H R Higgins

I didn’t expect to like this place – it’s quite swish and you can’t see the seating area from the street, as seating is in the basement. It just happened to be the closest café near my next meeting. But it’s surprisingly calm and the staff are nice. Coffee was very good and carrot cake was moist with good cream cheese icing.

If you love cute cafes and strong coffee, this is your place. I don’t even think «cute» is the right word. It’s downright charming, with excellent knowledgeable staff and just the right amount of selection should you need something sweet to pick you up. If I lived in London (oh how I want to live in London), I would come here with a book every afternoon and drink the Queen’s coffee!

Growing up with parents in the coffee business, I’ve been a coffee snob before people probably even knew what coffee snobs were. I could make a mean latte at the age of 14, and most people told me that my mochas far exceeded what my dad could do. This was in 1990 before the takeover of Starbuck’s in the coffee world.
Anyway, moving to London, I was sincerely disappointed with selection of places to buy a cup of coffee. I’m not talking lattes, I want a nice cup of drip coffee or coffee made in a cafetiere. Unfortunately, where I live there just isn’t a nice coffee shop around like I was used to. This is when I turned to H.R. Higgins. I decided if I couldn’t get coffee, I’d have to make my own.
I love them, they are always very friendly when I walk in. They are always willing to give me suggestions based on what I like. I usually get the Sumatra Blue Lintung, but they recommended me a nice Rwandan coffee which was amazing as well. I also like that I can mail order it so I don’t have to go in and pick it up all the time.
The coffee is very tasty, and all the varieties I’ve tried were amazing. I even brought my parents into the store when they were visiting, and they had a great chat with the people working there. The people working were very surprised that my parents came all the way to Alaska and were in the coffee business.
I’d recommend it for anyone to get beans. They also have a coffee and tea shop to get hot drinks downstairs, but I’ve never actually got a cup from there.

FANTASTIC ! They really know what they’re doing. Coffee-​snob me walked in with an unsuspecting friend in tow, and talked coffee and tea with these fellas for the better part of an hour. Delicious beans, perfect roasts, and an impressive collection of coffees rare, delicious and superb from around the world. My personal favourites were the Jamaica Blue Mountain (theirs was from a particularly great crop) and the Java: medium roast with vibrant flavours that all good Indonesian coffees should have, with very little acidity to distract from the fragrant aroma and smooth, nutty taste.
Picked the friend’s jaw up off the floor, too. He had no idea how hard I could nerd out on coffee, but if I remember correctly, he collects Commodore 64’s…

H. R. Higgins is a small tea and coffee merchant that supplies the Queen with the most British of drinks! A superb vast collection of teas and coffees from around the globe, with different roasts too, which can be roasted and ground in front of you if you wish!
Downstairs, there is a tea and coffee which is competitively priced compared to other local haunts (the horrible Allans a few doors down is not worth even thinking about!). This tea and coffee room also serves a range of cakes and other sweet things with the drinks, and both are of much better quality than what is served locally.
A really good small, hidden tea & coffee room where competitors aren’t half as good, and truly astounding tea and coffee can be purchased upstairs.