DRIFT a short way east of the Cotswolds to the cobbles and spires of Oxford and you'll find the site of England's first coffee house, which opened in the early 1650s. It's reported to have been a meeting place for enlightened thinkers, although it's a safe bet that it wasn't serving flat whites and oatmilk cortados, sourcing almond croissants from the local sourdough bakery or providing Kilner jars of dog treats.
Our expectations of what a good café should entail and, for that matter, a good coffee-have shifted within the space of a generation. The ongoing march of high street café chains has been an unavoidable part of this, but more influential has been the growth of stylish independent cafés with a more finessed, artisan approach to coffeemaking, as well as a commitment to quality produce and authentic customer service.
This is as true in the Cotswolds as it is anywhere. The region's soft valleys and stoneclad villages have traditionally been synonymous with tea and scones, but, these days, you can barely turn a corner without encountering a steaming espresso machine. New, high-quality cafés-including these five recent openings are springing up all the time.
"The UK was 10 years behind Australia in the coffee world'
Run by Australian husband-and-wife team Rob and Kats Broadbent, Lynwood & Co now has eight cafés in and around the Cotswolds. Its first, in the riverside town of Lechlade, has been serving customers since 2015, whereas its most recent opening --which poured its first latte in early 2024is in pretty Moreton-in-Marsh.
Diese Geschichte stammt aus der May 08, 2024-Ausgabe von Country Life UK.
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Diese Geschichte stammt aus der May 08, 2024-Ausgabe von Country Life UK.
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Save our family farms
IT Tremains to be seen whether the Government will listen to the more than 20,000 farming people who thronged Whitehall in central London on November 19 to protest against changes to inheritance tax that could destroy countless family farms, but the impact of the good-hearted, sombre crowds was immediate and positive.
A very good dog
THE Spanish Pointer (1766–68) by Stubbs, a landmark painting in that it is the artist’s first depiction of a dog, has only been exhibited once in the 250 years since it was painted.
The great astral sneeze
Aurora Borealis, linked to celestial reindeer, firefoxes and assassinations, is one of Nature's most mesmerising, if fickle displays and has made headlines this year. Harry Pearson finds out why
'What a good boy am I'
We think of them as the stuff of childhood, but nursery rhymes such as Little Jack Horner tell tales of decidedly adult carryings-on, discovers Ian Morton
Forever a chorister
The music-and way of living-of the cabaret performer Kit Hesketh-Harvey was rooted in his upbringing as a cathedral chorister, as his sister, Sarah Sands, discovered after his death
Best of British
In this collection of short (5,000-6,000-word) pen portraits, writes the author, 'I wanted to present a number of \"Great British Commanders\" as individuals; not because I am a devotee of the \"great man, or woman, school of history\", but simply because the task is interesting.' It is, and so are Michael Clarke's choices.
Old habits die hard
Once an antique dealer, always an antique dealer, even well into retirement age, as a crop of interesting sales past and future proves
It takes the biscuit
Biscuit tins, with their whimsical shapes and delightful motifs, spark nostalgic memories of grandmother's sweet tea, but they are a remarkably recent invention. Matthew Dennison pays tribute to the ingenious Victorians who devised them
It's always darkest before the dawn
After witnessing a particularly lacklustre and insipid dawn on a leaden November day, John Lewis-Stempel takes solace in the fleeting appearance of a rare black fox and a kestrel in hot pursuit of a pipistrelle bat
Tarrying in the mulberry shade
On a visit to the Gainsborough Museum in Sudbury, Suffolk, in August, I lost my husband for half an hour and began to get nervous. Fortunately, an attendant had spotted him vanishing under the cloak of the old mulberry tree in the garden.
