Nomad coffee, Barcelona & TGITC Pop up cafe

Right now I am curating a selection of some of the best coffee from around the world to feature in my pop up cafe here in London's Stone & Crow vintage shop (Leytonstone). Open 2 days a week for eight weeks I started in London with Alchemy Coffee Roasters (who will be my "house" filter coffee throughout) and my second international weekend I featured Nomad Coffee from Barcelona! 

You may already know that a few weeks ago I went to Nomad Coffee in Barcelona to check out how they do things there and to swap some knowledge. I was there for a week working with them every day.

Jordi Mestre is the owner and head roaster of Nomad Coffee and is the most lovely and generous guy. He started his coffee career in London at the Borough Barista, was a coffee roaster and trainer at Nude Espresso and had his own coffee cart at Saturday’s Nettle Market – also winning the 2012 Spanish world barista championship!

I had been to Nomad coffee once before when I visited Barcelona, but this time was the first time I had met Jordi.  We already knew of each other through the London coffee scene and have a few mutual friends, so it was great to finally put a face to the legend!

His team (Francisco, Marc, Marco, Monica and Xnavas) are all amazing - so friendly, humble, really hard working and passionate about Nomad Coffee and are good at what they do. It was great to spend time with them. They're a fun bunch!

When you walk into their coffee lab, it is literally that - a big long beautiful wooden bar where they make you coffee using various methods. There are marble slabs inset to the bar where your coffee is placed. You can have a V60, aeropress, cold drip, cold brew or espresso based coffee served in traditional ceramic cups as well as other more novel ceramics for filters – almost Japanese sake-style. I’ve never seen a place where each type of method other than espresso is so often asked for. It was great to be able to practice different combos under pressure too.

Unlike London where we now have such a huge choice of cafes and coffees, Barcelona only has a few to choose from (the other really great place being Satan's Coffee Corner who use Rightside Coffee). So customers who discover and frequent Nomad were really refreshing (albeit probably tipsy from being on holiday mode) but all the same, appreciative of the rare artesian coffee in Barcelona that they were drinking.

I had a great time at Nomad. They basically let me run wild – letting me test and play with their coffee, machines and drinks. They taught me some new drinks too.  Like their cranberry crème cold drip and their cold brew lemonade, which was hugely popular.

Even though there were slight variations on other coffees (mainly to do with the use of different cups (and therefore slightly different milk levels) the one thing that surprised and impressed me was how well the “Flatwhite” had travelled, and how unlike chinese-whispers it had remained. Where recipes and interpretations of recipes can change over time and countries, the flatwhite they made, was pretty much exactly how I would serve it myself, in London or NZ – Double shot of espresso (around 30ml) in a 5.5oz cup with heated textured milk!

Of course, I found Jordi’s roasting of his coffee to be excellent and very consistent. They source their beans from similar green bean suppliers/agents as London roasters and they are growing which means they are able to keep getting in great origins.

I just had their Nicaraguan Cerro De Jesus (and Ethiopian Limu Konjo) coffee at my Pop up Café at Stone & Crow in Leytonstone, London and the response was awesome. People loved it. The Nicaraguan filters were juicy and floral which I thought gave it a perfume-like quality. The espresso was bright and light. To the nose it smelt soft and balanced, but it was surprisingly strong with notes of chocolate and lime. It had a medium body that was smooth.

Thanks Nomad for supplying The Girl in the Cafe with top notch coffee, attitude and support. What I love about Jordi is that he is generous, humble, driven and understands people. I felt really inspired by him.  I also appreciated that he lent me the coolest bike to ride around the Redhook Crit!  You guys are definitely one of the best places in Barcelona to visit when in need of Blood Good Coffee.

The Girl in the Cafe Pop up Cafe at STONE & CROW, 590 High Rd, Leytonstone, E113DA Fri/Sat/Sun 10am - 7pm