Coffee Bean

My coffee was big, big, bigger and really great. The amazing guy who owns and runs the Coffee Bean asked me so many questions, all in the aid of making me my perfect coffee. Big cup? Small cup? Weak? Strong? How do I want my milk? Love him.
The cakes are a must too. And home made. I had an apple strudel, which had a baklava-​twist to it and was super sweet and sticky and tasty.
We even got free samples of the coconut sponge and a biscuit.
So that’s service with a massive smile, great coffee, great cakes, well worth making the effort to get yourself off of Church Street and out of the way of the hipsters and their offspring waggon’s.

Coffee bean is a place where you can get nice coffee.

What do you get when you combine:
A small, simply and inexpensively decorated shop
+
Skillfully roasted and brewed coffee
+
An impossibly friendly and outgoing Turkish shop keeper
+
Big wicker chairs that look like they belong in a conservatory
+
The possibility of free samples of cake?
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Larissa’s highest praise.

Uh huh. I like it here. Very cosy AND free samples!
I dont drink coffee, so i opted for a ribena! Not very adventurous i know, but i just fancied it. But the owner was obviously concerned about my 5 a day intake, because he was super keen that i should have a freshly squeeezed fruit juice instead. I’d actually not noticed that option on the menu, and secretly wished i had ordered that. So he obviously is telepathic! So in conclusion, i got an apple and orange juice. And it was delicious.
The free samples of his home-​made baking delights were pretty amazing. Especially the banana cake, and i don’t even care for bananas that much.

Eleventy billion stars!
I’ve been searching for the man of my dreams for a long time and today I found him. Okay, okay, he’s an older Turkish barrista, but who says you can’t find love in the most unexpected of places?
The second I walked into this unassuming coffee shop, I knew it was what I had been looking for. Squashy chairs that you can sink into, small enough to be intimate, but large enough that you can always get a seat. A sweet owner who charms his customers and offers them freshly squeezed juices and little tasters of cake. If you walk in here on a bad day, you’ll leave with a smile whether you want to or not.
This is the kind of neighbourhood coffee shop that Starbucks with its crappa frappé-​cinos can never beat. Just give me a delicious coffee with a warm smile and I am loyal forever.
Reader, I married him! Well no, but I will be back.

I’m generally easy to please. Aside for my all out disgust with mayonnaise and the accompanying British mentality that everything is better bathed in the stuff, (it’s just wrong, people) I happily power through food and drink like it’s my job.
Coffee is an exception.
I don’t know much, but I know coffee. And my inner bitch eagerly awaits the opportunity to pounce on a poorly pulled espresso, an overly foamy latte or a bitter brew.
Long story short, there was no pouncing here (at least not on the coffee… perhaps on the barrista in my dreams. Call me.) It was perfect from pull to pour. Even the temperature was spot on. It’s a science folks, and I was blinded by theirs.

This place is too cute for words. It’s opposite my gym and in a place where I walk past quite a bit so for a coffee on the go it’s just perfect. It’s the kind of local place that Stoke Newington needs, the owner is a friendly chap who waves whenever you walk past and always chats to you while he’s making your coffee.
The thing that is great about this place is the chairs. Big wicker chairs with soft squishy cushions on it, and there is no wifi so you can’t work and actually have to relax. It’s small and very sweet with freshly baked goods in the morning, you just have to get there early as they all go pretty damn quick.