Caffeine fix

I've gradually become addicted to coffee. For years I pretty much only drank tea - ye gods, I'm old enough to remember bottled Camp Coffee so do you blame me ?! Maybe it's something to do with my regular commute to Kensington & Chelsea these past couple of years where coffee shops are on every corner but coffee - good coffee -  is now my mid-morning fix. So I was interested to read the other day that whilst the price of coffee beans has tumbled, we are all paying more for our morning pick-me-up. There are more than 15,000 coffee shops in Britain and the numbers continue to rise as we are not put off by the rising prices. The market price for Arabica beans has fallen by almost a third thanks to bumper crops. Whereas the price of milk and cardboard and sugar and high-street rents and that 'expert' barista - just keeps on rising. For a medium-size £2.20 cappuccino, the cost of the actual coffee is probably no more than 8p. All the more reason, I think, why we should aim to buy the best quality coffee we can afford.
Arabica beans which most coffee shops use, are grown mostly in Columbia and Brazil but actually Ethiopia is the home or ‘evolutionary birth place’ of Arabica coffee, as I discovered at Kew Gardens this summer. Kew scientists are concerned that climate change as well as de-forestation, could lead to the extinction of wild Arabica coffee in Ethiopia well before the end of this century. Another good reason to choose our coffee carefully.
And if that isn't enough, we now have to follow the latte artists too. I'm happy to have a bit of a swirl on top of my cup but amongst the most competitive of baristas, you might find your favourite cat portrait, flower petals or a good old-fashioned heart. Apparently it takes the freshest of milk and top quality coffee to set up a coffee canvas so a good choice to start.