My Favorite Coffee House Caffe Nero (Review)

One of my favorite addictions, yes, I have addictions, is the most lovely blends coming out of a well known coffee shop chain in England. I've never had straight up coffee or cappuccino, or  whatever. But I've had a penchant for either flavored coffee, French Vanilla etc. 

I've gone to England three times in the last eight year, and on my visit in 2010, I had the bright idea of having hot chocolate to combat the cold of weather of England. I eventually tested all of the major coffee chains in the United Kingdom being Caffè Nero, Costa, M&S Cafè, Pret and Starbucks. I was immediately hooked by the sweetness and the texture of the hot chocolate from Caffe Nero. And eventually every Caffe Nero I passed, I had to go in to buy a hot chocolate. 

By the way, I love the service I got from all of the Caffe Nero's, one located in Camden Town I think it was, even quite kindly stamped my loyalty card twice for one purchase, I felt so special. It's the little things I tell you. 

So, over the three visits, I probably spent close to 100 pounds on hot chocolate, with most of it going into Caffe Nero's pockets. Well worth it though. 

(Picture taken from Caffe Nero's website)

History

Caffè Nero (Italian for black coffee) or Caffè Nero Group Ltd is a European style coffee house brand with its headquarters in London. It was founded in 1991 by Ian Semp the original branch was at 66 Old Brompton Road, South Kensington. Currently, the company runs more than 825 coffee houses worldwide and is established in eight countries: the UK, Ireland, Poland, Cyprus, Croatia, Turkey, the UAE, and the United States.

Caffè Nero in March 2001 joined the London Stock Exchange under the symbol CFN. After a highly successful period on the London Stock Exchange, in early 2007, Caffè Nero was taken private in order to give it more flexibility to grow the business. From 2007 onwards, the company has been expanding internationally: in Turkey in 2007, in the UAE in 2009, in Poland in 2012, in Cyprus in 2013, and in Ireland and the United States in 2014.

Caffè Nero has won many accolades for its high quality coffee. It was rated by Allegra Strategies as having the highest coffee quality among coffee brands in the UK for eight years consecutively. 

(Picture taken from Caffe Nero's website)

A bookshelf bar at one of their oldest London coffee houses (Picture taken from Caffe Nero's website)

Coffee with a view at Bebek store, Istanbul. (Picture taken from Caffe Nero's website)

And if you don't believe me, independent sources are always the best, don't you think so?

In 2013, Caffè Nero's coffee was rated best tasting among five major UK brands by experts at the independent consumer magazine Which? Which Coffee Shop tastes the best?

Caffè Nero has a loyalty card programme in which customers may be given a piece of blue card with 9 white circles (designed to look like empty ceramic cups viewed from above). Whenever they buy a drink, they can ask for a stamp in one of the white circles. A card with all the circles stamped can be used to pay for any Caffè Nero drink.

Probably, my greatest disappointment, for all my three trips, I was never able to complete the loyalty cards, I left all three for my sister to enjoy.