When you think of coffee chains you're probably thinking Starbucks, Pret, Nero.
Well, as a card carrying Australian coffee snob, I'm definitely not referring to those, because you might as well pour yourself a cup of dirty water and warm that up. Dirty water chains, maybe there's something in that as a subversive marketing tactic, but for now, I'm going to give you just three choices of the best chains in London that'll give you your dose of caffeine, and ensure it's tasty.
WatchHouse
WatchHouse originated in Bermondsey within a building that was once a literal watch house in the 19th century. It's a tiny cafe, focussed squarely on pumping out amazing coffee with a small number of cake and pastry choices.
Since then, it's popularity has enabled it to expand into larger establishments, and they're proliferating widely all over London, all the while maintaining a beechwood, stripped back, slightly Nordic style sensibility.
Those larger cafes also provide brunch staples like a full English, but with quality ingredients compared to your average greasy spoon.
Regardless of the outposts that make food, the main game remains the coffee, and the level of seriousness they take that with is second to none. When you choose to sit in to have your coffee, they provide a little card that outlines the tasting notes and back story of the coffee beans and why they've chosen it. They also pick specific beans depending on how you like your coffee.
For example, a different blend will be chosen for those of you, like me, who prefer your coffee espresso based with milk, because it will need to be a blend that packs stronger flavour to overcome the taste changing effect of the milk.
WatchHouse is also the only coffee shop I've been to where a barista produced a flat white with a unicorn in the 'latte art'.
Grind
Where WatchHouse focusses on the nuance of coffee and calming vibes for hipsters to enjoy the coffee in peace, Grind is like the younger sibling who is all about Millennial pink and high energy, but still pretty hipster.
The coffee is still amazing, and while some of the smaller kiosk style outlets do coffee and only coffee, most Grinds also go all in on the booze, and even better, booze with coffee with some bespoke espresso martinis and old fashioneds. Along with great food choices to boot.
The first Grind was born in hipster central, Shoreditch, on Old Street Roundabout, by a Londoner that inherited the space from his father that used it as a mobile phone shop. This Londoner, David Abrahamovitch partnered with Australian DJ Kaz James, to bring Melbourne's awesome coffee scene to London at the start of the hipster coffee boom in the early 2010s. Grind has since sprung up all around London.
Black Sheep
Black Sheep is the, well, black sheep of the family. They claim to be the "only retail coffee company in the world to serve 100% specialty grade Robusta Coffee in a market dominated by Arabica", however, it's not technically specialty coffee, or at least according to some of the specialty coffee shops that are around, who understandably try and talk down Black Sheep given it's encroaching on their territory. In fact Black Sheep has bought up a whole bunch of specialty coffee shops in London previously, such as Taylor St Coffee.
Their claim to fame is their Robusta Revival blend which they say has double the amount of caffeine as a normal coffee, which as an inner city office worker, is exactly what you need to survive the day, and that's basically where Black Sheep operate, they are everywhere around central London.
Some of their stores also double as cocktail bars at night, which can be fun to take you through the whole day from needing to stay awake, to needing to wind down.
They're also tech savvy and have recently updated their app to enable a slick ordering and rewards system.