illy Caffè
📍Location: London, England
illy Caffe is an Italian coffee shop, and the atmosphere is quite different from the nearby chain coffee store Starbucks, though I can't quite put my finger on why. Maybe it's because the shop is smaller and the customers are plentiful, creating a lively and bustling feel reminiscent of a café on a European street.
The electronic display board behind the counter cycles through the different coffee offerings, and after observing for a while, we realized there were no repeats. The staff saw us looking around for a long time and directly handed us the "entire" menu. To our surprise, I had no idea that coffee could come in so many varieties...
For Espresso, there are three different formulations: Classic, Intenso, and Forte. Additionally, there are different choices of coffee such as Espresso Deca, Espresso Doppio, Espresso Americano, Espresso Freddy, Espresso Shakerato, and Espresso Greco.
Apart from these, there are also many items that I had never seen before, such as Filtered Coffee, Mugaccino, Macchiato Caldo, Capo Triestino, Duetto, Trio, and Nuvola, among others.
My colleague and I flipped through the menu in silence and eventually decided to have a Caffe Latte 🙂. The coffee was served quickly! It had intricate latte art on top, paired with a piece of 70% dark chocolate, which was quite special. I’m not an expert in coffee tasting, just an ordinary customer, but this cup was aromatic, very smooth, and delicious. On a cold day, having a cup really hits the spot; halfway through, I started to savor that piece of dark chocolate, which, combined with the coffee, created a slightly bitter-sweet flavor.
This must be a professional café; we just haven’t explored enough to do more than take a glimpse of its offerings through the most common latte.
Next time, if I get tired of the coffee from chain stores, I think I’ll come back to try this kind of café, and it should be quite interesting to taste various versions of coffee.