Coffee in Ireland in the UK

As many of you know, I love coffee. To the point that I roast, grind, and brew my own. To the point where many of my most prized possessions are coffee related. To the point where many of our vacations turn into cafe hunting exercises (for example, our trip to Chicago where we went to 6 cafes in 48 hours). Nevertheless, Sarah and I have not been seeking out good coffee on this trip (save for the exception of the nice cup at Brother Hubbard in Dublin). This is for two reasons. First, coffee, especially good coffee, can be expensive and it seemed excessive to spend $10 a day just for our much-needed daily fix of caffeine. Second, unless the coffee is going to be really good then I am more or less indifferent between pretty good coffee and awful coffee (and its hard to know what will and won't meet that standard in a new city). So, we decided that money would better be spent on museums, dinners, or, say, getting to the Dublin airport before our flight. So, we would just make coffee in whatever way was available to us at our various accommodations.

So far, that has included: instant coffee, bulletproof coffee (offered by the host and I accepted out of curiosity), and, oddest of all yet available at every place we have been yet, French Press coffee made with very finely ground espresso. Now, for those of you unfamiliar, one usually makes coffee in a French Press with a coarsely ground coffee. This is because there is a filter that prevents the grounds from getting through. If you grind the coffee too finely, you end up with a lot of "sludge" (coffee grounds mixed with coffee) in your cup, which is not especially pleasant. Yet, as I said, every place we have been has provided the option of using a French Press and finely ground coffee. In the first two stops, we opted for instant rather than this strange combination (which is also a bit of a pain to clean up). But in Oxford, this was our only option. It took me three tries, but I was finely able to make a decent, if sludgy, cup. I'm hoping we are able to leave this odd combination behind when we get to the continent.

Tomorrow we are off to London and I have already done some research to find out where we can get a great cup of coffee. As for the rest of the time, I have no regrets about oscillating between subpar and odd methods. I figure that will only make me appreciate the good cups even more.