it’s been one of those annoying sorts of days when time seems to have dribbled away and although yes, we’ve done various things, there seems nothing of any note or significance. It absolutely poured down yesterday evening and was very wet first thing this morning. We did a few chores (so dull) then went out to pick up some groceries. We decided to reward ourselves for our paltry achievement with coffee and as we were passing a Costa coffee place we decided to pop in. Of course we could have gone home and had coffee at home with husband’s new toy, one of those whizzy coffee makers with pods, but no, we stopped, parked and went in to our local one of Costa’s 3,800 Coffee Shops (worldwide in thirty-two different countries.
Husband had a mocha, I had an Americano with cold milk, and we found an empty table near the back of the café and sat chatting about various things, and observing our fellow coffee-drinkers. Costa’s started in 1971 and was founded in London by an Italian business man, Sergio Costa, and his brother Bruno, who started a coffee roasting business in Newport Street, Lambeth.
It was here the Costa brothers blind-tested 112 variations of coffee before they tasted one good enough to be our signature blend. They named it ‘Mocha Italia’ and it remains our signature blend to this day.
The business moved to Old Paradise Street into a brand new roastery. It was no doubt a natural progression for Sergio and Bruno to open their own coffee shop on Vauxhall Bridge Road in 1981. To read the rest of their remarkable story, here’s a link: https://www.costa.co.uk/behind-the-beans/our-story/roastery
So thanks to their adventure, we had a pleasant cup of coffee together, before heading home to try and get to grips with the never-ending tidying up! In case you missed an explanation for the never ending tidying up – https://loiselsden.com/2025/11/08/a-muddle-and-a-mess/
My featured image is of a previous coffee – we had no biscuits today!
Lois Elsden 