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…
Allpress has its roastery here. Ngopi UK pours kopi susu with Indonesian palm sugar and real Indonesian beans, a drink no standard espresso bar carries.
Properly excellent.
Batch brew runs two single origins at once, rotating by roaster, and the staff know why the Colombian drinks differently from the Ethiopian. For filter drinkers, this is one of East London's more serious stops, and the name is earned.
Allpress roast on-site in Dalston. Single-origin espresso, cathedral ceilings, sacks of beans visible from the cafe floor.
The everyday answer.
Order the kopi susu: Indonesian palm sugar, real Indonesian beans, a drink with no equivalent at a standard London espresso bar. The retail shelf of those same beans is there if you want to take it home.
Behind Dalston Kingsland station, Kris runs an espresso bar where the coffee earns the visit. The chains two minutes away will feel like a mistake afterwards.
The deli-café on Kingsland Road where coffee gets the same attention as the groceries. Seasonal drinks are recipes here, not poured from a pump.
Ozone Coffee on the machine and a long black that four years of regulars haven't grown tired of. The French toast is its own reason to visit.
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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…