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When planning  my recent day trip  to the Kent Coast, I had earmarked two new-to-me speciality coffee spots to visit: Forts in Margate...and its sister location in Broadstairs. Better still, I could walk from one Forts to the other by following the Viking Coastal Trail along the beach. And because good things come in threes, I was also excited to pay a visit to Curve Coffee Roasters , an old favourite of mine , which had moved to a new location since I was last in Margate. Forts Cafe I arrived in Broadstairs on the train from St Pancras and it was a pleasant 10-minute stroll along the High Street to get to my first Forts of the day. Owner Will Pitts opened the Margate original in June 2020 — an even more challenging time to open a speciality coffee shop than usual, for obvious reasons, but the Broadstairs cafe made its début just a year later, in summer 2021. Both cafes have a very relaxed vibe and welcoming and knowledgeable staff. I spotted the Broadstairs Forts' excess sea...

I made the most of the sunshine on Saturday by heading to the coast — more specifically, to the Kentish towns of Margate and Broadstairs. I was much too late to find any available accommodation in Margate ( Fort Road Hotel  would have been my top choice) but thanks to the high-speed trains, you can pack in a lot on a day trip. Read on for my one-day Margate and Broadstairs itinerary, including a walk along the Viking Coastal Trail and other things to do and places to eat, drink and shop. 10:00 Coffee stop and quick shop in Broadstairs I booked a return train ticket to Margate but hopped off one stop early in Broadstairs, arriving just before 10:00 am. My first priority was coffee and I made a beeline for  Forts Cafe , which is a stone's throw from the beach. As well as the house Tastyboi espresso, roasted by Origin , Will Pitts' colourful cafe and its sister location in Margate serve some excellent coffees from a range of guest roasters. I opted for a piccolo with a natural Rw...

By the time May rolled around, I was in serious need of a break and some sunshine. The Portuguese island of Madeira has been on my to-visit list for several years and I took advantage of the extra public holiday for the Coronation to book in a trip. I'll be sharing my Madeira travel guide soon but in the meantime, here are some of the speciality coffee spots I visited while I was there. Art Food Corner — Funchal I happened upon Art Food Corner on my first afternoon in Funchal while walking through the Zona Velha (old town). Attracted by the colourful décor and the promise of an Ethiopian speciality filter coffee, I grabbed a seat at one of the pavement tables and perused the menu. In the end, I ordered a piccolo, brewed with a Brazilian single-origin espresso, which was delicious – smooth and sweet. On another visit, I tried the aforementioned Ethiopian filter coffee, which was very good too. While I was there, the coffees were from Polish roaster JAVA  and Berlin-based 19 Grams ,...

If you're a regular reader of this blog, you'll know that I've visited a fair few speciality coffee shops over the past 16 years. Many of these cafes have been beautifully and thoughtfully designed. But the new branch of  % Arabica  in Spitalfields really takes the cake (canelé, perhaps) with its stunning coffee bar. If you enjoy the works of Yayoi Kusama , you'll probably feel at home here. % Arabica is a Japanese speciality coffee company founded by Kenneth Shoji to celebrate his twin passions of coffee and design. He opened the % Arabica flagship cafe in Kyoto in September 2014 — four months too late for my trip to Japan , unfortunately. I've been to one of the London branches, in Covent Garden, a few times, but I hadn't realised how much the company had expanded: they currently have 150 cafes in 20 countries. I had seen a couple of pictures of the company's newest coffee shop, inside Spitalfields Market , and took advantage of a bank holiday Friday to ch...