FCB Coffee

Here is one happy discovery we made during our stay in Brighton. I noticed it when we set foot in the train station: I saw a Flying Coffee Bean, or FCB Coffee stand. I thought at first it was a Flying Bean Café, which I always liked. But no, it's a completely different company. On the way back home, we stopped there for a drink and a snack for the journey. I love discovering these kinds of shops when I travel by train. Not necessarily big chains, but smaller ones which makes a railway station a little bit different than the others. It's one of the little things I enjoy when travelling.

News about The Flying Bean Café

 You might remember (or not) that, in June this year, I was wondering and worrying about the Flying Bean Café. I used to love the van that was visiting the business estate where I worked, back when I had a job I hated and an office I hated even more. Visiting the van allowed me to forget about my worries for a moment and indulge myself. Well, I was happy to find out that they are still in business, as I saw one of their vans again during the school run. Better, I learned on the news that new coffee shops are opening in the High Wycombe and Aylesbury train stations. So the company is not only doing well: it is thriving. And I am glad. Especially about the train stations: everything gets better if you add trains to it. I visited one of their station cafés before. I hope to do it again in one of my future train journeys. Who knows.

Whatever happened to the Flying Bean Café?

 You may remember that I blogged from time to time about the Flying Bean Café. It's the coffee company with coffee shops and more importantly coffee vans. I used to go buy treats from these vans visiting the business estate where I worked when I had a office job I hated. Spending a few minutes there also allowed me to briefly escape my toxic work environment. it was borderline therapeutic. I haven't been to one for years, however I used to spot one of its vans during the morning school run. Well, it struck me recently that I had not seen the van since 2022 or so. Their website is still online, so I assume (I hope I am right) that they are still in business. I promise, if I ever see one parked somewhere, I will make a stop and buy a few things. I really feel like I owe them one.

Sighting the Flying Bean Café

 Yesterday, during the morning school run, I saw a van of the Flying Bean Café going in the opposite direction. They were most likely going to one of the local business estates. It was not the first time I had seen it, but it dawned on me: it means that after lockdown(s), with more people working from home and so on, they are still in business. I'm glad. I never used it much, not being a coffee drinker, but I used to get some treats from them from time to time. Back when I was working at the job I hated, seeing their van used to provide me with an excuse to get out of the office for a few minutes. Call me silly or sentimental, but I have always been kind of grateful towards them. So I'm happy that it is still, well, flying.

What movie is this from?

I blogged before about the Flying Bean Café at the Beaconsfield train station. I loved right away this small quirky place, and one aspect of it I really love is the way they offer to give tip: by putting it in a cup that is an answer to a trivial question of culture. So as you can see on the picture, they asked what movie was the following quote: "A boy's best friend is his mother." The two choices were Forrest Gump (which I always loathed) and Psycho (classic thriller which I love so much that I actually read the novel, see this post here for details). The problem is that I had not watched either movie in a while and while I thought this sounded like Norman Bates and very, very familiar... it could be in a different context given to Gump and I could thus just be wrong and my memory was playing tricks on me. I placed my bet in the Psycho cup, only because it's my favourite movie of the two. Which one do you think it is from? And don't look down, that would be cheating.

Well, it turned out I was right! My memory and my gut feeling had not betrayed me. So it was Psycho all along. And now I am really looking forward to go back to the Flying Bean Café in Beaconsfield (or elsewhere?) to test my knowledge again. Until then, tell me if you got it right (or not) in the comments.

The Flying Bean Café

I recently blogged about the Flying Bean Café in the Beaconsfield train station, where we bought a coffee for my wife, a cuppa tea for me and some stuff to nibble. The essentials for train travels. I had not been in a café of that chain before, or at least I had never noticed it. I don't know how big the chain is, but I found or short experience at the train station very pleasant. It was a small place, a narrow counter in a small room. But the staff was nice and friendly, young a bit quirky and definitely hippy. And smiling. It's rare to find smiling people working in a coffee shop with genuine smiles on their face, genuinely warm to their customers, especially in a train station coffee shop. People that love their job. Anyway, I don't know if they are all like this, but it will be on our stop for our next trip from Beaconsfield train station.

Tea on the train

To go to London on Friday, we took the train in Beaconsfield. It was the quickest route for us. One of the little pleasures I have when I travel by rail is to buy a a cup of tea in one of the station's cafés and sip it waiting for the train to come, then on the journey. The Beaconsfield railway station has only The Flying Bean Café to buy food, drinks and newspaper, but it's a lovely place, with friendly and quirky staff. I will blog about the place in the future. Suffice to say now that this is where I bought my wife a coffee and bought myself a cuppa of Assam, as I needed something strong to keep me alert. Waiting for the train, it struck us that holding mugs of hot beverages and a pushchair might not be the wisest thing to do, when we'd have to get on the train. Thankfully the step was not very steep so we got on without any issue. Wolfie got a bit scared of the trains that were going through the station at high speed without stopping, but otherwise he was not difficult. Nevertheless, this new experience of our life as parents taught us that for now on, we will buy the hot drinks on the train, not the station, unless we have a lot of time to wait. I shall still enjoy tea on the train.