Cairngorm West End

1 Melville St EH3 7PR Edinburgh »Map«

Open every day Espresso, V60, batch brew Coffee: Guests Also: Meals, cakes, beans

Coolness: Find your coffee zen in this beautiful, airy, copper & wood cafe

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Cairngorm West End (5♥) brings together classic Edinburgh architecture, Scandi-inspired smooth lines and specialist coffee infatuation.

Before getting on to the main act - the coffee - a quick overview of the food. You can expect options that suit early breakfast through to evenings. Granola and fruit, pastries, avocado on toast, high-end filled rolls from Manna, soup and the signature, somewhat epic, grilled cheese sandwiches appear on the menu.

And now the coffee. Robi Lambie has some seriously shiny gear that promises to help him achieve his dream of producing great coffee while maintaining an unwavering focus on his customer service. He's the proud owner of a San Remo Opera espresso machine - there are very few of these super high end machines in the UK. Robi's looking forward to refining the art of pressure profiling using the bluetooth app that controls the  the variables of each of the three group heads. Sitting cosily next to the Opera is his Mythos Victoria Arduino double grinder set that maintains the temperature of the beans regardless of the length of the coffee queue, keeping a perfect and consistent grind.

For filter coffee, the team will use a Mahlkonig grinder that will feed both individual coffee pour over as well as his Marco batch brewer. The latter is yet to take off in Edinburgh but we're sure it won't be long. It allows baristas to brew large quantities of high quality Kalita Wave style pour over, which means customers can be served quickly - especially good for the pre-work rush. In our opinion it's tastier, more complex and softer textured than an Americano.

Tea lovers are also in for a treat with Dutch company Crusio Tea on the menu. They directly source high quality tea for shops and homes and have a tea master in every country where they buy tea leaves including Japan, China, Nepal and Sri Lanka. They spend time with growers to develop and the flavours of their teas.

The more immediate wow-factor for most customers when they visit, however, is the decor which is something special indeed. The shop front is charmingly curved, with large counter-to-ceiling windows that face both Queensferry Road (which is called Melville Place for this single block) and Melville Street. The colour scheme is light and bright, softened with natural tones of the polished concrete servery, warm-toned hanging lamps and three chunkily elegant copper and oak long tables that radiate into the middle of the shop like glamorous jetties. These are communal tables with white shapley stools lined up on each side. Toward the back of the shop there's a recessed room with tongue-in-groove light grey walls that tips its hat to the decor of the original Cairngorm Coffee in Frederick Street. It has a similar copper and oak 8-seater table and chairs, presenting a cosier option for diners.

Robi's also fitted out a room downstairs with a more British traditional decor as a meeting room space that's available to hire (combine work with great coffee - brilliant!). It has a long table that seats up to 11 people and meeting facilities such as projector and wifi.

So all in all, in case you hadn't realised by now, we're big fans of this place!

More: facebook.com/cairngormcoffee

Our Brew Bar at the Scottish Aeropress Championships 2016

We're very excited to be hosting some of Edinburgh's finest baristas and roasters on our Brew Bar at the upcoming Scottish Aeropress Championships on 21 April at Summerhall.

Competition positions are now full so it's time to focus on what promises to be a great spectator event for coffee enthusiasts.

Here's the run down on our Brew Bar:

• It was Dave from Brew Lab’s idea (credit where it’s due) and we caught up to chat it through. 
• We then hustled some members of our upstanding coffee community to get involved.
• The Edinburgh Coffee Lovers Brew Bar will showcase some of our leading coffee baristas and roasters so you can find out more about them, their shop and their coffee. 
• You'll get the chat, ask questions and taste their coffee - brewed on the spot using non-espresso methods
• Some will be selling their coffee beans to take home so you can continue to refine your home brew palette and technique
• All in all it's a great opportunity to spend some relaxed time with some coffee gurus who include folks from Lowdown Coffee, Cairngorm Coffee, Cult Espresso, Noir, Williams & Johnson, Fortitude Coffee and Mr Eion.
• Between 6.30pm when the doors open and 9pm when the Competition Final takes place, we'll have two baristas/roasters on our Brew Bar for around 30 minutes.

Sound like fun to you? Buy your ticket via the Summerhall website.

We'll keep you up to date with more info soon.

Hope you can make it!

