London’s Best Independent Cafés – Dose Café

Dose Café

I was recently invited with other Qypers and fellow food bloggers to visit this delightful independent Coffee House on Long Lane, EC1. Dose is a small café, simply but stylishly decorated, and set in a great central location by Smithfields Market.

Run by owner James, his passion and enthusiasm for real coffee are contagious. We were given the low-down on how the perfect cup of coffee should be sourced, roasted, prepared, and drunk.

Dose’s coffee is fairtrade and biodynamic (a concept I had only previously known in wine production) and sourced from Square Mile Roasters; their milk is organically farmed and most packaging used is recycled or biodegradable.

The food on offer was tempting, and their blueberry muffin, which I personally tried, was quite good. Dose’s prices are also reasonable considering the affluent and trendy location.

 

We had cup after cup of wonderful cappuccini as James patiently taught us how to draw patterns from the hot milk froth. I had always wondered how baristas could do that.

 

A competition for the best heart shape was organised; it was a fun evening despite my best attempts at a heart looking more like an ill-formed kidney! Meeting some of the faces behind my favourite blogs was an added bonus, like Neil Davey from The Lambshank Redemption.

 

 

Most importantly, the experience has made me rethink my ideas about what makes a perfect cup of coffee – the quality and origin of the beans, the water which should not boil, the quality of the organic milk to name just a few of the concepts not fully appreciated at many coffee chains.

A big “Thank You” goes to Eammon, from the Qype team, for organising this wonderful event, and another to James for his generosity on the evening and for serving possibly the BEST cup of coffee in the Capital.