Espresso Joe and the iPhone App for Coffee   16 Dec 2010

Joseph Hoye

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This iPhones app is extremely useful for London coffee lovers.

Yesterday was most illuminating. I spent an hour chatting with Derek Lamberton of Blue Crow Media, creator of the London’s Best Coffee application for the iPhone.

The app allows users to map and rate their favourite coffee shops in London – the results are organic, driven only by the quality provided by each café, not by café owners posting outrageous claims.

It’s an indispensible tool for coffee loving Londoners, further helping to take out the guess work when hunting for a coffee in an unfamiliar part of town.

The best part is that the London coffee is app is free. Somewhere around Christmas and the new year, the itunes store should have San Francisco’s Best Coffee for download but at a price. So London, make the most of this great app while you can. This is Derek’s first app. It’s simple to use and with over sixty cafes listed and more being added each day, users are spoiled for choice.

Over a four week period, Derek populated the map by hitting the London tube daily and overdosing on multiple espressos throughout the city, starting in Stratford way out in the east and working his way back to West London. I was impressed by his obvious dedication but also that his eyes weren’t bulging out of their sockets from all that caffeine.

Coffee in London is still a hit and miss affair. Derek Lamberton has given us another way to share the praiseworthy cafes and steer clear of the dodgy, scalded milk lattes and rancid bean espresso that is still out there.

I’m giving the London’s Best Coffee app for the iPhone a big thumbs up with one caveat. If you’re an Android user like me rather than an iPhone devotee, you’ll have to wait until next year for the Android app. iPhone owners, download it asap!

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