshly roasted Sidamo beans; it's been tasting great brewed in my Hario cold brew maker.

After the cupping, it was time for a nightcap. Two, in fact. We tried a couple of different cold-brew cocktails, one involving vodka and ginger, and one with a delicious rum from Hackney-based Pirate's Grog. The rum was the perfect complement to the cold brew and, as we received a small bottle of it in our goodie bags, I made a fab mojito at the weekend. The bottle also looks cooler on my bar cart than Bacardi!

Engagement and advocacy is a big part of the Roastery Department's mission. They run a training school and hold cupping sessions, and it's clear that the whole team are really passionate about making speciality coffee accessible to a broad range of people: you don't have to be a coffee snob to enjoy a well-made, high-quality cup of coffee, after all.

I had a really fun evening — thanks again to The Roastery Department and the Department of Coffee for having me. It was also lovely to see some coffee-blogger friends and to meet a few new ones — I spent hours talking (coffee) shop with Jess from Eating East, Dan from Cups of London Coffee, Jamie from Bean There and Tayler from GRE&D.

The Department of Coffee and Social Affairs | Instagram | Twitter
The Roastery Department | Twitter

Vietnam Specialty Coffee Guide II: Hanoi

This is the second part of my Vietnam coffee guide, which focuses on the cafes I discovered in Hanoi. (You can read the first part, which covers Ho Chi Minh City and Hoi An, here.)

At Second Shot Coffee, Cafe Meets Society (CLOSED)

UPDATE (April 2022). Sadly, Second Shot has now permanently closed.

This weekend sees the opening of a new coffee shop, a generous stone's throw from Bethnal Green Tube station. Second Shot Coffee will serve a range of espresso-based and filter coffees and a selection of locally sourced cakes and sweet treats. So far, so standard, but Julius Ibrahim, Second Shot's founder, has a broader vision that focuses as much on social enterprise as on the quality of its food and drink.

I stopped by during a pre-launch event for press and bloggers and Second Shot was already in great shape a week ahead of the launch. The compact cafe is located on Bethnal Green Road and has just a few small tables, as well as a fold-down perching table; eventually, the plan is to have a bench on the pavement outside. The art, which hadn't quite made it onto the walls during the launch, is sourced from art sessions run by local homeless organisations, with all of the proceeds going to support the artists.

In fact, Second Shot's ambitions to provide support, training, skills and a sense of community to homeless individuals are at the core of what they do and I think the cafe's name captures this philosophy perfectly. Second Shot is partnering with various organisations to hire and train formerly homeless individuals to work in the cafe, and after hours, Ibrahim plans to re-open as a community hub for homelessness.

They aren't the first cafe to offer a pay-it-forward system — whereby a customer can pay £1 for a drink and add the purchase to the pay-it-forward wall for someone else to take later, free of charge. But they are the first that I've seen to allow customers to pay £1 and receive three stamps on a loyalty card that they can hand over to a person in need. You can also 'pay forward' a cake (£2) or a meal (£4).

It was important for Ibrahim, who cut his teeth at Bleecker St Burger, among other places, to ensure that the food and coffee were up to scratch too, though. I tried several drinks: a very fine macchiato and a great flat white, brewed by Head of Coffee, Emilio Rodriguez, using the chocolatey Eden espresso blend from Cast Iron.

They also had five or six different filter coffee varieties on offer, from roasters based in London and further afield. I was intrigued to see a coffee from a Hungarian roaster, but we sampled an Ethiopian variety from Amsterdam-based Sweet Cup. Rodriguez brewed it through the Chemex, which really brought out the subtle strawberry notes. They will serve a continually changing selection of filter coffees, which can be brewed with a V60, Aeropress or Chemex; perfect for filter-heads like me.

Although I wasn't particularly hungry, by the time I'd left, barista Ephy Beckford had persuaded me to try almost all of the cakes they were serving. (OK, I didn't need much persuading!) The individual banana bread loaf (served with its own banana chip garnish) was particularly good — perfectly moist — but I also enjoyed the carrot cake and the brownie. The sweet treats come from Rise Bakery and Luminary Bakery, and the grilled-cheese sarnies will have bread sourced from The Dusty Knuckle.