Dramatically improve your coffee at home - three key steps

Like most people, I like a lovely coffee at home before I go out and have another lovely coffee, made by a barista with immeasurably better honed skills.

I talk to a lot of people about coffee and get a lot of questions about 'best coffee shops', 'best home coffee machines' and 'best coffee beans'.

With both budget and coffee quality in mind, I would recommend a manual brewing method for home (filter, aeropress, chemex, cafetiere etc.) rather than an espresso machine. I think it's a lot harder to get a great cup of coffee out of a home espresso machine without considerable cost and training than manual brew methods.

On that basis, here are the most important ways you can dramatically improve your home brew, in no particular order: 

• Use great beans
• Get a burr grinder
• Weigh your ingredients.

Doing these things will make the taste, texture and aroma of your coffee so different to what you've had before, that it may well feel like a different drink. (Big call, I know, but bear with me)

Additionally, because you can taste your coffee much more clearly i.e. you can taste separate flavour attributes rather than a general flat 'coffee flavour', it's much easier (and more fun) to try different beans. It's easier to work out which beans you love and those you can live without... and there's a never ending stream of new beans to try so you'll not tire of it.

A bit more information to back up my audacious claims...

Use great beans - Just like cooking, if you use excellent ingredients, you don't need to do much to them to create great tasting food.

• Buy your beans from a specialty roaster or coffee shop to suit your brew method (espresso, filter, aeropress etc). You can expect to pay between £6-11 for 250g and buying in larger quantities can be cheaper. Edinburgh has some great places to get beans.
• Ask the barista or roaster for brewing advice for the specific beans you buy - all tips are useful and they know their product better than anyone.
• Don't buy too many beans at once and keep them in an airtight container or in the bag they come in if it's re-sealable - this will stop them going stale quickly. (Don't put them in the freezer).
• On bags of high quality beans you should be able to see the roasting date - if there isn't one, this is grounds for concern (pun intended). If there is a roasting date, it should be recent (days not months). There's lots of different advice about the optimal length of time between roasting and brewing - 24 hours to 7 days - but that's your ballpark for good flavour.

Photos coffee-channel.com

Get a burr grinder - Burr grinders are easy to get, won't break the bank (they start at around £30) and create uniform sized grinds effortlessly.

• Grinding your high quality beans just before you use them is critical. This is because ground coffee starts to lose flavour and aroma as soon as it's exposed to oxygen. We're talking discernable degradation in minutes not hours.
• You also need to be able to adjust the size of your grind to suit your brew method and your specific beans (your barista or roaster may have advised you about this when you bought them). The basic plot here is that you want:
1. your grind to be the optimal size so that 
2. the temperature-perfect water passes through the grinds at the optimal rate, 
3. dissolving the valuable coffee oils along the way to 
4. the optimal level
5. creating a tasty, well-proportioned cup of coffee.
• Baristas dedicate their lives to this pursuit - so it can be extremely scientific. However, for the home brewer who has other things to dedicate their lives to, playing around with the grind size (coarse to fine) so the coffee tastes good is still going to be very rewarding, especially when combined with the next point.

Weigh your ingredients - Your basic recipe has two ingredients: water and coffee (after which some people add milk and perhaps sugar). You'd weigh the ingredients for any other recipe, and you should do the same for coffee - every time.

• You can use your digital cooking scales or buy specific coffee scales fairly cheaply (starting at around £20). The coffee scales have a timer as well as the weighing function which is handy, but not essential if you use a timer on your watch or phone
• If the holy grail is getting the water to pass through your coffee optimally as outlined above, then you'll want to have a consistent and correct ratio of coffee to water. And, if possible, it's good to keep track of the time it takes for the water to pass through the coffee. If it's too fast, the coffee is too coarse, if it's too slow then the coffee is too fine.
• For example, your barista or roaster who sold you your lovely fresh beans for your aeropress, may have suggested you use a fairly fine grind. Your aeropress recipe may say 17g of coffee to 220g of water along with some guidance about how long to wait between adding the water and pressing it down to make the coffee. If you weigh your ingredients and follow consistent timing then you'll not only make consistently nice coffee, you'll be able to compare a Rwandan to a Brazilian, or a Costa Rican to an Ethiopian, because the main variable will be the coffee bean, not the recipe.
• Recipes? I hear you say... a quick 'coffee brew guide' search on the internet will bring up plenty of guidance from credible baristas and roasters. Locally Steampunk and Artisan Roast have brew guides.

