The Exchange Stall - Lewisham

Launch of Dark Fluid Coffee and UKBC 2nd place...

2011-03-17T14:46:00.001-07:00

I have recently gone into partnership with my friend Lawrence (some of the Exchange crowd down at Lewisham will be familiar with him as the coffee nut down there and the guy that did open air roasting last year for Coffeekids on the stall). Our new coffee venture is Dark Fluid Coffee. Please do go and have a look at our new website (www.darkfluid.co.uk), coffee will be available to buy some time next week hopefully, we have a nice selection lined up for you to get up and running, else you can come and find us and say hello down at the 'Cheese and Wine Festival' this Friday, Saturday and Sunday on the Southbank behind the Royal Festival Hall.
So.......we entered our own roasted coffee in the UKBC competiton this year (a little under cover) and ended up coming in second place, which was great. To compete with the established roasters out there in the UK and be rewarded so early on is hugely encouraging for us. We got the award for the Best Cappucino and shared the Best Signature drink prize with the winner John Gordon. (www.scaeuk.com) The picture above is us with our awards afterwards, doesn't Lawrence looked chuffed!!! So please do go and take a look at our webpage and see the quantum journey of coffee that we are embarking on, and maybe even consider trying some of our coffees when they come along next week, we'd love you to try us out and give us some feedback. All the positive spirit of Exchange Coffee that I have fostered will be rolled into our new venture and I hope all of my followers at Exchange Coffee will come and join Lawrence and I on the next step forward. We'll be tweeting and blogging etc etc much more regularly than I have been here at Exchange over time, so come and join us at Dark Fluid Coffee and enjoy the ride.

Peace

Neil

Exchange Coffee back at Lewisham this Saturday.

2011-01-28T03:13:00.000-08:00

After an extended break from the stall, (I have just got back from Australia after having had a good look at the much spoken about coffee culture there while I was travelling through, especially in Melbourne), I'll be back at the Clocktower serving up some nice brews again tomorrow (8ish til 4/5ish). Come down and say hello if you get this blog, and help keep me warm. I look forward to seeing some of you regulars again over the coming weeks. A belated Happy New Year to everyone out there.

Peace

South Bank Centre Cheese and Wine Festival

2010-10-21T11:14:00.000-07:00

Last weekend was the return of The London Cheese and Wine Festival and we found ourselves in a beautiful spot at the Southbank.

Amongst a delicious selection of Cheese and Wines from around the world and opportunities to experience tutored tastings and demonstrations we were making our delicious coffee.

The weather was wonderful and crisp for most of the weekend, the Espresso flowed thick, and heavy and we were back onto Monmouth's Espresso blend once again after a long period of enjoying a variety of Single Estate Coffees. It was great to have our friend Richie (Farmer's fellow roaster down at Monmouth) for 2 days brewing his own roasted coffee on our linea. Richie had a great rapport with the customers and it was a pleasure to work with him behind the machine. Mid air tamping in full flow is a joy to watch from the DJ from New Zealand (our best kept secret).

For those who couldn't make it to the Southbank we would really encourage you to venture down next year to sample some of the wonderful food and drink offered by a variety of passionate and independent suppliers. Thanks to the girls next door for providing us with delicious wraps of food for our sustenance throughout the festival, and to our Scottish friend for the chocolate coated cheese fare?!?!

If all this talk of food and drink spikes your interest then do be sure to visit the upcoming Chocolate Festival which is a free event Friday 10 Dec 2010 - Sunday 12 Dec 2010 where you will find us making our coffee amongst a variety of award-winning chocolatiers.

This week we'll be back home in Lewisham and can't wait to catch up with our regular customers, come down and keep warm with us.

Om Shanti.

Chilli Festival 'Best Show' award for Exchange Coffee

2010-09-30T15:45:00.000-07:00

At the recent Chilli festival 2010 down in Brighton a couple of weekends ago Lawrence, Toby and I managed to concoct the 'World's Hottest Chilli Espresso' which fortunately took the plaudits for the 'Best in Show' product. Toby created a Naga chilli infused palm sugar syrup, Lawrence muddled a small amount of his brownie in the base of the cup (the old Michelin wizard), with a couple of pieces of finely shaved lemon peel, which we then combined with our Caravan (Brazil, Costa Rica and Nicaragua) ristretto dosed on top. It was extremely hot but after the 'fire' had lulled there were some very distinct flavours emanent. Have a gander at our friend Darth Naga's home video to get a feel of the festival www.youtube.com/watch?v=HRUXdRFQVXQ. I would really recommend a visit at the next one they hold, even James and Annette were at this one!? http://www.fieryfoodsuk.co.uk/.

So this Saturday Chris will be at the stall under the clocktower at Lewisham from 8-5. He'll have 3 different single origins from Monmouth for the day which he'll making his espressos with. I am sure he'll be blending some of these too at times, it should be a positive experimental day for him. He's nearly the got the hang of good solid hearts on his latte art now, so get along and pay him a visit! I'll be up in Northampton helping Steve of the newly found 'Peel and Peel' with his little concession for the day up there. I am sure Farmer will make a great success of his venture, and we wish him good luck. His Lever I know will be pulling some delicious shots of Monmouth's blend, and I'll hopefully be making some tasty milk to go with them.

