Prufrock Coffee, Shoreditch

I go through phases. I'm a very 'phasey' sort of person. There's one, though, that keeps creeping back on me: coffee. Every so often I go crazy for coffee, buying bags and bags of different blends, buying new gadgetry to make the brew and trying out new coffee shops. I'm in a coffee phase right now, to be honest; I've recently reintroduced myself to my Vietnamese coffee drip from Ca Phe VN. It was sparked off by Time Out's best cup of coffee in London search, published the other week. It reminded that Prufrock Coffee existed, created by Gwilym Davies, the 2009 World Barista Champion who is present and serving at the weekend. During the week the onus is on Tim Styles and Mattias Björklund (Swedish barista champ) to serve exceptional espressos and flat whites. Made with a Nuova Simonelli espresso machine, using the Square Mile winter blend, they do a steady business serving fashionable East Londoners in the front of trendy menswear shop Present.

Flat white (£2.20). Sam said it was the best flat white she has ever tasted, even better than the efforts from Flat White, dose espresso and Monmouth. I had a little sip: it was like drinking butter. In a good way. Outstandingly creamy and silky, with a good fruity flavour to the coffee.

Long black (£2). I had this. Eager to taste it, I burned my mouth (I didn't like having taste buds, anyway) but I could still appreciate it was a great cup of coffee. I'm not exactly a coffee purist, and I believe a spoonful of brown sugar can draw more flavours out of the cup and add caramel notes. This coffee didn't need anything added; the fruitiness of dates and prunes was clear on the palate, with apricots and burned orange peel coming through, as well.

Whilst there, I picked up a dis-loyalty card, with the general idea being the antithesis of a traditional 'loyalty card': instead of going to the same place eighteen times to be rewarded a cup of undrinkable coffee, you visit eight of London's best coffee shops and after doing so, you'll have a cup of coffee made for you by Gwilym. Great idea. I'll be going to all of the places on the card and doing a round-up blog of them soon.