Aussie rules coffee in London

Our coffee revolution - the one that put shops selling lattes and espresso onto every high street - started in Seattle and spread like wildfire, but there are signs that coffee is reinventing itself once again. This time the new wave comes from Australia and New Zealand, where they take their coffee very seriously indeed.

At St Ali, the newly opened Aussie coffee house on Clerkenwell Road, Tim Williams is the grandly titled "director of coffee" - he is responsible for choosing, buying and roasting the coffee and since opening day they have been serving a magnificent Rwandan Red Bourbon. The first St Ali coffee shop opened in Melbourne and was named after the 15th century Yemeni, "patron saint of coffee", Ali ibn Umar al-Shadili.

What makes this latest wave of coffee shops different is that the coffee they serve tends to come from a single estate (although a few are blends) and the green Arabica beans are batch roasted as required - that way the coffee is always at its freshest and never stale. Williams dismisses that other Antipodean coffee phenomenon, the much vaunted "flat white", as rather tame and bemoans the fact that 90 per cent of the coffees served at St Ali are made using the espresso machine - he has a high regard for the subtler flavours you get from well-made filter coffee.

One of the most fashionable of the Kiwi coffee shops is Allpress Espresso on Redchurch Street.

The café is within the roastery and Allpress has a good reputation in both New Zealand and Australia, especially for Fairtrade initiatives. Nude Espresso is an Antipodean coffee company that started roasting in Hanbury Street, E1, and has just opened its first West End café on Soho Square. They are very proud of their "East" blend, which is made using three different single origin beans.

Peter Dore-Smith is the owner of Kaffeine on Great Titchfield Street, where the coffee comes from East End coffee roasters Square Mile. This is another café that reflects Australian and New Zealand coffee culture - look out for good cakes and sandwiches.

Another Aussie/Kiwi establishment that has its own coffee-roasting machine tucked away downstairs is Caravan on Exmouth Market - here a distinction is made between espresso coffees (made from a blend of beans that changes with the seasons) and single estate coffees, which tend to be served as filter coffee.

The Aussie and Kiwi infiltration of our coffee culture places a heavy emphasis on freshly roasted coffee with cafés such as St Ali making much of roasting small batches on site - and that is something most high street coffee shop chains cannot hope to match.

But as you sip that double espresso, the real coffee connoisseurs may well be sitting down to a mug of filter. Better flavour, better aroma, much more subtle. Don't worry, the Aussies and Kiwis have things covered - and only a fool would bet against top-notch filter coffee being the next big trend.

Where to go for Aussie/Kiwi coffee
St Ali
27 Clerkenwell Road, EC1
(020 7253 5754, stali.co.uk)

Nude Espresso bar
19 Soho Square, W1 (07738 734019, nudeespresso.com)

Kaffeine
66 Great Titchfield Street, W1
(020 7580 6755, kaffeine.co.uk)

Caravan Restaurant
11-13 Exmouth Market, EC1 (020 7833 8115, caravanonexmouth.co.uk)

Lantana Café
13 Charlotte Place, W1 (020 7637 3347, lantanacafe.co.uk)

Taylor Street Baristas
110 Clifton Street, EC2 (020 7929 2207, taylor-st.com)

Milk Bar
3 Bateman Street, W1 (020 7287 4796 flatwhitecafe.com)

Allpress Espresso, 58 Redchurch St, E2 (020 7749 1780, uk.allpressespresso.com)