Jim Hoffmann – From Coffee With Love

If you’ve been following me for 10 years, then you’ll know that….. drum roll, 2017 will mark the 10 year anniversary of fromcoffeewithlove.com – time really flies when you’ve fallen in love with coffee, been drinking it with scrutiny and writing about your experience, phew!

It all started when I decided to delve back into my roots to be of service and how I had wanted to start a coffee shop some day but then found out that I didn’t know anything about coffee. So, I started reading about it, making the coffee geek.com my fave website. It was so fascinating that there was so much about a bean and how to get the best out of it. Then came the movement – the launch of cafe culture – an annual London coffee fair, where I met soon to be WBC champ, Jim Hoffmann and others – the bug had bitten me – I wanted more and then I started thinking about the whole idea of coffee.

And having amassed a whole lot of what I thought back then was knowledge about coffee , I thought, I’ve got to share this with as many people as possible, so they don’t get conned into paying for rubbish coffee.

I recall with excitement how I started the blog – the concept of the drink of the escapist – sipping a drink made with berries grown in some exotic land, dried and shipped mainly to Europe to be roasted and sold to cafes. The whole concept really intrigued me and that’s why when I had a caffe, it was called, Escape Caffe. I used the Italian word for coffee because like it or not, it was the Italians who having brought the drink to Europe through Sicily made people intrigued by the concept of frothed milk with a strong tasting coffee, espresso and its brothers and sisters, cappuccino and latte.

So, to mark this special year, I promise

to try and blog more
go down memory lane with some pics
to try and blog about other things related to coffee
to give away some coffee during the anniversary month – hint, it will be in August 2017
to try and blog about cafes differently
investigate the possibility of writing a book based on my blog
dream more

So, here’s to a special date 17.01.17 – the year of 7s – a special number with generations gone by and the original number for a single espresso, 7 grammes.

Live is too short to drink bad coffee.

I just got back from a quick trip to London yesterday and I’m still impressed with what’s happening in London. Very inspriational indeed and from a personal perspective I think if I am going to continue on this new career change, I need to move from sunny (at the moment) and beautiful Cape Town to my first cherished city, London – I know – is he mad ? Yep! I am, because I’m mad and passionate about serving the best coffee in a city that appreciates it and I’m mad and committed to serving people the best. Life is all about sacrifices and believe me, I’ve been through a few in Cape Town, trying to talk up coffee, so pray for me (if you believe) and wish me the best (if you believe and want the best in life).

I promise a longer blog on the London coffee scene, but excitement got the better of me and I just had to write this, but in a nutshell,

Prufrock Coffee, St Ali, Tapped and Packed (26) Speakeasy Espresso Bar, Coffeesmiths Collective, Taylor St Baristas (Canary Wharf – wow!), Taylor St Baristas (Exchange Tower), The Tolleys (owners of Taylor St Baristas – great family), Notes Music (Trafalgar Sq.), Jim Hoffmann, Ozone Coffee Roasters, Sensory Lab, Kaffeine, Tapped and Packed (114), Korean Barista, Thai Dinner, Taylor St Baristas (Liverpool Street).

Ciao!