Speciality Coffee and Hand Baked Goods
-Byng Place
Bloomsbury
London
WC1E 7LE
-222 Shaftesbury Avenue
WC2H 8EB
London
About
Who We Are
We are Elena and Mounir, and we bring you Lever & Bloom Coffee, a small speciality coffee cart serving delicious hand-pulled espresso-based drinks (ethically sourced speciality coffee beans from London roasters Climpson & Sons), artisan viennoiseries from The Little Bread Pedlar bakery, traybakes from Cakesmiths, and home-baked delights. Award-winning Birchall tea and Mofo Deluxe drinking chocolate are also on offer.
How It All Began
If we are to trace our beginnings truthfully, we need to go back to when Elena was about 12, the age she started drinking coffee. Always ground, black, with a memorable zesty punch. It was love at first sight when Elena moved to London and had her first fateful sip of speciality coffee. It was a revelation that coffee doesn’t have to be bitter, but is subtly sweet, smooth and delicate. She embarked on an exciting adventure of tasting a myriad of coffee notes, such as red berries, chocolate, aniseed, blueberries or glazed cantaloupe. Elena started feeding her passion with books, magazines, and blogs about coffee and testing various brewing methods at home. Mounir had already received head barista training, so he happily joined her in exploring the independent cafes in the UK, Europe, and Morocco and discovering new coffee varieties.
Having lived in the UK for over 10 years and with a rich experience in the food, drink, and hospitality, we have always wanted to open our own place. We were spurred to action after the arrival of our son, craving the independence and the unity of having a family business. We resolved to start with a little Aixam Mega coffee van and grow organically to eventually open a coffee shop. Starting in the summer of 2014, we travelled to festivals, Sunday Markets and traded outside Penge West Station in South-East London. It was a truly special time getting to know our first customers and finding out what flavours and service bring a smile to their faces.
Finally, in the summer of 2015 our little van found its permanent home in almost family-like named Bloomsbury, near the breathtakingly beautiful Church of Christ the King. We love our customers, the community feel, and the unique buzz created by the nearby UCL, and the Farmers’ Market that runs every Thursday.
Our Name
We chose ‘Lever’ to showcase our beautiful and very strong and reliable lever espresso machine (Izzo Pompei) and ‘Bloom’ to point out that there will be alternative brewing methods on the menu (V60, Aeropress, filter coffee). Though it’s not feasible at the moment we hope to be able to offer these options once our coffee shop is up and running.
We Love – Our Values
Staying connected with our customers. We relish and nurture the lovely neighbourhood feel here in Bloomsbury, appreciate all your feedback, and extremely grateful and joyous, when you come back to us again.
Offering you hand – crafted coffee and food, that is made well and is full of flavour
Giving you great customer service. Always with a warm welcome and a smile.
Helping people in need with our direct involvement.
Educating curious minds about the wonderful world of speciality coffee.
Where We Are Going
To give you an even better service, with more variety of coffee beans and brewing methods, we are planning to open a permanent kiosk in Byng Place. It will have a 2nd espresso machine, so more coffees will be served to energise the people of Bloomsbury:)
The next big step is opening a coffee shop, where you can take your time to enjoy our coffee and food in a friendly environment with a great vibe. We envision added space for our baking experiments, workshops, family and charity events.
Our aim is to give you the best service and quality of the coffee and the food we offer. Even when there is a queue of 20 people, we promise that every customer gets equally great coffee, served with a double shot, latte art if milk-based, and always with a smile. Our cup of coffee may take longer to make, because each is freshly ground, brewed at precise temperature, and poured slowly to give you an unforgettable taste and aroma that you relish long after the first sip.
Coffee
‘Life is the coffee. Jobs, etc. are the cups, the tools to contain the love and life of the coffee we experience. Sometimes we focus too much on the cups and not on the enjoyment of the coffee that life has provided for us.’
Our aim is to bring you joy, offering you what we do with love, passion, and excitement.
Our business is based on our deep appreciation of speciality coffee, nourished by years of tasting, devouring information and travelling to places renowned for their excellent coffee quality and preparation methods.
So much difference is made when you know how precious is the journey of a bean from its origin to your cup. Many factors come into play, such as where the coffee is grown - on which part of the mountain and if it was shaded or in the sun. Then comes the harvesting – only the cherries at the peak of their ripeness are to be carefully hand-picked. How a coffee is processed after harvest can have a dramatic effect on the resulting cup - the taste can be ruined if the pip isn’t removed correctly. This is followed by the storage conditions and the trip to Europe. And, of course, the roasting.
When a barista comes into play, the true craft happens. Just like a chef or a sommelier, the barista possesses the intimate knowledge of how to extract the ultimate flavour. Grind size, water purity, milk temperature, and brew time come into delicate interplay with the environment, the barista immersed into the alchemy of bringing you a cup of coffee so sublime, it wakes up your every sense.
Climpson and Sons Coffee Roasters
Climpson & Sons are pioneers in the evolving London specialty coffee scene. Bringing almost a decade of experience, genuine love for the industry and dedication to the craft, they source, roast and craft the finest coffees from the heart of East London.
Climpson and Sons love discovering new coffee origins and delighting their customers with consistent and intelligently crafted coffee. Their range of single origin coffees and blends invites you on boundless exploration into the possibilities of flavour.
The Baron Espresso
Daterra estate - Climpson’s Blend - Brazil
Daterra Brazil Single Estate is a unique and interesting blend, grown on the three lots of the Cerrado region in the state of Minas Gerais. Daterra is the first sustainable coffee farm in Brazil and won a Sustainability Award in 2015.