Second Shot is a small cafe with big ambitions, although the coffee alone is worth the trip to Bethnal Green. Today is their soft launch, ahead of their launch tomorrow, Saturday 21 May, so if you are in the neighbourhood (and even if you aren't), you should consider stopping by.

Second Shot Coffee. 475 Bethnal Green Road, London, E2 9QH (Tube: Bethnal Green).

"The Intersection Between Life and Art" — Before the Fall Review

At the centre of Noah Hawley’s novel Before the Fall is a plane crash — a private plane crash, which, within the first few pages, has killed nine people, leaving two survivors. The crash happens so swiftly that the rest of the novel is spent trying to unravel what happened — and why — through flashbacks that explore the lives of the passengers and crew.

Scott Burroughs, a troubled and struggling painter “of catastrophe”, is the one passenger who seems out of place on the private flight from Martha’s Vineyard to New York. He has been invited by Maggie, a casual acquaintance whose wealthy and powerful husband David has organised the flight. Also on board are David and Maggie’s young children, their good friends, a bodyguard and three crew.

We soon learn that Scott survives the crash and, in fact, becomes a hero after swimming to shore with another less-able passenger. His heroism is soon questioned, however, once the investigation into the crash begins and once the media begin to ponder why a has-been artist was on board a private flight with the super-wealthy. He does have one apparent ally, though, in the form of Gus Franklin from the National Transportation Safety Board, who is trying to establish whether the crash was indeed an accident or, for example, an act of terrorism.

Hawley intersperses Scott’s post-crash experiences with the back-stories and political intrigues of the other passengers and the result is a languorous, sad and beautifully told story. Scott’s career as an artist — particularly one who paints disaster scenes from the news — is not without relevance to the story and the “intersection between life and art” is central to the novel. Scott compares the mystery to an apparently blank canvas, explaining that, “the naked eye alone will never be able to uncover the story” but if you run your hand over it, “the topographic truth” will seep through.

Before the Fall is a slow-burner and the ending is not quite as satisfying as I was hoping, given the set-up but the conceit and its execution are both very effective in Hawley’s skilled hands. Before the Fall is an engaging mystery and a great summer read — although perhaps not if you are a nervous flyer!

Disclaimer: Before the Fall will be published by Grand Central Publishing on 31 May 2016. I received a pre-release copy via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

Vietnam Specialty Coffee Guide I: Saigon and Hoi An

I had planned to put together a single coffee guide highlighting all of my favourite coffee and cafe discoveries from my recent trip to Vietnam. But I was pleasantly surprised to discover a lot of great places on my two-week trip, so I've decided to split the guide into two parts. This first part covers Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City) and Hoi An; part two, which I will post next week, will focus on Hanoi. I also spent two days in Hué but didn't find any particularly good coffee shops.

Two Weeks in Vietnam: My Itinerary and Hotels

Vietnam has been on my travel to-do list for a number of years. I hadn't been to Southeast Asia and decided that Vietnam with its rich culture and history, bustling cities and beautiful scenery, and, of course, delicious food was the best place to start. I had 15 full days in the country; this meant I could take advantage of the current visa waiver for UK visitors to Vietnam for stays of up to 15 days.

"Melodrama, Your Honor"

The end's not here, it's here. That was the title of the final episode of The O.C., which aired back in 2007 and which may not seem to have that much in common with last night's series finale of The Good Wife. Nonetheless, I've been humming the Band of Horses song for which The O.C. finale was named for the past few months: they were both shows that were important to me at different times of my life and which I watched every week from the start (or almost the start, in the case of The O.C.).

I'm about to discuss the series finale of The Good Wife and some of my thoughts on the whole series so if you are not caught up with The Good Wife, please do look away now.


