Re: coffee grinders

There used to be a shop in Ealing called "Importers" that roasted coffee on the premises. Until the early 90s when H&S meant you couldn't do it in a shop where the machine might unsupervised. Coffee roasting produces oils which are quite flammable.

However fresh roasted coffee, like baking bread, is a smell sensation that really does suggest there is a God.

I think they had a few branches. There was one in Guildford, too.

I remember those shops. We had two in Brighton and at least one in Hove. It was a widely distributed chain called simply "Importers". When I moved to Canterbury for university, there was one ther as well. I also saw a few round London.

One was by a bus stop in Brighton that I used frequently. Bliss to wait for the bus when they were roasting.

Top of Guildford high street. You could smell it halfway down the high street....

...before the brewery at the bottom took over!

Friary Meux. Now long gone...

Rave Coffee in Cirencester is an interesting place to visit.

They import, grind, roast and blend coffees. If you call in they have a tiny cafe with a glass wall so you can look down into the work area and see it all going on.

The smell, or course, is amazing. You can buy their coffees there or they post them free for orders over £25. I don't have any commercial connection

- I'm just a satisfied customer.

I'm sure you are right. What stuff tastes like is often influenced by the mind, so if you see blue coffee you don't like it even if its exactly the same as the normal coloured stuff.

Brian

There was a proper traditional delicatessen in the little town where I grew up, owned by an old chap called Mr.Furneaux. He had one of those grinders, as well as chests of loose tea, hams and sausages hanging from rails, whole cheeses - the smell was amazing. My parents considered buying the place when he retired, but it turned out the building was actually falling down. Similar story with Mr.Collins the cobbler - I guess they only needed to make enough to get by, as they owned and lived in the buildings since the forties or earlier, but there was no way the business would support an incoming owner with the repairs needed. Back to the present day and they might have been viable again, with increased interest for all things "artisan".