One Darnley Road.

There’s this little design studio in Hackney. It’s called One Darnley Road.

Today they installed and fired up their very own La Marzocco GS/3 Titanium – a loaner from Stephen Morrissey. I was fortunate enough to be asked to be on-hand to give them a bit of an initial run-through on espresso, cleaning, etc.

I gave the guys a brief overview on what they should be looking for, essentially replicating the basis of the training I received at Intelligentsia’s Los Angeles Roast Works. We pulled some shots of too-fresh Square Mile Winter Espresso, which were nice enough, but still a little bitey and needing rest.

Everyone in the studio had a go at pulling espresso, and they were keen and attentive trainees. We ran out of Winter, and switched to Square Mile’s Progresso Single Origin Espresso from Huila. And funnily enough, on his first attempt, John pulled me easily one of the best shots of espresso I’ve had since living in Los Angeles.

Impeccably clean, caramelly-sweet, deep and round. We were brewing slightly cooler than Square Mile advise, around 91.5c, but the result was spectacular. Slightly updosed, cut off at 28s and approximately 1.25oz, it was lovely.

Every workplace should have their setup.

(N.B. — Chris Morrissey drank so much freakin’ espresso in the 2-hours I was there, I’m sure he ran laps of the office all afternoon.)