* * * S P O I L E R  A L E R T * * *


I started watching The Good Wife soon after its first episode aired in 2009. It was discussed on a podcast I used to listen to, Slate's Double X Gabfest, and although the Slate crew didn't exactly give it a glowing review, I was intrigued: I came for the legal procedural and stayed for the politics and the romance.

There are so few shows that I watched week by week for the entire length of their run, especially in this age of Netflix, but for almost seven years, The Good Wife has been my favourite show. The acting has always been top notch. Julianna Marguiles has been terrific as Alicia Florrick, the eponymous good wife turned lawyer, law-firm owner and politician, who, red wine in hand, has to deal with raising her kids and her husband Peter's (Chris Noth) endless cycle of hubristic rises and humbling falls.

Matt Czuchry charmed as Alicia's rival and then friend and eventually business partner Cary Agos, while Christine Baranski's Diane Lockhart veered between mentor and antagonist, and Archie Panjabi gave us the enigmatic investigator Kalinda Sharma, whose friendship with Alicia sparkled in the first two seasons, although the character was poorly used in the later seasons. There have been so many amazing series regulars and guest stars — Alan Cumming's political strategist Eli Gold remains a favourite, as do many of the quirky judges. Then, of course, there was Will Gardner, played by the talented Josh Charles — Alicia's on-again, off-again lover and possible true love, who was brutally gunned down by a client mid-way through season five, with no warning and no closure, for the characters or the viewers. I was only able to rewatch that episode and the following one a few weeks ago and I still bawled my eyes out.

The writing has also been a strong point for the show: they created characters who were complex, flawed and believable, and put them into interesting situations. Some of my friends who started binge-watching the show found it both too quirky and too formulaic, but watched weekly, the episodes have the perfect balance of the sublime and the ridiculous, the dark and the droll. Ripped-from-the-headlines cases taught me as much about technology issues as about legal and political matters, and the writers were never afraid to innovate. Sometimes, the cases and the storylines misfired, but the show adapted and moved on (usually).

Of course, as I predicted two years ago, my heart hasn't really been in The Good Wife since Alicia and Will's romance was declared permanently unresolved. Don't get me wrong, I've still enjoyed it, even through the show's muddled sixth season and uneven seventh season, but I was always listening out for the small bones the writers would occasionally throw my way: those rare, elusive mentions of Will Gardner.

And so we come to the series finale. Much of this final season has been dedicated to history repeating itself: the law firm reforms and reinvents itself again; Alicia gets a new lover but makes the same old mistakes; Peter is being investigated for yet another misdeed while in office and, in the final two episodes, must stand trial. Alicia and Diane with the help of associate Lucca (Cush Jumbo) and investigator Jason (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) — also Alicia's lover — are working hard try to keep him out of prison and perhaps even save his career (again). But Alicia is doing it all out of duty: she couldn't care less what happens to Peter on a personal level and has already told him she will divorce him, but she is in good-wife, tiger-mom mode. Will Peter be convicted and go to prison again? Will Alicia stand by him one last time or will she run off with Jason?

I was so worried about being spoiled again by The Good Wife Facebook page that I unliked it last night. I really wanted to go into the finale fresh, although I had read a few hints from the showrunners and stars. I knew, for example, that total — or even partial — closure was unlikely and indeed, wouldn't have been a fitting ending. Margulies noted that she thought fans would either love it or hate it.

I had also seen the rumours that Josh Charles might be donning his best Will Gardner suits one last time for a few flashback or dream sequences. And indeed he did: there were several sequences that took place in Alicia's imagination where she and Will talked about everything from legal cases to love and life. It isn't the first time Alicia and Will have talked in her mind since his untimely demise but it was the most substantial; and how could you really have a Good Wife finale without Will Gardner? He also gets the best lines, as usual. "It was romantic because it didn't happen," he reminds Alicia, echoing her own season-one comment on their could-have-been law school romance. Then: "Very few people are me." Finally, and heartbreakingly, after Alicia bids him farewell and tells him she'll love him forever, he replies, with that wonderful Charles charisma: "I'm OK with that." Those two always had the best chemistry.