That's it. Three things - infinitely better coffee. Hope it helps!

Mr Eion Coffee Roaster

9 Dean Park St EH4 1JN »Map«

Open Wed-Sun (Beans only - no coffee served) Coffee: Own roasted beans from a wide variety of origins Also: Manual coffee brewing equipment & accessories

Coolness: See and understand the roasting process from green bean to take-home-and-brew bean

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Located in Stockbridge, 'Mr Eion Coffee Roaster' is Eion Henderson's warm and friendly coffee roaster.

Eion (pronounced Ian or Iain) serves walk-in retail customers with whole or ground beans and coffee making equipment Wednesday to Sundays (he doesn't serve coffee to drink). He also supplies bespoke blend wholesale beans to coffee shops, pubs & restaurants.

The shop is essentially one room, with plenty of light from the large window facing the street. The shop-front section is dedicated to non-powered coffee making equipment and accessories including aeropresses, pour-over and chemex devices as well as filters, cups and coffee pots.

The counter, and everything behind it, is dedicated to the coffee that Eion roasts on site.

It's not unusual to see Eion roasting during shop hours on his bright blue Diedrich roaster. You'll also see loads of hessian bags of beans from different ethical and sustainable suppliers sitting on palettes behind the counter, both green and roasted, that Eion replenishes from weekly deliveries.

Retail customers generally have 8-10 choices that are a mix of single origin beans and his own blends including the Moustache Twirler and Stockbridge Blend. He offers small batch and seasonal beans as well as regular favourites from India to Costa Rica, Brazil to Sumatra and Ethiopia to Colombia. We always go for his high end small batch beans, jumping at the opportunity to try seasonal rarities and which earn our 5♥ rating.

He and his team are very happy (and keen) to talk to you about the beans currently on offer, and your brew method, to help you in the decision-making process. You can also have your chosen beans ground to match you home brew method if you don't own a grinder. If in doubt, ask for advice, and it'll be given with a smile.

More: facebook.com/mreionltd

Scottish Aeropress Championship 2016

Bring out your inner barista at the 2016 Scottish Aeropress Championships

This year’s World Aeropress Championship is hitting Dublin on Thursday 23 June when around 50 national champions will swing into town with some tell-tale hand luggage: that take-anywhere piece of coffee brewing equipment, the aeropress.

Our Scottish Champion will be among them after clambering over the coffee grounds of 35 other competitors at our Aeropress Championships at Summerhall, Edinburgh on 21 April. I caught up with organiser Dave Law of Brew Lab to get up to speed on this year’s event and here’s a summary of our chat.

Firstly, anyone can enter the competition, not just professional baristas. While the judging will be above-board and carried out by esteemed and seasoned professionals (see below), the competition and whole event is friendly and inclusive.

If you need some convincing that this world-class coffee event doesn’t take itself too seriously, check out this short video that outlines the Rules. Let it also be noted that the first guiding principle for national organisers is also that the event is “Fast, fun and light-hearted... to compete in, host and watch” - (please scroll down past the video too, there's more...)

Convinced? – register for the competition here.

If you’re excited about buying tickets, hold that thought, they’ll go on sale soon.

If you’re not familiar with the Aeropress, invented by Alan Adler who also created the Aerobie flying ring (that’s faster than a Frisbee) this post gives you a good and easy run-down. (Photo belongs to Jason Henry – Backchannel.com)

So what does the Scottish Championship event promise punters?

Heats: Competitors will get the ‘competition coffee’, proudly supplied by North-Berwick’s Steampunk Coffee, a week prior to the event so they can hone their brew. They’ll then arrive at 2pm for a bit of last minute onsite practice before six heats of six simultaneous competitors kick off at 3.30pm. Competitors need to complete their brew, from start to finish, within 8 minutes and judges will taste six coffees in rapid succession before pointing to a winner for each heat. Heats will be behind closed doors although each competitor can bring a buddy or helper.

Event time: Summerhall’s doors will open at 6.30pm and spectators will be welcomed with some smooth tunes, a bar, merchandise at the coffee pop-up store including a variety of top-notch beans, coffee gear and t-shirts, Lovecrumbs doughnuts, Brew Lab cold brew and the Edinburgh Coffee Lovers Brew Bar that will showcase some of Edinburgh’s finest baristas and roasters so you can chat and try their coffee. You’ll also be able to dig into some fine food from Jones & Son Bespoke BBQ & coffee from Steampunk in the courtyard area.