Exchange Coffee are also fully supporting Body and Soul's expected 3,000 sell out at the Barbican soon. It sounds like a good line up and there are special guests too so they tell us. http://www.bodyandsoulcharity.org/. Get yourself along on ") October, Annie Lennox is playing.

Peace,

Neil

The Reserve Special - Fazenda Daterra

2010-08-13T05:37:00.000-07:00

For the past couple of weeks we have focused on Single Estate coffees roasted by the excellent Monmouth Coffee Company in all our espresso based drinks. So far we have enjoyed Gethumbwini Estate from Kenya which provided a rich fruity espresso with heavy body and a very sweet finish and Finca Las Lajas from Costa Rica with mild honey sweetness and chocolate undertones. To continue with our use of single estate coffees we sampled a variety of coffees over the last two weeks and (without conferring or swapping notes) we both chose Fazenda Daterra as our absolute favourite.

A little background from Monmouth on this very special coffee:

Fazenda Daterra is one of the most progressive and influential farms in Brasil. Luis Norberto Pascoal and his team dedicate their time and effort to developing the farm sustainably and producing the highest quality coffee. The Reserve Special is the culmination of the team’s work and is considered to be the best grade of coffee from one year’s crop. The coffees that go into the Reserve Special are selected by the cuppers as the sweetest and most balanced coffees. Daterra have developed their own quality control systems from seedling to warehousing that are being emulated around the coffee growing world. We are delighted to have this coffee back on our counter after a number of years, but we have a limited amount and it will only be available for a few weeks. For more information about Daterra please see daterra.com.br.

As you can imagine from the write up above, this week we feel especially fortunate and excited to offer Fazenda Daterra in all our espresso based drinks and hope you will come down and visit the stall tomorrow to join us in appreciating this highly prized coffee.

Positive Thought Exchange...

2010-08-06T14:50:00.000-07:00

So tomorrow we have a Monmouth roasted single origin Costa Rican running through the machine, with Chris pulling the shots. I'll be on the steam wand and Sarah, our lovely friend from Brown's of Brockey (with very celeb foody parents) has baked some bread with home made jam, and there is a delghtful peach tart from our favourite lady too. My new retro 10 seater table shall be unfolded on site for the first time too. I haven't asked the Council for permission but I'll see if I can get away with it for the day.

I spent the early hours of Friday helping Miles roast some more blend up at Caravan. I would recommend all baristas try and sit in on a few roasts where they can, it really develops your understanding of coffee more holistically.

If anyone is around on the weekend of 4th September my neighbours and I will be holding another garage sale. I set my stall up in the garden and provide coffees and we have 6 or 7 people selling old vintage clothing, some old tat, bbq and some salads, and a bit of general house clearance. Jazz Man John will be there providing some spoken word and rap, Toby's new chilli sauce will be jarred up, and the president of the BFC I am sure will be around with her frizbee. at the first one 2 weeks ago we had around 300 people come down our drive.

I hope if you read this and are local ish to Lewisham tomorrow that you can pop down for a coffee, and have a taste of some single origin espresso well extracted by Chris and Myself. Last week we both thought that the Gethumbwini was a refreshing change from your caramelly sweet chocolatty bases that predominate most espresso blends I find.

Hope to see you soon on a Saturday.

Neil

Om Shanti

Single origin through the anfim..

2010-08-02T10:27:00.000-07:00

I have felt for some time that single origin coffees are far underused through our commercial espresso machines. On Saturday we decided to worked through a few kilos of Gethumbwini. It made a real change and most of the customers could taste the difference. It proved especially nice with the milky drinks, providing a much more unique profile than the standard chocolatty, caramelly drinks that most blends tend to err towards. We'll be trying something new next week too if anyone is interested. I shall be offering free straight espressos with the milky drinks to encourage an awareness of the differences in tastes. The El Guabo that I used in the recent UKBC proved that there can be complexities without having to blend sometimes. I know there are of course arguments for blends, but I find it a nice change to keep it simple. The table and chairs will be available this Saturday too, my friend Toby sourced an odd retro folding table with 10 attached seats that shall hopefully generate an outdoor coffee shop feel. Chris has been trying many different extractions on the linear over the last few weeks, changes to dose and grind size, and extraction times to try and garner a hold over how this impacts on flavour on the micro scale. So do come down and quiz him and say hello and give us your thoughts on this weeks single origin coffee. There should be a nice selection of retail coffee on sale too.

Coffee roasting pics from Lewisham

2010-07-07T11:00:00.000-07:00

Well.... the outdoor coffee roasting proved a big hit last Saturday at the stall. Visually it attracted lots of interest on the day, as well as many coffee heads coming down to check it out. Lawrence custom roasted and packed up for our customers pushing over 6kg of beans roasted through his little hot top. A big thanks to Monmouth, Caravan and Paul at Coffee Hit for providing some delicious green beans, allowing us to give customers the choice of beans from El Salvador, Bolivia, Ethiopia, and 10 Cup of Excellence samples from Nicaragua (thank you so much Farmer!). Lawrence and I put most of the high end Nicaragua lots on display for people to try out, but kept a couple of special ones for ourselves which we'll be roasting soon (wouldn't you!).