After all that, I wasn't too concerned with all of the show's other ends being tied up neatly. A lot of time is taken over the trial as Diane and Alicia struggle with the assistant US attorney (Matthew Morrison) to achieve the outcome they want. Alicia betrays Diane one time too many and is rewarded with a (well-deserved)  sharp slap in the face in a scene that mirrored the slap Alicia gave Peter in the very first episode. This simple action conveys so much: not least how unlikable Alicia often is, making Marguiles' portrayal even more impressive. Will, perhaps, put this best when he and Alicia were fighting in season five: "God, you're awful and you don't even know how awful you are."

There were other callbacks too: when the AUSA described Diane's tactics as, "melodrama, your honor," all I could think of was the title of the fateful episode where Will was shot, in which the prosecutor (Matthew Goode) criticised Will's moves as, "dramatics, your honor." But what of Diane? What of Kalinda? We don't even know what Alicia will do next (Eli, of course, wants her in the White House now that Peter's career is sunk, and her new partnership with Diane may now be floundering before it has really begun) or whether Jason is gone for good. Alicia's endings actually sit fine for me and at least there was some closure for Cary, but I feel that Diane deserved better.

Overall, though, I think it was a dark and sad but fitting end to what has been my favourite show as an adult. In many ways, the antepenultimate episode (Party) served as a more traditional goodbye episode to many of the show's most loved characters. And although I think there was too much time dedicated to a case that many viewers — and Alicia — had long since lost interest in, the finale, like the whole series, achieved that great balance between a court case, Alicia's personal struggle ('the education of Alicia Florrick') and political/law-firm intrigue.

The Good Wife was still one of the best shows on TV, but had been gradually declining in quality over the past couple of years (the fifth season was by far the best; a stunning series of plot arcs with outstanding acting and writing) and I'm glad that it is going out on a high note. That said, I'm also very sad that it has to end at all. It is only a TV show, but when you've watched something every week for seven years, it becomes a part of your life, albeit only a small one. You've been great, Alicia Florrick and co, and I will miss you. I don't like red wine so I'm raising a shot of tequila to you all!

Hanoi II: A Tale of Two Quarters

I arrived back in Hanoi late on Friday afternoon and had another day-and-a-half in the city before my flight home. After checking into my hotel, I headed straight out for a wander around the Old Quarter, where I was staying, and for dinner.

Ha Long Bay: Sittin’ on the Dock of the Bay

Vietnam is a country filled with a rich and varied tapestry of must-dos but one that comes near the top of most people’s lists is a visit to Ha Long Bay. Located in the seas of northeastern Vietnam, the bay, whose name means ‘descending dragon bay’, is home to hundreds of small limestone islands that rise out of the emerald green water. Our guide told us that there are, in fact, 1,969 islands — 1969 is also the year of Ho Chi Minh’s death; an unlikely coincidence, perhaps.

Hanoi I: West of the Lake

Travelling from Hoi An to Hanoi was easy. It took about 40 minutes to get from Hoi An to Da Nang airport by car and then it was just a 1h20 flight to the Vietnamese capital. It takes about 45 minutes to get from Hanoi’s airport to the Old Quarter — the historic maze of streets at the heart of the city.

Hoi An II: Food, Drink and Coffee

In a country filled with fine food destinations, Hoi An is rightly viewed as one of the finest. One of the reasons I wanted to stay there a little longer than most of the other cities on my Vietnam itinerary was so that I could sample as many of the restaurants and local dishes as I could. It didn't hurt that Hoi An has a burgeoning speciality coffee scene, which I did my best to explore.

Hoi An I: Things To Do, Places To Shop

After rushing to pack everything into my short stays in Hué and Saigon, I changed gear once I got to Hoi An, a beautiful town on the Central Vietnam coast. Hoi An doesn't have an airport or train station so most visitors fly or take the train to Da Nang, which is 20 miles north. I took the train from Hué and it was a beautiful ride through the misty mountains.