They look tempting. From the descriptions, I think they’ll be more up my street than the more hipsterish sounding Hasbean offerings. 
I’ll definitely give all three a try in the coming weeks.
I’ll buy the Illy too as I’m at the supermarket tomorrow and it’ll keep me going till the good stuff arrives.
I find Strangers to be very on the money with their flavour descriptions 
Check out your local independent cafés, most round here sell the coffee that they serve, and have ground as well as beans. Give them a try.
When I started back up I found this one pretty good pricewise and postage is free and you get three bags ground how you want them. Nice to deal with as well
Buy a grinder, it will save a lot of shit cups from stale coffee.
If you want to keep it local…
argyllcoffee.co.uk
Clyde Steamer is a lovely expresso blend. They do loads of hipster type single origin numbers too if you fancy experimenting.
Tin Donkey Coffee Roasters Glasgow
A local restaurant take their coffee pretty seriously and serve this. It’s very good.
Or this one which another local coffee ship serves
All of them are good, will just come down to personal preference.
Thanks Tony. I’ll check them out over the next month or so.
After a swift google I found Thomson’s Coffee which has been operating since 1841. They have a roastery that is located within walking distance of my flat and a retail shop that is even nearer. I popped in today and bought 250g of their house blend and a vacuum jar. Just had a cup. Lovely.
I also ordered a couple of 250g bags from Strangers Coffee so I’m well stocked up for the time being.
Thanks to everyone for all the advice. Much appreciated.
That is a fantastic solution!
Just been told about these people.
On the radar of any Oxford types?
This is my go-to place when I’m at Guy’s and can’t be bothered to queue at Monmouth
Good try. Needs to have ‘Cunt’ written on it to be truly AA Friendly! 
I went to Caravan in Kings Cross yesterday, asked for an espresso. I was keen to see how it compared to ones I’ve been making at home (you may recall my previous complaints of not really having a baseline sense of what ‘good’ tastes like to compare my own methods too).
It wasn’t really a fair comparison as I make V60 at home (they didn’t do pour-over in that branch) but was interested in getting a sense still of what flavours I might discover (or not) in their brew.
Anyway, she gave it to me and warned me there was a problem with the grinder and that it might be a bit sour. I didn’t end up tasting any until I was out the shop and a few mins away. It was undrinkable. She really screwed that up. I should really have gone back and asked for my money back, but by that time I was a little far away and with my kids and for £2 I couldn’t be bothered. But that was very disappointing. I took a few sips and threw the rest away.
That said, despite being very sour, there was a ‘cleanness’ to the texture and I could still taste a bunch of flavours I’ve only rarely been able to produce at home. How much of that is due to espresso rather than pour-over I don’t know (I don’t normally drink espressos - too strong for me). They do sell pour-over in their Caledonian Road shop, so may try and go there when I have the time.
Almost certainly flat burr grinders being used at the shop. Most commercial places will be using an EK43 or similar.
They tend to sacrifice body for flavour separation compared to conicals.
Their batch brew is usually good, why didn’t you try that?
Yeah they had EK43s.
I quite liked the flavour separation - if it hadn’t been far too sour I would have enjoyed it. From what you’ve said I’m interested in trying coffee from conical vs flat burr grinders though. I’ve not really paid attention to burrs before as I felt like I had more basic things to focus on first.
I wanted to try this which is similar to beans I’ve bought from them before and used at home, so I could compare:
https://caravanandco.com/collections/new-coffee-beans/products/aroma-real
Probably the most defining element of espresso or pour over flavour and quality. It’s not just audiophilia nervosa style behaviour to suggest going big on the grinder.
If you have a £2000 budget for coffee I would seriously consider doing £1500 on the grinder and £500 on a machine.
I have a Wilfa Uniform - so flat burrs. It seemed like the most recommended at that price point (which was as much as I wanted to spend). I’m potentially happy to spend more further down the line but want to be sure I’m getting the best out of this one first.
Flat burrs are usually focused around being good for PO or good for espresso. It’s hard to find an all-rounder and depending on the grinder geometry you’ll find some can’t grind fine enough for espresso.
