For those of you who don’t know let me explain many years ago my life was built around bars and pubs followed very closely by restaurants and food, now it’s very much around COFFEE and Coffee shops.
As I spend a lot of time out on the road over the years I have found my way to many Starbucks and Costa Coffee shops all over the country and like so many others I am very grateful to both companies for taking my coffee drinking to a different level. However sometimes depending where I am and at what time then I will make do at the drive-through at McDonalds for a large latte as I am not a complete coffee snob.
However now with our two major supermarket chains Sainsbury and Tesco joining in with Costa and Starbucks franchises in some of its outlets I don’t even have to worry about finding a venue in high street along with car parking charges.
Times have moved on and I can own up and even confirm sitting in sun outside at the edge of a superstore car park in some very unlikely venues like Tesco Extra Scunthorpe and Sainsbury Beaconsfield or sitting upstairs at the back of the Tesco Extra Horsham it’s opened up a complete different world and opportunities to gain my coffee fix.
Over the years my one pet hates is that when on holiday unless you’re in the States, Canada or Italy you can’t always find a Starbucks even though the brand is now becoming worldwide, the options to buy a good coffee to drink can be very much hit and miss event?
However throughout the world there are loads of great coffee houses to buy coffee beans from but not necessarily to just have a quiet sit down and a drink even if in a superstore car park. (It’s all about great tasting coffee)
Some fifteen years or so ago I may have found what might have been a front runner in the car park coffee drinking in a small fishing village called Praia Da Luz which is in the Western Algarve Portugal some 5k west of Lagos, unfortunately Praia Da Luz for the past 4 years has been in the news for all the wrong reasons because of missing British toddler Madeleine McCann, but don’t be put off this is a great place to visit.
Maybe just maybe this small coffee shop in the back streets of Praia De Luz was the front runner for the Tesco and Sainsbury “Al fresco” coffee shops, based inside the family owned Baptista’s supermarket supplying groceries, fresh bread, pastries, croissants, and cakes as well as great coffee along with car parking seating and the other ingredient the Algarve sun. What more could anyone ask for.
I can own up and admit that over the years I have spent many hours just sitting in this car park watching the world go by, in the sun along with other tourists and locals, but more importantly I can recommend the coffee, so if you get the opportunity to visit the Western Algarve check it out you won’t be disappointed and let me know.
Wayne.
http://www.waynecollier.co.uk/