I would like to say a huge thanks to my friend Lawrence for his time, efforts and passion in communicating the roasting process and imparting his coffee knowledge to my customers for the day. It was a very kind gesture and the Coffeekids pot for the day as a result exceeded £100, so they send their thanks to you too buddy.

I hope you all enjoy the pics.

Neil

Coffee Roasting at the Exchange Coffee Stall

2010-06-30T14:26:00.000-07:00

On Saturday if you come down to Lewisham Clocktower at Lewisham Market for a coffee, you can get a bag of custom roasted coffee with your ristretto (from 'Caravan' through the Anfim, or Monmouth through the Robur-e, your choice...) or filters including Aceh Tengah. Lawrence is roasting with his mini drum roaster (He roasted some Montana in my garden last weekend and it proved delicious).

For anyone interested in the roasting process itself, we'll be charging the roaster every hour on the hour (as well as randomly throughout the day), which means that roasts will be finished 15-20 minutes past the hour.

We've kindly been given a variety of green coffee by Chris and Miles at Caravan, sourced through Mercanta. As such it seems like the proper gesture would be to give away the beans for a generous donation to Coffeekids. You can order your choice of greens, single origin or blend as well as selecting the level of roast depth (Continental not available!), and 20 mins or so later you can come get them after shopping for veg or just drinking too much coffee.

For those interested in having a go themselves, at 3.30 we will be demonstrating some roasting techniques that require no specialist equipment, or at least no more specialised than can be bought from your local DIY.

We look forward to seeing you.

8am - 5pm Exchange Coffee, Lewisham Clocktower, Lewisham Market, this Saturday.

Cafe de Colombia - Land's End to John O'groats- Coffee Roasting at Lewisham Market

2010-06-13T06:33:00.000-07:00

(Photo: Stopping for the view wearing my Cafe de Colombia cycling cap kindly given to me as a present by my friend Toby before I left (www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caf%C3%A9_de_Colombia).

When I returned on Tuesday evening after completing the journey from Land's End to John O'groats my speedometer was showing 1077 miles. Mike and I completed the journey from Land's End in 15 days. It may sound a lot of miles and the ubiquitous hills of Cornwall to start with are certainly quite testing as an introduction to the ride, but muscles and stamina do develop more quickly than I'd imagined. Resting and re-fuelling are one of the most important parts of the journey, and we took a days rest in Glastonbury after seeing off the hills of Cornwall which had been recommended by many cyclists before we left.

Once you've developed a strategy for the sore butt, and accepted the the mental side of the journey (a lot of time alone on the saddle to think, which allows the opportunity for some psychological exploration), it can be a most memorable trip, and for Mike and I it proved a journey akin to self-realisation at times. The plains of Somerset, the ride down through the Wye Valley in Wales and the Highlands of Scotland were my personal favourites, but through the whole journey we gained a peephole insight into many different towns and people along the way, a kind of whistlestop socio-cultural meander through the UK happened in truth...... Shrewsbury was an odd place!

We camped down a few nights rough as well as generally in formal campsites which was most pleasant, especially on Dartmoor and then towards the North when the days were so much longer. We saw quite a few other 'end to enders' en route and it seemed most were staying in hostels and B+B's along the way. If anyone does ever consider doing this kind of thing in the future I would wholly recommend camping. Although it's nice to stop for a warm bed for the night and a good wash and clean, it's also nice to get out close to the elements. For us it seemed a more truer way to take on the challenge. We got wet on a couple of days and at those times used a B+B to get ourselves sorted out for the next day and dry our clothes out. We were somewhat blessed with the weather though which made camping much easier and allowed for us to take in the more outdoors experience throughout. Camping under the pine trees in an enourmous commercial pine forest in Scotland looking up though to the sky above was perhaps one of our more liberating experiences, as well as the night where we were directed by some fisherman to an especially scenic spot out of eyesight on the river in the Highlands.

The good side of human nature was in abundance throughout which made the trip all the more wholesome too. A lovely farmer and his family gave us a room and breakfast at no charge for the cause up near Lancaster when we expected only a space to pitch our tents. John the Stone in Scotland (who followed in his father's footsteps in becoming a dry wall stoner) was so kind too. Mike's chain snapped in a rather under populated area where a kind motorist asssited in introducing him to us (his house only 200 yards up the road from it snapping). He drove Mike to the nearest town 8 miles away to get the neeeded part, and then gave us some tea and custard creams in his delightful cottage. John was an enormous man!! There are too many little anecdotes in truth to try here to emphasise the profundity of the trip at times for us, but I do suggest it to anyone who's ever thought about taking it on, it can revitalise the spirit.

Thank you for all the very kind contributions towards my fundraising for coffeekids, they have passed on their thanks already and I am hopeful of clearing the £1000 target in the next couple of weeks. If you know anyone that may like to donate please do pass on my justgiving page if you could (www.justgiving.com/Neil-Le_Bihan), or if you haven't yet and would like to please do donate to an excellent organisation. Coffeekids are holding an event during the WBC in a couple of weeks and I hear that James Hoffman may be back competing again for the Coffeekids cause, a charity smack down with Gwylum I hear?....I shall post the dates and venue when I hear.

