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The Bean Scene
The innovator mainly responsible for Edinburgh's recent coffee boom is artisan roast, a company founded in 2007 that started roasting, serving and selling coffee through their shop in Broughton Street. Consequently they began supplying other cafés around the city with their delicious beans. Since 2010, the roasting site has moved to their spacious shop in Glasgow, but beans are still sent to Edinburgh on a regular basis and with their second shop having opened in Bruntsfield Place, artisan roast are sure to be staying in the capital.
what makes freshly roasted coffee so much better then? Fun fact number one:
Very similar to wine, coffee contains a lot more flavours than just ‘coffee’.
Depending on its origin, the roast level (NB: light roasts contain more caffeine and more flavours, dark roasts tend to be heavier in body, less complex and lower in caffeine), it can taste like caramel, cocoa, cherries or honey, over to more exciting flavours such as bergamot (think Early Grey tea), strawberry or peat.
However, unlike wine, coffee does not get better with age. It does not mature, nor does it acquire any extra flavours or smells. Coffee is at its best and tastiest within four to six weeks after roasting.
Yet, the beans available to buy in supermarkets will typically have been roasted six months ago and might still taste of ‘coffee’, but will have lost all their other special flavours.
Artisan roast have understood that getting the roast level and freshness right are just as important as serving their drinks appropriately. That's why all their baristas and staff are trained to serve coffee with 'latte art' and are generally equipped with a great knowledge on coffee. Their shops in Edinburgh are located on Broughton Street and Bruntsfield Place, both being lovingly decorated with coffee sack walls, cafetière lamp shades and quirky looking and generally friendly staff.
The shops are open seven days a week, but if you find that you are too far away from Bruntsfield and Broughton Street, why notgo to Loudon’s in Fountainbridge, Leo’s Beanery in Howe Street or Peter’s Yard close to Meadows. They all serve coffee made from artisan roast beans too!
Artisan roast
http://www.artisanroast.co.uk
Peter’s Yard
http://www.petersyard.com
Loudon’s
http://www.loudons-cafe.co.uk
Leo’s Beanery
http://www.leosbeanery.co.uk
It can be a bit of a nightmare for a coffee geek to find a spontaneous coffee to savour and enjoy, as so much of Britain’s high street coffee is so low in quality. Yet, following London’s massive boom in the past ten years, Edinburgh has been developing more and more of a specialty coffee scene.