I've been having troubles getting proper crema on my espresso lately, and nothing seems to help it, but today I got my package from Square Mile Coffee with 350g of wonderful Autumn Espresso. First shot was spot on, a nice ristretto with perfect crema, a little bitter which I blame distribution for, but not much I can do about it before I get my hands on a bottomless. The intriguing thing was that normally my home roasts tastes quite bland and generic when they are good, but in this shot I was instantly able to pick out different notes and flavors. Clearly my home roast isn't quite up to par yet, but then again I'm comparing a roast in an uncontrolled poppery with year old greens to one blended by WBC champion and roasted in a professional roaster (Probat was it?).

Well, anyhow, just wanted to share my experience with this wonderful coffee, do pick up some if you're interested, it's clearly worth the money and the effort (and if you live in Finland you really need to try this as it beats anything you can buy in this country as far as my experience goes)

Yes Square Mile do produce outstanding roasts. The London roast scene is pretty much split between Square Mile and Monmouth Coffee, as far as supply to the speciality coffee stores. Monmouth is also excellent, and their espresso blend tends be a little less acidic and fuller bodied than SM. However their delivery charges are ludicrous and havent really cottoned on to the concept of online selling

Londinium Espresso seems to be growing a premium reputation as well, although I have not tried any. Hasbean is also a favourite, and recommendable.

Stuggi wrote:(and if you live in Finland you really need to try this as it beats anything you can buy in this country as far as my experience goes)

Have you tried Kaffa?

Best espressos I've ever tasted have been brewed home using SqM coffees. I kind of try to sample and try different coffees from different sources and once in a while place an order to SqM to recalibrate my taste. Actually Autumn Espresso should arrive in a couple of days...

No, I haven't, just noticed that they roast to order. I'll have to try them some time, even though they're probably going to be more expensive than SqM with shipping and all.

I have also tasted their coffee,and it is really good.Both the Summer blend and the Autumn blend.
I'll buy again from them.

Stuggi wrote:No, I haven't, just noticed that they roast to order. I'll have to try them some time, even though they're probably going to be more expensive than SqM with shipping and all.

You are saying that all Finnish coffee sucks but you haven't tasted Kaffa? Have you tried Turun Kahvipaahtimo's espresso blend? It's easy to blame Finnish coffee if the only coffee you've tried is Juhla Mokka and Robert's stale beans...

I've actually haven't tried Turun Kahvipaahtimo either, actually never heard of them, but I've tried several "microroasters" (aka, people with some really old roaster in the back of their shop that's been there since before WW2), and most of them do fresh beans, but usually equal or worse than my home roast. Then I've tried Cafetoria's different blends, and while they were nice tasting I've not been able to establish how fresh they are, so I'd rather buy something that's guaranteed fresh when the difference in price isn't that big. (IF there actually is, 10 quid shipped for 350g is very close to something that costs 6,60€ + shipping for 250g.)

And I think we don't even need to bring Paulig (or Robert Paulig for that matter) into this discussion, their coffees doesn't really fit in this section. Even through they are generally better than the equally priced stuff in other neighboring countries.