Show time: Two semi final heats of six competitors, each lasting the requisite 8 minutes, will take place between 7-8pm, resulting in two finalists. Then we get some live band action and a bit more food truck, cold brew and brew bar time before the final show-down at 9pm. Our Scottish Aeropress Champion is announced to great applause and Supermoon take the stage to help celebrate.

The highly caffeinated judges
Shouldering the responsibility of quick coffee consumption and even quicker informed decision-making for the 2016 Scottish Aeropress Championship are:

• John Thompson – Coffee Nexus coffee guru and consultant to shops and heads-of-coffee-producing countries. (He was also one of our Hot Shots last year so can read more about him)
• Ewan Osprey-Allan – Account Manager for Union Coffee, previous UK Barista Championship competitor and SCAE Sensory Judge.
• Jason Scott – Owner of world-class cocktail and drinking establishments Lucky Liquor Co, Bramble Bar and The Last Word Saloon.

We'll keep you updated as plans come together!

Five of Edinburgh's best coffee shops for a date

Coffee shops have long been the domain of the first, second and regular date. They offer a convivial atmosphere, a bit of hub bub to keep the conversation going and can be as short or as long as long as suits. "Let's meet for coffee" has started off many a long and happy relationship. Here are a few tips for Edinburgh's love birds this Valentine's Day.

All of them have, of course, cracking coffee so that's a given - and can be found on our app so you can look super smooth finding your way to your date, on time and unflustered :)

Artisan Roast Stockbridge - Doesn’t' get much more romantic than a great coffee shop that has a great flower shop in it. Big windows at the front to chat while the world goes by while you nibble a pastry and sip your preferred coffee brew method.

Cult Espresso near Edinbugh Uni - A funky, long narrow space with plenty of room to have some privacy. If light industrial, exposed brick minimalism is you - here's your date spot. The baristas are friendly and can practically give lessons on relaxed cool that'll get your date off on the right foot when you order at the counter.

Leo's Beanery New Town - Warm, comfortable and busy, Leo's offers coffee from 'Hands-on' that feels like you've got your duvet wrapped around you. Top that off with a wide range of delicious, sticky, home baked cakes of all shapes and sizes - many of which are gluten-free.

Hideout Leith - Inviting floor to ceiling arched windows grace two sides of this cafe that feels as familiar as your own living room. Full meals, cakes, wifi and a constant stream of locals help you feel right at home so you can focus on your sparkling conversation.

Hula Juice Bar & Gallery Old Town - For the fit and healthy, arty or history-lovers, Hula's your perfect date spot. A busy buzz in the room while you hoof into fruit-filled smoothies and breakfasts or inventive salads or soups. Plus they feature local artists' works on the walls - plenty of talking points before you zip off for a romantic stroll in the historic Old Town

Bonus tip – Nothing says I love waking up together better than great coffee at home. Machina Espresso and Mr Eion both offer fantastic beans and brew kit including filter and aeropress. Machina Espresso can also talk you through some very shiny and lovely espresso machines that’ll put a smile on anyone’s dial!

Edinburgh's specialty coffee boom is good for the city – even if you don’t like coffee

The number of high quality specialty coffee shops has boomed in the last few months, a trend which delivers great benefits to the city.

1. Local economy – Independent coffee is profitable and big business
Leading coffee research company Allegra estimates* that sales of coffee from the UK’s nearly 21,000 outlets grew 10% last year, turning over a total of £7.9 billion across around 2.2 billion cups of coffee. And they’re predicting this will be £15 billion by 2025 as more and more residents become coffee connoisseurs.

As 30% of UK coffee shops are independent, very blunt calculations based on Edinburgh’s population would mean that the city’s independent coffee shops are currently turning over nearly £18 million across nearly 5 million cups of coffee a year. These are substantial numbers for Edinburgh’s economy right now, let alone the £34 million turnover that Allegra’s figures suggest will be achieved locally by 2025.

These are also conservative estimations when you consider the large population swells during many of the festivals - and reasons 2 and 3 below.

2. Edinburgh’s specialist coffee shops are growing faster than the rest of the UK’s
Allegra’s research pulls out Edinburgh alongside Bath, Manchester and York as boasting particularly strong artisan coffee independents in comparison to other parts of the UK outside London.

