Coffee Culture in Guildford

So we found ourselves in Guildford at the weekend. A little bit out of our way but we’ve been having trouble getting Piglet’s hair cut. It’s been getting longer and longer to the point that it literally loops out and then straight back into his eyes. He’s even learnt the phrase “my hair’s in my eyes, it’s annoying me”. We’ve tried my local barber but he really doesn’t like it and the last time I took him we had to just abandon, such was the extent of the scene and my fear of damaging my otherwise impervious reputation for being cool.

There is a little department store in Guildford called Trotters who do books, clothes, shoes and, in the corner of the store, have a tiny hairdressing section. It’s just for little people and they’re specially set up to be able to deal with toddlers who are practising being moody teenagers. Instead of a mirror they have a great big fish tank and they provide books and toys to distract your little one. But more importantly, they have the patience to cut your little one’s hair even when they’re crying or jerking their head away from the scissors.

This trip wasn’t quite a successful as the previous one. We were running a little bit late for our appointment so it was all a bit hurried and he didn’t have the chance to see other children calmly having their hair cut before him to set an example (unlike last time). So there were some tears but his hair has been cut and (most importantly) I can now see all of his minute adult facial reactions that had been hidden behind his hair-in-the-eyes squint of the last few weeks. We also managed to buy a pop-up book on the consumption of energy which made daddy very happy as he can show what he does for a job to rival the ‘pop-up castle book’ which showed mummy to be a Medieval knight a few weeks ago.

Having cut his hair and bought a book we stumbled out in search of coffee (a basic necessity if I want to get past 2pm in the afternoon these days). We quickly found the big chains (Starbucks, Costa and Cafe Nero) but were desperate for something else. I don’t really like Starbucks’ coffee (they deliberately burn the roast to give their coffee a distinctive consistent taste – the taste of burnt coffee!) and Costa and Nero don’t do a dairy-free milk that suits us, so we went looking for something more independent. A quick search of Google Maps found Coffee Culture, not far from where we were, although up quite a steep street that Piglet seemed reluctant to walk up (as was I, getting dangerously close to 2pm without coffee!).

It’s just on a little side street and when first approaching most of the seats inside and out were taken. However, on seeing that they did Almond, Coconut, Oat and Soya milk we joined the queue determined to wait it out. Actually a few seats became available before we’d placed an order so Piglet and my wife set off to set up an occupation while I took primary responsibility for ordering. As I got to the counter I could see they had a dairy-free orange, lemon and lime cake.  It seemed a long-shot but I decided to see if they could tell me about its soya content as well.

The man who served me (I now suspect this is Will G. looking at Trip Advisor) was fantastic and was more than happy to go through the allergen menu with me. They have local bakeries cook them their cakes and store a list of ingredients for each. Despite there being a bit of a queue, I was in no way made to feel hurried in finding out the information and, to my delight, the cake was soya-free too. In ordering ‘the suite’ of almond milk drinks (a flat white for me, a babyccino for the Piglet and a decaf latte for the Mrs) he explained how quickly they’ve increased the dairy-free milks on the back of demand. Two years ago they only offered soya as an alternative. I was more than happy to explain that the reason we’d found them was because the big chains don’t do a good enough range of options for us.

The coffees were delicious and Piglet’s babyccino was served to the perfect temperature. The cake was divine as well. I’m not sure I’d have ordered it on description alone but the sharpness of the lime icing combined with the sweet orange of the cake was really good. I was very, very tempted to go back for a second slice (we had had to share quite a bit of it with Piglet!). All in all, a very happy chance encounter and, if we need to go back to Piglet’s hair cut again, it’ll be the first place I go back to.

They don’t seem to have a website but this is their Facebook page if you want to look them up: https://www.facebook.com/mycoffeeculture.surrey/

Also on a unrelated note, this shop was a highlight of the various premises names on the high street. Never knew it stood for Sir and Madam!