I'm thoroughly frustrated by British coffee culture - most of my compatriots seem to have completely bought into the Starbucks mentality and the infantile jargon... and the awful awful coffee. I will say in their defence that the Starbucks coffee grinder I bought was both cheap and long-lived and is now my work grinder.
Once the admirable tea and coffee company Whittard started closing nearly all their shops a few years ago, I had trouble sourcing good beans. Thankfully, I persuaded the food market at St Pancras station (London), which I pass through on my daily commute to stock coffee beans (and ground coffee, for those who want that sort of thing) from the Monmouth Coffee Company.
I prefer to use a porcelain filter cone and paper filters, sending the first filtering through the cone a second time for a good rich brew (a tip from Brillat-Savarin). I mainly go for African peaberry beans from Kenya or Ethiopia, as the flavour is much more to my taste. The main trouble with this method is loss of heat, although the porcelain cone retains heat better than my old plastic cone. An electric hotplate that can be set to a low temperature is a good thing to have.
I do very occasionally chuck a cardamom pod or two in with the beans for grinding - heresy to some, but a habit I got from an Eastern European friend. It's a nice flavour combination as long as you don't overdo it.
