{"id":5378,"date":"2020-01-09T11:36:55","date_gmt":"2020-01-09T11:36:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.aussiepizzas.com\/PIZZADELIVERY\/the-caffeine-chronicles-formative-coffee\/"},"modified":"2020-01-09T11:36:55","modified_gmt":"2020-01-09T11:36:55","slug":"the-caffeine-chronicles-formative-coffee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.aussiepizzas.com\/PIZZADELIVERY\/the-caffeine-chronicles-formative-coffee\/","title":{"rendered":"The Caffeine Chronicles: Formative Coffee"},"content":{"rendered":"

I was quick off the mark with my first London coffee shop visit of the year, on 2 January, although as Formative Coffee<\/a> first opened its doors in Victoria almost a year ago, I wasn’t as prompt as I would have liked. The small shop is a short walk from St James’s Park Tube station (and St James’s Park itself, for that matter), and is only open on weekdays and only until 5 pm, which is why I’d struggled to visit previously.<\/p>\n

<\/a>
On the first working day of the year, I found Formative fairly quiet, although there were also bursts of customers seeking coffee to take away. From the outside, Formative is very sleek, located in a pleasingly curved flatiron-shaped building on the corner of the pedestrianised Butler Place. The curvature is echoed inside, with a large black coffee bar that occupies most of one wall. White tiling, black tables and olive green chairs complete the look.<\/p>\n

<\/a>
<\/a>
The coffee menu is simple, offering just espresso, filter coffee, flat whites and lattes. And the coffee selection itself \u2014 currently from Danish roaster La Cabra<\/a> \u2014 is displayed on two cards on the counter. You can choose between coffee A and coffee B, with several flavour notes for each listed below. The idea behind this is to keep the focus on the coffee and its flavours, although I cheated accidentally as I had already seen the two origins on Formative’s Instagram earlier in the day.<\/p>\n

<\/a>
<\/a>
I started with coffee B \u2014 a washed Ethiopian Mekuria Mergia coffee with notes of mango, orange blossom and papaya \u2014 as a filter coffee. There aren’t any hand-brewed filter coffee option available, but luckily I arrived in time for a freshly brewed batch of coffee B, which came served in a beautiful \u00c5oomi<\/a> ceramic cup and which I very much enjoyed with a slice of toasted banana bread. There are a few other sweet treats on offer if you’re in need of a nibble to accompany your coffee.<\/p>\n

<\/a>
<\/a>
Requiring more caffeination before I braved the Regent Street sales, I also ordered a flat white. I usually prefer coffee drinks with less milk, but I’m also partial to a well-made flat white, which this was, smooth and sweet, with latte art that endured until the last sip. They also sell a colourful spectrum of La Cabra beans, as well as coffee-making equipment and Huskee Cups<\/a>. Given its aesthetics, I feel my new Carter Everywhere mug<\/a> would fit in well here.<\/p>\n

<\/a>
<\/a>
Formative Coffee<\/b>. 4 Butler Place, London, SW1H 0RH (Tube: St James’s Park). Website<\/a>. Twitter<\/a>.  Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n

For 100+ more of my favourite coffee shops in London, please check out my London speciality coffee guide<\/a>.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I was quick off the mark with my first London coffee shop visit of the year, on 2 January, although as Formative Coffee first opened its doors in Victoria almost a year ago, I wasn’t as prompt as I would have … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5378","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pizza"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.aussiepizzas.com\/PIZZADELIVERY\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5378","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.aussiepizzas.com\/PIZZADELIVERY\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.aussiepizzas.com\/PIZZADELIVERY\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.aussiepizzas.com\/PIZZADELIVERY\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5378"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.aussiepizzas.com\/PIZZADELIVERY\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5378\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.aussiepizzas.com\/PIZZADELIVERY\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5378"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.aussiepizzas.com\/PIZZADELIVERY\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5378"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.aussiepizzas.com\/PIZZADELIVERY\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5378"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}