That's all he wrote

I set myself a mission around this time last year. I wanted to try all the coffee shops in Balham.

The reason was my wife and I enjoy going out for coffee and cake and we were spoilt for choice in Balham. I have a bad memory so have taken to blogging so I don't forget stuff, this blog was going to give me a record of cafe experiences which would last longer than my memory.

At the beginning of the year I made a list of all the places I was going to try. I added a couple along the way too. There ended up being 25 on my list.

Fact is I failed in my mission to try all these coffee shops. This wasn't helped by the fact that we moved out of Balham mid year but it's no excuse. I will review the three I didn't get to (Puccino's, New George, Cafe Parisien) as soon as I can.

In writing this blog, and updating an associated twitter account I've had a great opportunity to interact with a number of people. I've been able to give a few recommendations and have received some great
recommendations for places to try.

So I'll do a brief 'year in review' type of post.

Contrary to some people's view on my mission, I was not out to find the best coffee in Balham. Although having tried many coffees in Balham I do have a few opinions. No where was perfect in my view, but then people don't make coffee shops just to serve my preferences so that's no surprise.

Here's my list of the coffees that I enjoyed the most. If you're after a really good quality coffee, you should be pretty safe heading to one of the following (in alphabetical order):
Camden Coffee House
Dee Light
Lavish Habit
Milk

Other options where which we really enjoyed, and would recommend include:
Des Lys
The Fat Delicatessen
The Nightingale
Trinity Stores

That's all for now. I will do some more lists at another time, given I did most of the reviews with a baby accompanying me I'll put some thought into a list of places that I rate for going to with a little one.

As for the future of the blog, I'm not sure. I'm thinking about extending the reach of the reviews to include Tooting and Streatham, which is a bit more local to me and also there are some great new places popping up in these areas.

Another thought I had was to do all the pubs in the area but I doubt I'd get through that many pubs. While Baby Spiller does love a good pub I'm not sure I'd get very far.

That's all, for now.