Ulterior Motives
19 MayJune 2026 in London (… and the ulterior coffee motive)
London's June is a calendar of things that don't happen otherwise: a hundred locked gardens opened for one weekend at the start of the month, the King's…
Nostos invented the freeze-distilled flat white. Kapihan pulls Barako, a Philippine heirloom varietal, from beans hand-roasted in Battersea.
Destination coffee.
Properly excellent.
547 Battersea Park Rd
The Barako heirloom espresso is the draw. A Philippine coffee varietal built into a programme that treats sourcing as a cultural position, not a marketing line.
The guest roaster changes monthly in a Battersea brunch room that doesn't need to care this much about coffee. It does anyway.
2 Lavender Hill
Rotating pour-overs with fruity, juicy profiles in a part of Battersea that doesn't usually deal in this kind of specificity. The beans change and the tasting notes change with them.
Doppio roasts its own blends for trade and opens the showroom to the public. Single origins on the menu with tasting notes, retail beans on the shelf, and enough commercial kit around you to make clear this is a coffee business first.
37 Patcham Terrace
Sendero sources direct from named cooperatives rather than through a wholesale roaster. The most considered option in this part of Battersea, with retail beans if you want to extend the habit.
1 Queen's Circus
Sendero runs its own sourcing and roasting operation, with named single origins from Uganda and Guatemala. South London knows it for gelato; the coffee is the real draw.
Volcano Coffee Works supplies the beans here, a South London B Corp roaster whose direct-trade provenance is the real credential. Clean space, retail bags at the counter if you want to take the sourcing home.
The everyday answer.
Max runs the bar and will rope you into trying whatever he's just added to the menu. Coffee is clearly the point here, not just something to sell alongside the pastries.
138 Battersea Park Rd
Filipino beans, hand-roasted in Battersea. The sourcing story and the espresso share the same kitchen.
A calm south London local where the sourcing runs deeper than the postcode suggests. Worth the trip to Lavender Hill to find out what Chris has on the menu.
From The Journal
View all pieces →
Ulterior Motives
19 MayLondon's June is a calendar of things that don't happen otherwise: a hundred locked gardens opened for one weekend at the start of the month, the King's…
The One Coffee
19 AprShoreditch has a roastery on nearly every block. When that's the baseline, the useful question isn't who roasts their own beans; it's who's doing something…