The Baron Espresso is a punchy and well balanced espresso that works great with milk. The emphasis is on sweetness, with a full-bodied mouthfeel and nutty toffee sweetness. This coffee extracts a lovely crema, inviting straight espresso lovers and milk-based drink fans alike.
As an espresso it has a rich body and notes of baker’s chocolate and pecan. Add milk and you get all of the above plus hints of caramel and dried fruits.
Process: Natural
Varietals: Mundo Novo
Altitude: 1149 masl
Your Cup of Coffee
Espresso: The Baron from Climpson & Sons
The shot: Double as standard in all coffees
Milk:
Full-fat only. Coffee taste is inferior when blended with low-fat milk.
Milk temperature: 60-65C – milk tastes sweet and can be enjoyed immediately at this temperature.
Non-dairy: Bonsoy at no extra charge
Coffee dose: 18.6g
Extraction time: 30 sec
Brewing ratio: 62%
Water temperature: 93C
Bakery
We are delighted to offer you delicious home-baked treats to accompany your coffee. After all, what can be better than the irresistible smell of fresh cinnamon rolls, just baked bread, and cakes to fill your senses?
While Mounir is a master at crafting exquisite espresso-based drinks, it is Elena’s passion to bake. Ever since she was a child, she loved spending her time baking mouth-watering cakes and cookies and gifting them to her friends and family.
As it happens, it is also a long-standing tradition to enjoy your coffee with something sweet. Eating a sweet treat while drinking coffee changes the flavours you taste, bringing out the sweet notes in the brew. This is a better choice than adding sugar, as it can mask the authentic taste of the coffee.
Elena’s love of baking turned out to be a match made in heaven, when she and Mounir embarked on their coffee business adventure. Having made baking the integral part of their offering, Elena uses only the finest ingredients and keeps things inventive by exploring global recipes for you to enjoy at their spot in Bloomsbury. Elena bakes cinnamon rolls, kanelbullar, banana bread, alfajores with home-made dulce de leche, and matcha ghriba (traditional Moroccan almond cookie with a touch of matcha). All the while trailing the world’s baking treasuries to bring you new delights!
We invite you to visit us and let the delicious aroma and flavour of our lovingly baked treats and freshly ground beautifully strong coffee wake you up to the joy of the moment!
Suppliers
Birchall Tea
With a family tradition spanning over 140 years, Birchall Tea produces speciality and everyday black teas. Sourced exclusively from estates across East Africa, all the leaves are only hand-picked from tea bushes grown at high altitudes in lush volcanic soil. Your cup of Birchall Tea will be bright, delicious and filled with rich flavour, chosen from a lovely array of exquisite black teas and beautifully balanced fruit and herbal blends.
MoFo Deluxe Drinking Chocolate
MoFo Deluxe is an immensely rich and satisfying dark cocoa sourced from Ghana, with a deep 22-24% cocoa butter flavour and enhanced by the choicest Belgian chocolate flakes. A pure force of nature, it is completely filler-free and blended with 100% certified fair trade organic cane sugar. The MoFo Deluxe taste is fine yet generous, with an intensely enjoyable effect lasting well after you’d had a sip.
Bonsoy
When it comes to soya milk, Bonsoy is the best with a superior quality and taste. The secret? Bonsoy uses a select variety of organic Golden soya beans coupled with a time honoured production process, which gives Bonsoy its unique smooth and mellow flavour. Not only does it taste great in coffee, but also ‘stretches’ like regular cow’s milk, making it a joy to pour, create beautiful latte art, or finish your coffee with a lovely frothy top.
Vegware
Vegware is the only completely compostable packaging company operating globally. Its award winning catering disposables are low carbon, made from renewable or recycled materials and can be recycled along with food waste. Lever & Bloom Coffee are working towards using Vegware as its only beverage cup provider.
Social Affairs
‘Be the change that you wish to see in the world.’
Mahatma Gandhi
We are passionate about helping people and believe in the joy and goodness of giving.
We started off by wanting to donate to various charities, but as the time went by, we became convinced that we want to support people who would benefit from our direct assistance. This became especially clear during our last visit to Morocco, where we met a young man suffering from Multiple Sclerosis. Seeing him and his family in dire straits, we wanted to help and started sending them £80-£100 every month.
People we help
Younnes Akrim, 33 years old
Younnes has MS and cannot walk. He can barely move his fingers, but is able to work on his computer, earning some money by coding. Younnes’ twin brother, who also had MS, died just before last New Year’s Eve, so at the moment Younnes is struggling to cope with his loss and suffers from depression. His Mom died when he was little and he lives with his elderly father and sister, who is their full-time caregiver. Their home is a hut in the slums made out of chip board, with a curtain for a door. £80 a month pays all the family’s living expenses and Internet access, which allows Younnes to keep working.
Hakima
Hakima is around 40 years old, lives alone and has epilepsy, which leaves her unable to work. She needs at least £70 a month for her medicine, which is a lot of money in Morocco.
Orphans in Morocco
We would like to give whatever money is left to the children who live in an orphanage. We will buy clothing, nappies, and toys here and send them over to Morocco, where it’s much needed and appreciated.
So if you’d like to join us in helping these people, you are very welcome to put some money in the box on the table at our pitch in Bloomsbury, and we’ll add all of it to our personal contribution.
We are now introducing a day where all the proceeds from the baked goods sold will go towards helping people in need.
We will be very happy and grateful for anything you wish to contribute.
Our Location
Find Us
We are located right in the heart of Bloomsbury, next to John Raphael Rodrigues Brandon’s impressive gothic revival Church of Christ the King, UCL, Birkbeck and SOAS.
Address
-Byng Place, Bloomsbury, London WC1E 7LE
-222 Shaftesbury Avenue ,London WC2H 8EB
© 2016