Where to Find the Best Coffee in Bloosmbury

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If interested in pristine, holistic minimalism, either in temperament or in aesthetics, then the twin café prodigies in Bloomsbury will certainly tease to complete satisfaction. Between them, St Espresso on Store Street and its offshoot, Continental Stores at Tavistock Place, can arguably lay claim to serving the best coffee in Bloomsbury, if not in all London - with the possible exception of Prufrock Coffee on Leather Lane.

St Espresso's started up in 2010 on a street almost entirely owned by the Duke of Bedford, a man unusually socially minded in having only independent businesses occupy his property, which the effect that Store Street is good for a saunter.

Like most of London's new café culture consumerism, the style of either café isn't exactly unique, but its walls are lined with art that one can buy, and the second room has natural lighting, which makes it a lovely casual work space, and turtlenecks and Apple-hacks rule the scene. ]

But its coffee is superb. It serves Square Mile beans through the Synesso Hydra 2 machine, which is superior to the Synesso Cyncra they use at Continental Stores, which carries the coffee with a heft that its sister does not.

Both places serve breakfasts and brunches, and there is a collection of bakery all day long, baked by David Pippin of Fynch Bakery. The food is prepared in the underground kitchens of Continental Stores, and then ethically dispatched by cargo bike to its ailing mother.

Both places are rarely - no, never - empty. Brunch is a mad at the best of times. The one thing against them is that Saint Espresso's has no wifi between 11am and 4pm - why, nobody knows. But who cares?

The London Best Coffee App rates both cafés with four from five beans. But what do they know? I say they are an institution and merit five whole beans.

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#cafes
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