‘Edinburgh Coffee Lovers’ currently profiles around 65 high quality specialty coffee shops on their app, a number that was closer to 55 six months ago, and which even then outstripped UK averages per capita.

This distinct acceleration in shop openings is supported by more and more locals who choose specialty coffee shops over other options.

In a city renowned for vibrant and creative festivals, it’s easy to see how Edinburghers may be drawn to trying a higher quality, more tailored coffee experience. Edinburgh’s first coffee festival last October saw over 1800 coffee lovers passing through in one day – more than organisers had hoped for and a clear indication of the passion locals now feel for the beverage.

And success breeds success.

As well as new shops opening, existing specialty coffee entrepreneurs are expanding.

Jonathan Sharp, one of the founders of Edinburgh’s specialty coffee scene, now has five shops with another on the way. ‘Artisan Roast’, equally formative in the city’s scene, has grown to three shops in Edinburgh (they’re also in Glasgow) alongside providing wholesale beans and training to a significant number of other local coffee shops. Police box collecting ‘The Counter’ have expanded to three outlets and ‘Brew Lab’ have just opened their second shop, alongside their professional and amateur barista training business. ‘Leo’s Beanery’ has positively blossomed, taking over the cafe at Dovecot Studios and opening a new shop Leo & Ted within months, in addition to their original shop in the New Town.

And we’re now seeing an expansion in local coffee roasters who supply both home coffee brewers and local shops. Local roaster Mr Eion has recently been joined by roaster Williams & Johnson opening in Leith and PostRoast, a coffee bean mail order service. Regional roasters Steampunk, Luckie Beans and Northern Edge all ply their wares to Edinburgh’s coffee consumers via popular food and farmer’s markets.

3. Independent coffee shops help build communities
Coffee shops are social places. They’re main purpose is to be a venue to facilitate social interaction as much as it is to ply coffee.

Each of Edinburgh’s specialty coffee shops is as unique as the customers who visit them. With this concept of diversity fully embraced, individuality is respected and customer service tends to be attentive in a ‘live and let live’ way.

Many specialty coffee shops feature the work of local artists on their walls, host community meetings and social clubs, act as a venue for performances and guest speakers and all, without exception, source their food from a range other small specialty businesses, supporting the local economy.

And then there’s the training provided and jobs created by an ever-expanding specialty coffee scene. Apart from employees of these coffee shops, every unique shop creates employment for architects, interior designers, shop-fitters, builders and coffee equipment technicians – all within the local community.

4. Great coffee is sustainable and ethical
Apart from the technical expertise of the barista, great specialty coffee requires great specialty beans.
Edinburgh’s specialty coffee shops and local roasters source beans that meet minimum levels of supply chain transparency from planting to processing.

Ethical certification of coffee comes in several forms that protect rainforests, bird-life, the environment and the coffee farmers themselves, providing them with fair payment, brokered and overseen by international agencies.

So while coffee is grown a long way from Edinburgh, the city’s specialist coffee shops are doing the right thing because they only use ethically sourced beans.
 
5. Enjoyment and understanding
While Edinburgh’s specialty coffee shops are creating lovely social environments in which to sip high quality and highly enjoyable coffee, baristas are also talking to customers about their beans and technique which very often leads to greater enjoyment of the coffee.

Edinburgh’s rising coffee standards are raising expectations of local consumers and vice versa - a trend that we can expect to continue to see spiral upwards. Apart from better and better coffee in shops, consumers are now also seeking brew equipment and beans so they can enjoy higher standards in their own homes - creating more demand for coffee gear and machines which more and more coffee shops are stocking.

Edinburgh (and the UK’s) specialty coffee shops know the coffee-drinking market is not yet mature. But, with 15% specialist coffee shop growth in the last six months, it definitely feels like it’s reaching a tipping point in Edinburgh as more and more people seek out better coffee, which can only be an excellent thing!

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Find Edinburgh's specialty coffee shops - quickly and easily
Our App will help you find the best independent coffee shops in beautiful Edinburgh - quickly and easily, whether you're online or offline.

Your location will show up on our city map alongside the the best coffee shops. You can choose the coffee shop that suits your style and mood based on the rating, review and photo.

You can download our app free from the App Store or Playstore and never have a bad coffee again!