Radar

Discreet spot on a quiet Paris street. It was calm inside when I was there, so plenty of space to sit, albeit it doesn’t feel like the kind of spot you would bring your laptop out. Everything inside felt very rustic and minimalistic which I liked. The baristas seeped super professional - but there’s no discussion on bean selection or anything like that, they just bring you an excellent coffee. I had a flat white which was excellent - they also offer aeropress coffee. Pastries were very very good.

The Cupping Directives lists a Colombian Coffee Company coffee cupping in London for Wednesday, June 17 at 13 New Goulston Street. The listing marks the session as open to all, with tickets priced at £24.54, giving London drinkers a practical post-festival tasting date rather than another broad coffee-calendar mention.

Why it matters: London’s coffee scene is rich enough that small public cuppings can disappear under bigger festival coverage. This one is still comfortably ahead on the calendar and specific enough to help readers plan, while also pointing toward Colombian coffee programming that may be useful context for future London tasting routes.

Associated Press reports that Andon Café in Stockholm is being run as a live AI-management experiment, with human baristas making coffee while an agent named Mona handles operations such as hiring, inventory, suppliers, and events. The cafe is at Norrbackagatan 48 in Vasastan; Andon Labs says the experiment opened in mid-April and is continuing while humans remain available to intervene.

Why it matters: This is less a cafe recommendation than a coffee-business signal. Stockholm’s specialty scene is usually defined by calm, precise roasters, so an AI-managed cafe sits outside the normal map but raises practical questions about staffing, operations, supplier choices, and what automation might actually change behind the bar.

Dalla Corte has opened its first global flagship in London at 36 America Street, developed with Kavi Coffee, Dalla Corte UK, and six-time UK Latte Art Champion Dhan Tamang. The official announcement says the May 8 launch included cuppings from The Cupping Directives and positions the SE1 space as a showroom, training, tasting, and professional-community hub.

Why it matters: London has enough excellent retail coffee that equipment showrooms usually need a real reason to matter. This one has a competition-facing operator, public tastings, and an explicit education/community brief, making it worth tracking as a place where baristas, roasters, and advanced home brewers may see new coffee conversations form.

London Coffee Masters 2026 ended at The London Coffee Festival with Alejandro Griffin-Diaz and Sharon Ip named co-winners after the judges determined the final was a tie. The result gives the Coffee Masters stage a useful post-festival signal beyond the broader awards list: this is the head-to-head competition built around espresso, brewing, latte art, signature drinks, cupping, and service under pressure.

Why it matters: For Filter Notes readers planning London around serious coffee, Coffee Masters is one of the clearest snapshots of working barista craft at festival level. It also gives us a practical follow-up angle after the London Coffee Festival Awards: competition-led names, overseas cafe operators, and techniques likely to show up in guest shifts, menus, and training conversations over the next few months.

WatchHouse has opened a new St John's Wood cafe at 51A St John's Wood High Street, taking over a former Oree Boulangerie space with a 20-seat room and outdoor frontage.

Why it matters: WatchHouse is already a Filter Notes London reference point, but this north-west opening makes the chain more useful for routes around Regent's Park, Lord's, and Hampstead approaches. The new room also keeps WatchHouse's rare-coffee and design-led positioning in view after a run of London expansion signals, including Millennium Bridge and other planned sites.

London Coffee Festival has named the 2026 LCF Awards winners, with Curators Coffee Studio taking Best Independent Coffee Shop and Carnival Coffee Roasters named Best Community Coffee Shop. The winners page also lists Mosey, Plant Shack Shoreditch, Spring Valley Coffee, Black Sheep Coffee, and Hermanos Colombian Coffee Roasters across the wider cafe, design, sustainability, and multiple-operator categories.

Why it matters: This is a useful London planning signal because two winners already sit inside the Filter Notes London guide, giving readers an immediate way to compare the public-vote result with reviewed shop context. Curators and Carnival also point to two different routes through the city: central independent espresso-bar energy versus a more neighbourhood-led south-east London roastery cafe.

An independent, owner run coffee shop. A super clean cut spot, with a bold blue front which means you can't miss it on the street, and a minimalist inside with a few stools and some beans to buy. You're greeted by the owner, who was super welcoming and guided me through the menu and the 3 main bean choices of the day. Their speciality is a dirty coffee (espresso with chilled milk) and I think also matcha. I had a flat white, which was super silky and presented very very nicely. This is a highly recommended spot.

Feels like the place to be - it's central, spacious, was busy on a Tuesday mid-morning when I visited. The space is bright, and there are seats outside, bar stools, a few tables. Coffee was unreal and they seem to do good matcha too (selling ceremonial grade powder and I saw a couple of people ordering a matcha latte). Good range of the usual coffee shop bakes, Massive selection of beans to buy and some swag too - cups, mugs, bags, etc. Overall, would highly recommend - certainly the best spot I've visited so far in Munich,

This was an amazing coffee experience - the spot is built just for it. It’s a small minimalist room just off a quiet street, with the coffee gear on one wall and the solo barista there to ask exactly what you want and explain the bean options. I went for an espresso with an Equador bean and it was really the best espresso I’ve had in Madrid. The barista even offered for me to smell the coffee after grinding. Great, hardcore coffee experience.