London's proper coffee

Your posh morning brew may not be as pure as you think. According to scientists fretting in labs across the world, coffee hustlers are regularly cutting expensive, superior beans with those of a cheaper, bitter variety. The two beans — arabica and robusta — may look identical but they vary considerably in terms of taste, caffeine, sugar content and smell.

Arabica is known for its sweeter, softer, more acidic flavours, meanwhile robusta — common in instant coffee — typically give a stronger, harsher, bitter taste. Unscrupulous coffee fraudsters are saving money: robusta is about half the price of arabica.

So how can you be sure you’re getting the real deal in your Americano? Well, a group of Italian researchers have devised a solution. Using a proton transfer reaction they can test the levels of compounds that waft off the coffee. It’s said to be an “innovative, fast and valuable tool for coffee authentication” — though most of us probably don’t have a DIY nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy machine to heave into Pret next time we fancy a latte.

Instead, you must seek out coffee merchants that deal only in the pure stuff. Mercifully, London’s coffee shops are disciples of real coffee, and don’t buy into any of that despicable tampering.

For example, at Timberyard in Soho, Arabica beans are sourced from Kenya — they taste of pomegranate, plum and Demerara sugar. At its Seven Dials branch customers ordering an Americano will enjoy beans with hints of Ceylon tea, blackberry and plum-flavoured beans sourced from Tanzania.

Monmouth Coffee Company sources its beans from South and Central America, Africa and Asia, and at Nude Espresso, beans are mainly sourced from South and Central America before being roasted in east London using an eco-friendly Loring roaster (nudeespresso.com).

Algerian Coffee Stores gets its pure arabica coffee beans from South and Central America, Indonesia and Africa and Curators Coffee Studio uses some of the best coffee suppliers from London and Europe, including Square Mile and Nude Espresso. Wake up and smell that proper coffee.