Esquires Coffee: The Late Blogger Gets The Brownie

Brownie Basics

Another weekend comes around and I am out touring the coffee shops of South London, drinking delicious coffee and eating delicious brownies. Well, one coffee and one brownie. For today, it’s a straightforward chocolate brownie from Esquires Coffee.

Brownie Backstory

What exactly is it about coffee that makes it go so well with cake? Or vice versa, potentially? Maybe it’s just as as simple as the comforting sensation of a hot drink paired with the indulgence of a sweet treat. There’s got to be a reason why basically all coffee shops sell baked goods and basically all bakeries sell coffee.

It’s absolutely glorious weather in South London as I’m writing this. I’ve been out for a run for the first time in about a week, which is what I’m using to justify this afternoon indulgence. Did you know that running in 25 degree heat is a lot harder than running in 18 degree not-so-much-heat? I do now! This is my fault really for having a superbly lazy morning, not getting out of the house until after midday, and then obviously running through the hottest part of the day. This also caused (minor) issues with my brownie search, as a lot of brownie-providing places start to close around 5pm. I couldn’t face going back to a supermarket so soon. Not after the excellence of yesterday’s cheesecake brownie.

Fortunately some coffee places were open till 6pm today, and I ended up in one of those. This is a reeeeally boring blog entry so far, isn’t it? Let me skip ahead: Esquires Coffee has branches all over the UK and Ireland, they make pretty good coffee, I bought and ate a brownie from here and now will tell you what I thought of it.

Brownie Points

Taste: Mmm, rich and chocolatey, and not too sweet. No complaints from me, it’s an 8/10

Texture: I looked at this and thought it might be on the dry side. I was pleasantly surprised at how wrong I turned out to be! Although it looks slightly cakelike, when you take a bite it actually melts in the mouth (I know) and merges into a much tastier brownie texture. Another 8/10

Presentation: It looks like a stock photo of a brownie, nothing bad, couple of cracks, nothing amazing. It was served with one of those cute little cake forks where one of the tines is thicker to make it sort of knife-like. 3/5

Value: At £3.50, it’s quite pricey actually! Admittedly it is a tasty brownie, but I feel like it must be possible to make an equally good brownie for less than this? Heck, I’m pretty sure I’ve blogged about brownies that cost less and are better than this. I figure it’s gonna get a 5/10

Fudge Factor: As I walked out of Esquires, I saw a sign that said “Espresso may not solve your problems, but it’s worth a shot”. I laughed, so sue me. 3/5

Overall Score: 27

Should I Buy And Eat This Brownie?

A lot of coffee shop brownies are sort-of-okay, scratch-an-itch, fill-a-hole affairs that seem better than they are because you eat them with coffee. This brownie escapes that sort of ranking and is actually pretty good on its own. My only note of caution would be the price, but if that’s not an issue for you then you should definitely buy and eat it!

Closing Thought

“British people talk about the weather a lot” is an example of the only sort of national stereotyping I can get behind. It’s entirely harmless, non-offensive, anecdotally supported, and can be sort-of explained by the geographical location of the culture that it talks about!