For anyone whose interested, I will be trying out some new stuff on my coffee stall at Lewisham market soon. If you haven't been down yet I am under the clocktower there every Saturday. On Saturday 3rd July my friend Lawrence will be roasting down at my stall, yes coffee roasting on a market stall in Lewisham! I'll post a blog with more of the details nearer the time, but I am hopeful that my customers and any newcomers that may be interested can come and have a coffee and chat with myself and Lawrence about roasting, (or Lawn Bowling) or whatever in truth. I have had an interest in roasting for a while now and am hoping to learn a lot from Lawrence and thought coffee drinkers out there might find it quite educational seeing it first hand. I certainly know that when I worked at Monmouth my understanding of coffee was heightened greatly from cupping sessions with the roasters, and generally being able to tap into their knowledge. I'll also have some tables and chairs from that date with some pastries and cakes. All ristrettos, espressos, macchiatos and picolos are now being served in ceramic cups too, which I'd wanted to do for some time. The book swap will be back soon and I'll have a nice regular range of varying single origins from varying roasters for my wholesale customers too again.

Thank you everone again for contributing towards coffeekids, and hopefully see you all soon either down at my stall on a Saturday or at the WBC in a couple of weeks (I am still trying to work on some etching for my signature pour for the World Latte Art).

I'll post up all the pictures from the trip on my flickr account soon.

Neil

The cycle starts Sunday....

2010-05-20T04:01:00.000-07:00

So, on Saturday my friend Mike and I catch the train from Paddington to Penzance for a five hour train journey in the wrong direction to get to our start point of Land's End! We'll be camping nearby and then getting up bright and breezy on Sunday morning to start the journey North with the intention of it taking us 14 days or so to get up John o'groats. We could both have done a little more training in truth (although we have carried out a few cycles down to Whitstable and back which proved very scenic in the Kent countryside. Pilgrim's Way I would recommend highly to any cyclists out there as a lovely single lane route through the downs). We both seem to be in reasonable 'nick' though and are now focussing on our mental strength to help get us through it. So if you haven't already please do take a look at my justgiving page (www.justgiving.com/neil-le-bihan), and if you feel inspired perhaps consider a contribution to support the fantastic work that coffeekids carries out. Once this ride is complete I really hope to take a further active role in assisting Elisa Kelly, the UK Devopment Liaison for coffeekids in getting their message and the work they do out there.

So please donate if you can and help me over time get a fresh movement going in the specialty coffee scene in London, where we can hopefully get all the coffee drinkers out there more informed about coffee at source, and help start making a difference to the lives of those at the start of the chain.... without their labours we wouldn't have any coffee!

Many thanks for all your support.

Neil

Exchange Does Chilli!

2010-04-02T14:41:00.000-07:00

Many happy returns Lynsey! This photo was taken at the chocolate festival by a good friend of the Exchange last weekend.
So tomorrow should be fun for us down at Hove for the Chilli festival on the seafront. As it stands we'll have the farmer's 3 group lever and our serviced la marzocca working at the same time! Our friend Toby (who helped me with my sig drink at the UKBC) has made the syrup for our hottest chilli in the world. Infusing naga chilli into a syrup which will be measured into our espresso shot. Horizon are there from the BBC documenting the world of pleasure and pain on Monday, and our Toby is entering the chilli eating contest on Monday at 5pm representing the Exchange for the cameras. On the way home today in our enormous hire van he ate 2 nagas to test the water as it were. It looked painful, at one stage I asked him if he was ok, he said "I feel like I have got a mouse trap on my tongue. 20 mins later he said his mouth was ok, but the 'naga' was working his way down to his belly, he had a slight stomach pain. I think he is in with a shout. Why not come down and watch him at 5 o'clock Monday and choose which machine you want your coffee out of from us whilst there. Our lattes, caps, flatties and the rest will be same as normal. Steve the farmer will be down too with his wife and Patch pulling a few special shots. If you're not up to anything on Monday why not come along and have a coffee with us and watch Toby take on last years chilli champ. Hove Lawns, Brighton, 15 mins walk form Brighton Pier.
Hopefully see lots of you there.
Hope you had a great birthday Lynsey. x

Coffee fundrasing - Lands End to John O'Groats

2010-03-24T16:29:00.000-07:00

Hi, this is Neil.

I hope that if you have either linked into this article from our Twitter page, Facebook etc or have simply come across this blog that you take a couple of minutes to read through this piece. I do feel that the coffee community and coffee consumers out there (of which of course there are millions of you) do now have a role to play in raising awareness about coffee at source, and the issues that are faced by vast numbers of people at the start of the coffee chain. I came into coffee only in the last few years, and as a direct experience of my seeing coffee at source whilst in India. For those who saw my presentation at the UKBC you will have been given a little insight into my journey into coffee.

