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…
"Own roastery, direct farmer partnerships across Yemen, Ethiopia, Colombia, and Madagascar, and a Revolutionary range of single-origin lots that don't exist on another menu in London. If you care where your coffee comes from, this is the address."
21-22 New Row, London WC2N 4LE, UK
Kiss the Hippo roasts their own, and the baristas at the Covent Garden branch are the kind who steer you toward the single origin before you've finished asking.
WatchHouse roasts at the South London Coffee Lab and the Covent Garden room is where you access it: single origins with flavour cards, tasting flights at the bar, and baristas who can account for what's in the cup.
Monmouth built what became London's specialty coffee template before most of the city caught up, running direct farm relationships since the beginning. The original. Still worth the queue.