I’ve been lucky enough to visit Alaska a few times, and while I expected to come home talking about mountains, wildlife and the occasional roadside moose, I didn’t expect to return with a full-blown coffee problem.
Americans take their coffee seriously.
Not necessarily in the tiny-cup, single-origin, tasting-notes-of-elderflower kind of way. More in the three pumps of vanilla, two pumps of caramel, oat milk, extra shot, cold foam and enough ice to alter the local climate kind of way.
A simple coffee order can sound like somebody configuring a new website.
After several trips, I got used to walking into a coffee shop and being presented with enough flavours, toppings and customisation options to build a drink that probably shouldn’t legally qualify as breakfast.
Ever since returning to Essex, I’ve been chasing that caffeine dragon.
Fortunately, Essex’s independent coffee scene has stepped up. Alongside the places that take the coffee itself seriously, we now have plenty of shops serving iced lattes, frappes, cold foams, flavoured syrups and seasonal drinks that arrive looking suspiciously good on Instagram.
Coffee shops also happen to be some of our favourite places to think creatively. For us, changing our surroundings and working with a little background buzz can often unlock an idea that refused to appear after three hours of staring at the same screen.
So, whether you want a perfectly made espresso or a drink containing more ingredients than a Sunday roast, here are five Essex coffee spots worth adding to your list.
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Let’s begin with the mystery coffee shop.
The place just along Baddow Road from Zenxi is Driink Coffee Club, and it is probably the most coffee-serious entry on this list.
Rather than attempting to conceal the espresso beneath six syrups and a small mountain of whipped cream, Driink focuses on properly made speciality coffee. It roasts its own beans and uses a La Marzocco Leva X espresso machine, which the café describes as one of very few in existence.
Driink is the place we would choose when we genuinely need to concentrate. The relaxed interior, independent atmosphere and coffee-first approach make it a good setting for sketching out website ideas, untangling a branding problem or deciding that the heading you have rewritten 14 times was probably fine after version three.
Best for: Proper coffee, quiet thinking and convincing yourself that your notebook scribbles are part of a highly sophisticated creative process.
Elsewhere in Chelmsford, Worlds Pantry Coffee Shop can be found inside the historic Moulsham Mill.
This one sits much closer to the extravagant American coffee experience I have been trying to recreate since Alaska. Alongside the usual coffee-shop choices, its range has included iced drinks, iced sodas, milkshakes and frappes.
It is the sort of place where you can order something cold, blended and unapologetically sweet without the barista quietly judging you for failing to appreciate the natural acidity of the beans.
The Moulsham Mill setting also gives it something different from a standard high-street café. It is ideal for stepping away from the office, grabbing a drink and allowing your brain to reset for half an hour.
There are locally sourced handmade sausage rolls and plenty of other food and drink available too, because even the most important creative brainstorming session can be derailed by hunger.
Best for: Blended iced coffees, a change of scenery and creative meetings that mysteriously turn into lunch.
For maximum customisation, TOAST may be the closest Essex gets to the enormous American-style coffee menu.
TOAST is an independent British coffee-house group with locations across Essex, including Chelmsford, Braintree, Witham, Colchester and Clacton-on-Sea. It serves iced drinks, milkshakes and frappes alongside its regular coffee menu.
More importantly, TOAST says it can create more than 24,000 different hot-drink and flavour combinations.
That is not a menu. That is a character-creation screen.
You can change the milk, add different flavours and order creations such as a Nutella latte. Plant-based and lactose-free milk choices are also available without an additional charge.
This makes TOAST a good choice when one person wants an ordinary flat white and somebody else wants a drink that tastes like a melted confectionery aisle.
There is also a nice local-community angle behind the business. Through its Coffee for a Coffee programme, TOAST donates a coffee to a community organisation, charity or not-for-profit when someone purchases a coffee-based drink.
Best for: Endless customisation, flavoured drinks and people who require several minutes to explain their order.
If you believe an iced latte should be allowed to become a full dessert, Ettie’s in Southminster deserves your attention.
Its menus have featured creations including an iced sea-salt maple latte, French-toast iced latte, iced Spanish latte and iced white-chocolate mocha. One seasonal special even combined hazelnut iced coffee, chocolate drizzle and chocolate-hazelnut cold foam to create a Ferrero Rocher-inspired latte.
That is exactly the sort of unnecessary brilliance I learned to appreciate in America.
Could you simply order a normal latte? Of course.
But you could also order something that requires a transparent cup so everyone nearby can fully appreciate its various layers.
Ettie’s describes itself as Southminster’s “small but mighty” independent coffee shop. Its wider range has also included iced matcha, smoothies, milkshakes and fruit coolers.
Best for: Seasonal specials, cold foam and coffee that doubles as both a drink and an event.
Our final choice is Hope Coffee Social, an independent, family-run Essex business that began in Stanford-le-Hope and now also has a location at Lakeside.
The original shop serves coffee, iced drinks, cakes and even pup cups, while its Lakeside location is positioned as a community-focused coffee spot offering crafted drinks, fresh food and a welcoming atmosphere.
Hope is another strong choice for anyone who prefers the more playful side of American coffee culture. Its menus have included drinks such as a white-chocolate hazelnut mocha and elaborately named seasonal creations including Dubai Dream. Its wider cold-drink menus have also featured colourful lemonades and tropical flavour combinations.
There is something very American about ordering a drink whose name provides absolutely no indication of what is inside it.
You simply place your trust in the person behind the counter, accept the brightly coloured cup you are handed and prepare for the possibility that you may not require sleep until Thursday.
Best for: Big flavours, inventive seasonal menus and a caffeine stop while shopping at Lakeside.
Why Coffee Shops Help Us Think Creatively
Creative work can become surprisingly difficult when you spend too long in the same environment. Moving to a coffee shop removes the familiar distractions of the office while providing enough background activity to stop you obsessing over every tiny detail.
Add a notebook, an oversized jumper and a tote bag containing absolutely nothing useful, and the full creative-director outfit is complete.
Some visits produce a complete campaign idea. Others produce three lines in a notebook, a pastry and an alarming amount of caffeine. Both can still be considered productive.
Which Essex Coffee Spot Have We Missed?
These are five Essex coffee spots currently on our radar, but the county has no shortage of independent cafés, hidden coffee counters and baristas inventing increasingly elaborate things to pour over ice.
So, where should we try next?
Send us your recommendations! Particularly anywhere offering the kind of customised, syrup-filled American coffee that requires its own instruction manual.
Any visits will be conducted entirely in the name of supporting local businesses and professional creative research.
Obviously.
Menus, opening hours and seasonal drinks can change, so it is worth checking each coffee shop’s latest information before visiting.