Coffee is one of the the most traded agricultural commodities in the world. According to the World Bank coffee farmers earn less today than their ancestors did 100 years ago. Over 125 million people worldwide are dependent on coffee as their sole source of income. Vast numbers of familes continue to live in abject poverty. Many families face chronic malnutrition and poor sanitation. They don't have spare cash or access to things we take for granted like clean water, basic healthcare and free education. The price of coffee is determined by speculators in New York and London who buy and sell coffee based on the weather in Brazil, rain in Ethiopia and other factors. An efficient coffee farmer could pick an estimated 100 pounds per day (approximately 45 kilos) and receive 4 dollars for his labours?!?!? Fair trade has proved to be a good way to bring consumers into the solution, but the majority of farmers are still not receiving even those minimum prices. The price you pay for a coffee is roughly the amount a coffee farming family in Central and South America make in a day. You are all probably aware that there are many more facts available, and I perhaps apologise for stating these facts and figures so abruptly, but sometimes the message needs to be got across. It does though paint a very contrasting picture from the marketing power of the likes of Costa who can afford to spend £1 million pounds of their marketing budgets trying to persuade coffee drinkers that their 'brand' is best and a Flat White is what you really want to drink. I know most of us hopefully don't support such organisations through our consumer power, but am I the only one that thinks that somewhere along the line something has gone terribly wrong with Western culture where we find Peter Andre fronting a coffee company in a campaign to publicise Flat Whites. With the true facts of coffee available I found it somewhat insulting.

I hope through finding out as much as I can about the coffee industry and specifically those affected at the start of the chain that I can relay as much information as I can to coffee drinkers and interested parties out there, so that we are all better equipped with more information in order to make more informed choices about where we drink our coffee.

I will be cycling from Lands End to John O'Groats at the end of May to raise money for http://www.cofeekids.org/. I came across Coffeekids via the recent UK Barista competitions and have been in regular correspondence with them of late in the hope of my helping publicise the good work they carry out. Coffeekids do make a difference to many lives. Coffee is such an enormously traded product that I wondered how it would be possible to help those people at the start of the coffee chain by fundraising alone to start with. I have resrevations as I am sure we all do with money raised for many charities being eaten up in their inherrent bureacracies, but coffeekids does appear to be very different. They are having a direct impact on trying to help coffee farming families create alternatives to being solely reliant on coffee, so that entire communites survival doesn't depend on one volatile crop a year.

So this first blog on the subject is an attempt on my part to try and get some facts out there about coffee, to get as many people aware of the reality behind the global coffee economy, and begin raising awareness generally. I shall be working closely with coffeekids in the future and hope to document further the work they carry out. Please do have read of their website and the work they do (http://www.coffeekids.org/).

I will shortly have a http://www.justgiving.com/ account set up to raise money on the back of my bike ride and do hope that if you can, you can contribute and assist the good work that they carry out. We all have a role in making more informed choices about the goods we consume and we can only make these choices with good and true information.

Thank you for taking the time to read this.

Neil

Brighton Chocolate Festival

2010-03-22T01:03:00.001-07:00

Two days of chocolate filled caffeine fueled fun was had in Brighton, the weather was kind on Sunday, beautiful sun shine and lots of coffee drinkers.

The organiser of the event, has done an amazing job, the event was so well received by not only the traders, but the visitors too.

Here's a few pictures of our stall, and Steve guarding his beloved lever machine.

Hopefully see you all at the London Chocolate Festival this Friday, Saturday & Sunday.

The Exchangers

4 baristas, a lever, and a weekend in Brighton.

2010-03-19T13:35:00.000-07:00

What a pleasant evening we have had preparing for the Brighton Chocolate Festival outside the Royal Pavillion this weekend. I guess this is rather short notice and we are unlikely to catch many of you , so if you are one of our Brighton readers or are heading down there this weekend make sure you come and check us out pulling some sweet shots. But we are really excited about giving a debut outing to a newly refurbed 3 group Rancilio lever machine. TheBluebottle cafe have said their lever was the most expensive $100 machine they'd ever known, and we think the same rings true here. Early tests are showing very postive results, and we are looking forward to giving it a full work out. Don't forget Lynsey will be running solo tomorrow at Lewisham, so do go and give her a hand if you're about. Hope to see you there.

Lynsey, Neil, Steve and Toby

Neil's through to the final

2010-02-28T11:29:00.000-08:00

The running order for Mondays UK Barista Championships Finals is as follows.....

1st on stage Trevor Hyam
2nd on stage Neil Le Bihan
3rd on stage Simone Guerini-Rocco
4th on stage John Gordon
5th on stage James Phillips
6th on stage Dale Harris

Kicks-off around 9:45am until a little after midday with live streaming once again at: http://www.livestream.com/ukbc

Really proud of Neil, he's doing awesome. All his support has been fantastic, and will hopefully be there tomorrow to cheer him on.

All the best to the baristas competing.

UK Barista Championships - Semifinals

2010-02-25T00:13:00.000-08:00

So we made it through, and very happy to have qualified alongside 18 other talented baristas.

Neil is the first of The Exchangers on stage, at 12.30, and then at 2pm, Lynsey will be competiting, both hoping to do well enough to compete again at the finals on Monday.

Just want to say thanks to everyone who has helped us out, too many names to type, but we appreciate all your help.

If you are planning on coming to watch the semifinals and/or finals, then please go onto the Hotelympia website and register for free, otherwise if you turn up on the door, they will charge you £30!

Stall is on as usual on Saturday, Neil no. 1 will be there, so come down and say hi.

Lynsey & Neil

Neil strikes again....

2010-02-20T11:36:00.000-08:00

Just a short post, but if you haven't already heard, Neil won the South East Barista Heat, and he goes into next weeks semifinals with the highest overall score.

He thoroughly deserves all his success, and to pinch Ross Brown's quote "he is all risk"!! (NB. T-shirts are not available to purchase, though maybe for a joke we will give them away, watch this space!)

A day in Exeter....

