Breakfast Club: COFFEE

The imposed hiatus of the Breakfast Club column was caused by my short infatuation with Special K Fruit & Nut Clusters and frankly it's gotten a little hard to become inspired by the first meal of the day. Sacrilege I know. I did have an amazing sausage and egg sandwich the other day, truly it was the combo of tough, seeded wholemeal bap, black pepper, ketchup and a rampant hangover that allowed me to enjoy it so thoroughly – with the foggy head probably the same reason preventing me from trying to write coherently about the experience. So after thinking about how I could possibly do 'the club' justice, I got to figuring out a post on the one thing that compliments any breakfast, whether its crumpet, cereal, toast or egg based...

Coffee.

As much inspired by Martyn (curator of the forthcoming fabric 50 CD in January 2010) and his recent post on twitter of the unifying bind of the black liquid throughout the cult series Twin Peaks as by my twice daily consumption of it, the below is a round up of the three best measures to get a caffine injection within 50 paces of the fabric office.



M&S – Christmas Blend

M&S coffee has been a regular everyday occurance in the press office as long as I have. Given – it's the closest supermarket that will shot you a bag of grounds for under the 3 quid mark, but there’s definitely something to be said for the new Christmas Blend...at once bitter, it has an underlying cocoa sweetness to it.

Best served in a cafetiere for 4, with slightly warm (30 seconds in the microwave) semi skimmed milk, this option is numero uno thanks to the pleasure you can bring to the entire office with one gesture.



The Farm – Cappuccino

The organic Farm shop got props from me thanks to its opening promotion of handing out free sandwiches in the street, with the proof that they know their mustard embedded in each freebie...but for me it’s their coffee that brings home the liquid bacon.

Strong and palatable - if a little pricey - it’s a perfect take out stop for those 9:30am meetings...



Pret A Manger – Double Shot Americano

It's simple, it’s strong, it's smooth and it's more vibrant than a Pret filter coffee. A robust slurp for the bitter mornings when you're flying solo in the office and a full plunge would no doubt go to waste, or get drunk by yourself and yourself only.

And that much caffeine ain’t good for anyone’s constitution.

A special mention goes out to Sainsburys for their Columbian blend... a close fourth (and longer walk) if ever there was one.