Association Coffee

Association Coffee is a beautiful coffee house, which opened last April in the City of London. The space is wide and elegant and I had planned to photograph it for some time. It is open Monday to Friday until 17:00, which means I can only visit during my lunch break. From my office it’s a 20-minute trip by tube, but one I am happy to make.

Two weeks ago I rented a Full Frame camera for a few days, the Nikon D800, and I was eager to test it on a pretty subject. I went to Association for lunch and of course I still hadn’t figured out how to use the auto-focus on the new camera! Thankfully I managed to manually get the focus right in these few shots.

Upon suggestion from the barista, I ordered a sandwich with Chicken, Mayo, Cucumber & White Pepper. Association offers a daily selection of sandwiches, pastries, cakes and breakfast options (with homemade granola and muesli). The quality (of drinks as well as food) is clearly important for them, as proved by the big names in their list of suppliers: Has Bean, Square Mile, St Johns Bakery, Neal’s Yard Dairy, Little Bread Pedlar and so on.

I have been to Association twice and on both occasions I have ordered my post-lunch coffee of choice: a Macchiato. An Espresso Macchiato, to be precise. Yesterday, in Frankfurt, I was asked by a barista if I wanted an espresso macchiato or a latte macchiato. I find the question silly, as a “latte” is already “macchiato”, stained, with milk. But apparently it is very important in Germany to specify!

Association offers a regular espresso and also a range of coffees that change weekly, for example this could be a new espresso or a single origin coffee to try at the brew bar. They also sell ground coffee or beans and different home brewing equipment.

The baristas are very knowledgeable and clearly passionate about their jobs; they are always very happy to engage in conversations with the customers and offer advice. That’s what count the most, a friendly service, together with the quality of the products offered. The space is inviting, restful, airy, bright. A perfect spot to spend lunch break.

Unfortunately Association is only available for a few lucky ones working nearby, as they are currently closed on the weekends. And that is the only bad thing about this cafe.