2010-02-04T07:59:00.001-08:00

This blogpost is slightly out of sync, but being away in the middle of the country, where wifi and mobile signals aren't available, so I apologise!

Anyway, here's a few pics of Neils pours, and a lovely picture of us both, videos of our performances will be up shortly, I have the fun job of editing :)

UK Latte Art Champion...

2010-02-03T12:25:00.001-08:00

A photo finish, a little deliberation and a tight result.... ending in Neil taking the title, and rightly so and Lynsey also taking a podium finish, with a respectable 3rd place.We are both very happy to have competed well, and are now thoroughly looking forward to the UKBC which takes place in 2 weeks, and also since Neil won the latte art, he now gets the chance to compete at the World Latte Art Championships which takes place at the same time as the World Barista Championships, in London at the end of June.

Thanks to all the support (our mums (who both are avid blog readers), Marie, "the other Lynsey", Anthony, Toby, Ross, Coffeehit Paul, Mike, and the Jam Circus bunch.

Coffee Real

2010-01-29T02:48:00.001-08:00

Life I believe is all about meeting interesting people, and I have been lucky enough to meet two very cool, passionate people who I believe are doing something amazing, and we at the Exchange, are keen to support and promote businesses which have the same beliefs as us.So we are now also selling some new retail coffees from a local roaster in Dorking, Surrey, called Coffee Real, who stocks a great range of coffees, and soon will have some really wonderful coffees which we are very excited to sell in the future.

Gary and his wife Maarit have been roasting in their garage for I belive nearly 5 years (correct me if I'm wrong), and they have been ever so kind and roasted me (Lynsey) my competition coffee for the UKBC, which I am very grateful for. We had sold 7 out of the 8 retail bags last week at the stall, which is a record, so this week we have the Guatamala Santa Clara and the Kenya Gethumbwini for retail and the drip station.

Hopefully see you all tomorrow,

Lynsey & Neil

UK Barista & UK Latte ArtChampionships 2010

2010-01-18T10:21:00.001-08:00

We at The Exchange, believe competition is a good thing (t'is known that we are both rather sporty individuals), and have both entered into the UKBC & UK Latte art championships this year.

It's our first year entering the UKBC (Lynsey entered the Latte Art last year and placed 3rd), so we're are really hitting the practice hard, determined to do ourselves and our loyal customers proud.

Neither of us know what to expect in the competition, so its really exciting to enter, I like to think of it as a 10K race, we're training hard but have no idea what time we will get, so its going to give us a great base to see what level we are at. We'd love for our customers to show some support, not only for us, but for the other baristas too. The competition will be held at the Rich Mix Cultural Centre, Bethnal Green Road, E2, on Friday the 19th & Saturday the 20th of February, so if you are free, want to learn lots about speciality coffee and watch both of us perform, then your attendance would be greatly appreciated.

Christmas Break

2009-12-23T09:38:00.000-08:00

Everyone deserves a break, and with working every Saturday since August, we've opted to go away, relax, recuperate, and enjoy some time off at this time of year with our respective loved ones.

So a big thank you to all our friends, supporters, helpers and customers who have all helped us this year, your support has been limitless and greatly appreciated.

Hope you all have a merry christmas, and a wonderful new year.

Neil & Lynsey

Movember's Youngest Supporter

2009-11-23T07:26:00.000-08:00

Movember is an annual, month long celebration of the moustache, highlighting men's health issues, specifically prostate cancer.

Mo Bros, supported by their Mo Sistas, start Movember (November 1st) clean shaven and then have the remainder of the month to grow and groom their moustaches, and as you can see, our youngest customer Phoebe's (hot chocolate milk) moustache was in full flow on Saturday....

So, after just over three months trading we have gathered ourselves an excellent bunch of people who visit us every Saturday at the stall, and a nice bunch now following us on twitter/facebook etc etc, which is great. On the back of our now selling KeepCups and supporting Movembers' works, we shall be continuing our work in highlighting a range of issues that we think are important as we progress.

Our next Exchange product will be 'Exchange Jute Bags' which should be ready in the New Year. There is the ubiquotous drive at the moment to reduce our use of plasic bags so we thought we'd show our support for this movement by selling our own Exchange bags made of Jute for all the shoppers out there. We are expectant that most of our customers at the stall will use them for their Saturday shop around Lewisham market and it will be nice to spread the Exchange's message further around. For anyone that buys our bags they'll get a free coffee as part of their purchase. Keep your eyes peeled for dates on the bags' arrival.

Jordan to Lewisham in a day

2009-11-14T10:51:00.000-08:00

For any like minded intrepid traveller types out there I highly recommend a venture to Jordan. I spent some time there recently and was overwhelmed by the sites available in this seemingly precarious of geographical locations. Hitched in between Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Israel you'd maybe feel content in giving it a miss at first glance when trying to find somewhere to spend your probably limited annual leave. However with the now rapidly reducing Dead Sea, the Red Sea's amazing coral reefs, the lost City of Petra (one of the new 7 wonders of the world which blew me away), Wadi Rum's enormous mountains rising out of the desert floor, and much much more at its disposal, I think it's a much overlooked part of the world. Added to this a people who's hospitality makes your heart warm......

