There’s an expanding fashionable hangout, yet it’s nothing new and the appearance of a stylish update is here to wet our taste buds for future seasons.

The smoke-filled pub full of fussy patterned chairs and carpets has been replaced by the coffee shop; that sophisticated social venue, with clean lines of wooden floors and stark furnishings served up with an expresso. Welcome to a coffee culture.

Touch cafe bar provides for a variety of tastes.

We want more choice at our fingertips, and often choose a place like Touch cafe bar at the Old Haymarket on Manchester street which combines a stylish ibar and coffee house in one, to cater for all our friends drinking habits.

The menu board now offers fancy names and flavours; including latte, cappuccino, frappuccino, mocha, expresso, americano and iced expresso drinks, in a range of sizes including Grande and Verde to be accompanied by brownies and flapjacks in neat wire baskets, or even watermelons at the Soul Café.

Coffee shops all around Merseyside are daubed with a palette of young and old people, students, professionals, shoppers and teenagers, all sitting in comfy chairs.

Richard Karp, manager of Expresso Exchange Coffee House at the edge of the business district between Victoria and Mathew Street has this to say: "A lot of people in the morning look to have breakfast, to chill out before work. It is often a place for business people at lunch and a place for meetings."

Caffe Nero claims it has the best coffee this side of milan.

Professionals feel they have less time and want to be served the quick coffee in a morning and a ready snack in the ever shortened lunch break. "People who come here are people who don’t really have the time for lunch. It’s easier to pop out for a coffee or to get a takeaway," says Ian Beckwith, manager of Caffe Nero on Whitechapel Street.

TV show Friends shows and guides us toward the reason why we sip and slurp in coffee shops. It’s a place to socialise and catch up on gossip with our cliques of pals. It would seem we want a snippet of the same lifestyle judging by the sitcom sets obvious resemblance to Starbucks, the most recognisable coffee shop brand on two of our Liverpool city centre streets. It’s the American dream packaged in a white branded mug, which if you want you can buy and take home with you.

Living room comforts in a cafe

A coffee shop can be a form of escapism from high street shoppers and work. You don’t have to be part of the fast food culture, and can relax in your own time… staying long enough to make an imprint on the sofas.

We aim to be a part of the Continental lifestyle by sitting in a café in the afternoon. One of the easiest places to find this sort of atmosphere is Bold Street. Joanne Young, owner of Soul Café, certainly thinks so: "I picked this street as it is multicultural with a mix of people such as artists and students. I think the more cafes open up the better as it will bring more people to this area and be a meeting place for people in Liverpool."

Alternative design with striking colours on Bold St.

Coffee shops have become our second living rooms; a place we revisit time and time again to relax. We can be rewarded with newspapers and magazines to keep us occupied or by loyalty cards, such as the union card offered at The Coffee Union on Bold Street, where you are rewarded with a freebie after you have glugged gallons of the stuff.

No longer is the coffee we drink a quick sip out of a white plastic cup with a bickie, but a continental concoction of image and taste to escape to and be a part of.

WORDS: Emma Whitehead