Exmouth Coffee

Living near Aldgate East tube station meant that I've walked past Exmouth Coffee a million times. It hasn't always been open because I tend to get home pretty late, but when it is, everytime my mouth waters due to their cakes and snacks in the window. Its hard to see what the name of this place is because the name of it is only written on a wooden bench they have outside when they're open. It looks like a black painted café with sandwiches and a lot of other food. 

Sadly, its one of those places where they charge you a little more if you eat in, so I've only eaten in once. But other than that I love them. I used to try to go there before uni to get freshly squeezed orange juice, because its the best. I think what I like the most about them is their food, but they brew pretty good coffee too. I just love that somehow their food all looks and feels healthy. If I had the money I'd get lunch there every day. Maybe next year I'll treat myself to it once a week. 

The atmosphere there is really nice, everyone seems happy to work even if they're tired. And sometimes if you're lucky you can even see some of the staff dancing and singing along to the music they have playing. Now that I've been thinking about it, I could really use one of their turkey sandwiches. 

I can't find their webpage so here's their page on yelp: http://www.yelp.co.uk/biz/exmouth-coffee-company-london

Graze

An English company named Graze focuses on making snack food which is healthy, has a low calorie count and is different from the things you can find in stores. I signed up for Graze because I knew that the first box is free. However I have now become pretty loyal, trying out their breakfast range too. I only took photos of the breakfast box I got because I always eat the nibble box too fast to take any photos. Nibble box is the name of the ordinary snack box. 

Each box has 4 sections, which then contains little plastic squares holding your snack or breakfast. On the website you can choose which snacks you like most, and which ones you don't want to ever receive. The boxes generally cost 3,89 pounds per box. But if you get your friends to sign up you can get a 1 pound discount on a box, or you can donate that pound to the Graze school of farming. Which then helps children learn to make sustainable futures for themselves. 

Overall, I love the Graze products because I spend ridiculous amounts of money on snack food, and I am never full. If you use my code you can get your first Graze box for free and try out some of the snacks yourself! 

Here's the code: XZ1WN1C

Here's their website: https://www.graze.com/uk/products

Solera

Solera is an incredible tapas bar on Sydney Street in Brighton. My friend Sophie told me to go here, and I will never ever doubt any of her food choices ever again because it was incredible. In fact it was so good I didn't even take many photos cause I was too excited to be in there, eating. The tables are small wooden tables, and you still on square wooden stools. Each table already has plates for each seat, and your cutlery so you're ready to eat. The menu is a laminated paper, but everything on it makes your mouth water. 

The food is all Tapas. This is a style of eating from Spanish culture, the food is all served in smaller portions but you are able to eat more and therefore you taste more things. My friend Daniella and I ordered 5 dishes to share between the two of us, and a jug of Sangria. And I'm sad to admit but we went a little overboard with that whole jug of Sangria. But overall everything about this place was good, there was nothing I didn't like. I was just sad to leave, and annoyed that I didn't have any change to leave a tip. Now I just need to find a good tapas bar in London. Here's their website: http://www.solera-brighton.co.uk/

Amathus

On the 5th of May before going to Islington we stopped in Soho for a tequila tasting at Amathus. Amathus is a wine shop with several small stores around London, at their Soho store they have enough space to set up a bunch of tables in the middle/back of the shop. On the biggest table at the rear of the shop there were a few employees making margheritas in tiny little shot glasses. They later handed out these glasses to everyone in the store, if you weren't holding anything they gave you one. 

There was also a woman that makes her own queso, which in her case is a specific type of cheese, a younger version of queso manchego. It was really refreshing and taste-y, a really good contrast to the alcohol. She also had a chili spread if you wanted to add more flavour to the cheese. 

The smallest table, closest to the entrance was serving tequila. There are 3 main different types of tequila. White tequila, which is the youngest just taken from the plant, reposado tequila which is slightly aged tequila (reposado means rested) and anejo tequila which is the most aged and darkest tequila. Out of all these tequilas I liked the white one the best because its got the freshest and lightest taste where as the darkest tequila is very similar to whiskey. 

Overall, I really like the musical atmosphere because they had a mariachi band playing and everyone was incredibly happy and friendly. I was really tempted to buy one of their t-shirts that said "tequila is never enough" but they didn't have any left in my size. Maybe I'll have better luck next year. 

Here's their website: http://www.amathusdrinks.com/