Anyways, within 24 hours I came from looking across the Dead Sea at Jerusalem and Jericho from the lowest point on earth in glowing sunshine to a complete wash out at the lovely Lewisham this morning.! Sorry to any regulars or newcomers who came along today (you crazy people), but we realised quite quickly on assembly of the stall early this morning in the dark skies that we wouldn't be able to handle those hefty winds and driving rains (We left you a message attached to the clocktower (photo above). I look forward to seeing what Lynsey tells me are many new faces that are now coming along next week.

Incidently whilst at Petra secretly sourcing a new venue for the Exchange I found someone had already taken the prized pitch outside the city's gates....

Refugee Monolgues - A little movie we want to share with you

2009-11-03T11:01:00.000-08:00

Tahir Albunamay is a talented film maker, who came to Britian as a Bosnian refugee. He is a friend of The Exchange, and his film "Refugee Monoglues" is an amazing piece of footage, which we want to share with everyone. Its short, but very moving, hope you enjoy.

We're in the Lewisham Life

2009-10-31T14:42:00.001-07:00

So we've been going at Lewisham for 3 months now, and have the most wonderful regulars, who always stay for a chat, and best of all, make lovely comments about our coffee.

Today was incredibly busy with lots of new faces, which we reckon was the result of them reading an article in the Lewisham Life..... (see below)

We hope that all the new faces return to the stall for lots more tasty coffee, and perhaps get to meet the enigma, the legend that is Neil no. 1, who is currently tanning his pale skin in Jordan (not that we're jealous.....!)

See you all again next saturday,

Lynsey no 1, Lynsey no 2 and Jackie (Neil's mum)

Neil No. 1 takes a well deserved holiday

2009-10-28T23:26:00.001-07:00

After a solid 3 months working the stall, and helping out the wonderful Mr Brown at his new deli, Neil has decided to b*gger off to the sunshine of Jordan and Syria. (Not that I'm jealous, but he better send a postcard etc...)

But not to worry, I have been left in charge, and have recruited two very able assistants, so I hope you all come for a coffee and chat, perhaps a good way to clear some beery heads after UBF Round 4....

Keepcups coming to the Exchange in Lewisham

2009-10-22T11:43:00.000-07:00

We met the lovely Bihar (Keepcup UK) today at 'Taste of Bitter Love' over some of Flick's delicious banana cake. After our lengthy chat about saving the planet we decided to start selling the keep cup range at the stall very soon. These cups are saving our trees, reducing our carbon footprint, and cutting the 1.8 billion paper cups thrown away each year in the UK alone. They are so obviously 'green' but also damn cool and come in a ray of attractive colours.

Come down to check out the Exchanger's keepcups and get your orders in before we sell out!

New single origin and new photos

2009-10-22T04:33:00.000-07:00

Gemma came to the stall last week and set up her collection of photographs for our customers to muse over. She shall be resident at the Exchange for the foreseeable future, so if you are in the vicinity come and have a look each week. We have a little Brazilian Recreio left over last week which runs through the machine lovely and is reminiscent of baked apple pie so says the one arm bandit. It also tastes great as a drip.

Gemma took some lovely pics of the stall last week too.....

Exhibiting Art at the Exchange

2009-10-14T06:13:00.000-07:00

The Exchange's friend Gemma White will be exhibiting a small number of her photographic works this Saturday so please do come and take a look, with a cup of our delightful coffee of course! She will be there too to have chat about her work. Here is one of her pics to give you a flavour of what she likes..

Do come and see Lynsey too, the one arm bandit will be there but not pulling any shots this week following reconstructive surgery to her shoulder. She's got her right arm in a sling after too much extravagant latte art over the years..... RRI - repetitve rosetta injury.

UBF Round 3 Blazing Pitchers - The results

2009-10-01T01:40:00.000-07:00

Well what a challenge this was, 1 dbl shot cappuccino, 1 dbl shot flattie, single shot latte and a macchiato.

Winning time was 2.08, by the legendry figure Scott “Captain Tugboat” Griffiths, and this win has sent him to the top of the UBF leader board.

The exchangers have a variable display, lynsey coming in 5th, in 2.29, and well Neil came around 10th we think, but a great night had by all. Special note to the MC Ross Brown, another great night behind the microphone... will he compete next time!?

Bring on the next round, wonder what it will be?!?

Lynsey & Neil

Browns of SE4

2009-09-28T14:11:00.000-07:00

Our friend Ross is opening a wonderful deli/coffee bar in Brockley SE4.

He is a lovely guy, very passionate and will do a great job I'm sure. He's also started a blog, http://brownsofbrockley.blogspot.com/ check it out, and pop down to the shop which will be on Coulgate Street, opposite Brockley rail station, when it opens (I believe it will open the wk beginning the 5th October)

Best of luck Ross (& ludd)

The Exchange, SE13

Trialing a new blend...

2009-09-25T12:18:00.000-07:00

We have a small amount of a trial blend which we shall be having a taste of tomorrow, roasted by a friend of ours. It is 33% Kenya Guthumbwini, 33% Yirgacheffe dark roast and 33% Nicaraguan. A few friends will be coming early so if you did fancy a slurp get yourself up early. Our friend said it tastes like starwberry ice cream!

UBF Round 3 - We have the golden tickets

2009-09-25T10:05:00.001-07:00

The Exchange is happy to announce that we have 2 tickets for the UBF league... one for Neil and one for Lynsey, hopefully see you all there....

http://ultimatebaristafighter.wordpress.com/

UBF - Ultimate Barista Fighter Round 3

2009-09-23T13:28:00.000-07:00

So this is uber cool..... the coolest barista comp around at the moment, and both The Exchangers (Neil & Lynsey) are entering.

Round 1 Neil came a respetable 3rd, going one place better in Round 2, placing 2nd. Lynsey is sitting currently in the top 5, after a strong 4th place finish in Round 2 (I'd like to point out that she's also top female, something she is proud of!)

If you have never been to a barista comp, this is the one you should start with, its fun, cool, intensely competitive and best of all, there's plenty of beer and cake (tasty cakes from Bea's of Bloomsbury), so its a good evening.

Details are here. http://www.ultimatebaristafighter.wordpress.com/

Saturday 19th September 2009

2009-09-20T05:50:00.001-07:00

Hello

Each week we're planning on writing up a little blog of what we've done, and what we are planning for the following week.

So who are we and what are we doing you may ask?!?

Well we're two keen coffee enthusisats, who run a coffee stall in Lewisham Market each and every Saturday from 8am until 5pm. We are keen to have latte art throw downs with anyone, we are keen to chat about lots of things, and what we are really keen on is having a good time and creating a good atmosphere where people want to hang out.

We are now offering drip coffee, the selections this week were a tasty Kenyan, a spicey Costa Rican and a well balanced Colombian, choices will hopefully change after a few weeks to keep it interesting, and hopefully have the occasional guest coffee in, our plan is to let things evolve naturally.

If you want to come visit us, we're located next to the bell tower in Lewisham, here's the postcode SE13 6BB, hope to see you soon.

Neil & Lynsey

Contact The Exchange (Events)

2009-08-08T13:46:00.000-07:00

If you would like to contact us for any reason, please feel free to do so.

We have serviced many one off events, festivals and smaller charitable conferences now. If you decided that you wanted us to attend one of yours, please feel free to call and discuss the various options that are available, from high end more formal weddings to a local charity fund raising day. We prefer here at the Exchange to meet individual needs rather than providing a standard events provision.

Regards

Neil
neil.lebihan@yahoo.com
(m) 07811592024

Our Coffees

2009-08-05T11:29:00.000-07:00

At 'The Exchange' we believe in offering the best coffees we possibly can, as well as much variety, varying not only the specialty roasters, but also encouraging home brewing and roasting. The latter as a result of meeting my friend Lawrence who has been a home roaster and brewer before I even came into coffee.
I worked for Monmouth coffee for nearly a year learning my trade before setting up the Exchange over a year ago. I have a soft spot for their espresso blend and coffees in general (a little bias because my friends Farmer and Richie are 2 of the roasters there, so I do get a heads up when they've got some really nice ones). I offer their coffee for espresso based drinks through the robur-e, and run Caravan's new blend through an Anfi ( www.caravanonexmouth.co.uk). I work 3 shifts a week at Caravan and had the good fortune recently to be involved with Miles, Chris, Dan, Anna and Tess there in putting the blend together based largely on hedonic value. It is really tasty with heavy toffee notes in flatties mate! I think is nice to have the option at one machine to be able to offer choice very simply, and this should be encouraged by specialty coffee outlets.
A range of coffees will always be available on our drip station for filter drinks, or coffee ground or whole bean be to take away. We always offer espressos and the small ones in ceramic cups for a pound too.

Location

2009-08-03T01:13:00.000-07:00

We are located next to the clock tower, at the end of Lewisham High Street (the Lee High Road end).

Getting the train to Lewisham is easy, trains run from Waterloo East or London Bridge every few minutes.

We're next door to the legendary German Sausage Man (named Lewishams best business 2009). You can have a meander around an interesting busy London market for some fruit and veg while you are there. If you fancy a stroll why not visit my friend Ross at www.brownsofbrockley.blogspot.com and see his varied collection of coffees and also visit Brockley's most famous dog Lud (who is a pug). It is a short stroll over picturesque Hilly Fields, we'll happily provide directions from the stall.

About us

2009-08-01T23:44:00.000-07:00

I set up the Exchange in July 2009 and trade underneath the clocktower. I decided to try and bring high end coffee to an area where you wouldn't exactly expect to find it. There are not even any coffee chains in Lewisham, and these corporates spend a lot of money paying people to source 'good' locations. My main reason was to see if you could spread the word that there there is an excellent brew there every Saturday at a cheap price (espressos will never be anything but £1 at Lewisham all the time we continue to trade there which will hopefully be for a very long time), then it would be possible to introduce good coffee to people without them having to go up to central London to get it, or the hot spots in East London now. Our customer base has changed noticably since the overground opened up the area to Dalston in 25 mins by the way.

An underlying ethos though at the stall is that of it being a place to have positive chat and thought. We have a notice board where local trades people and artists, teachers etc can advertise their skills. A friend recently exhibited some of her photography which generated some good interest. It's hang out basically where we like to have a chat....

It's a mobile service as well as the fixed Saturday base, and we like to work on recommendations. We have serviced some very twee and varied events and are very focussed on meeting individual need, do contact me if you wanted to chat.

Neil

Reviews

2009-08-01T07:11:00.000-07:00