Peach. Hertford

18 Fore St, Hertford SG14 1BZ
When did brunch become a respectable thing to aspire to? When I was at uni, brunch was the shameful admission that you were too hungover to get up for breakfast, yet you were starving before it was generally acceptable to have lunch. Now it seems to have generated a whole industry around middle-class meet-ups and egg based foodstuffs.
Of the hundreds of places that describe themselves as ‘brunch spots’ they all seem to have certain tropes that signal exactly what they are without ever deliberately saying that, and Peach hits several of these notes from the off. For one, as you walk into the premises, you are instantly accosted by a bright orange neon sign of a slightly suggestive pair of lips chomping on a stone fruit, and you are seated an faux marble tables and provided with a carafe of cucumber water along with your menus. If this isn’t enough to instantly signal what kind of eatery it is, the sign saying “Pooch Friendly” should tip you off that those with their handbag dogs and designer mutts are about to rock up and make themselves known.
I mention this, not as a derogatory aside but merely as a statement of how clearly Peach has set itself out. You are unlikely to get a table if you don’t book on a weekend, and once day turns to evening, it becomes a bit of an upmarket burger bar. The amount of things that can have avocado on is astounding and the hash browns aren’t really hash browns but more dauphinois potato blocks. Enjoyable, but not necessarily what you were expecting. What I will say about these places is that, they always manage to cater to vegans and for that I am eternally grateful.
But this is not a food blog, it is a coffee blog and so me must turn our attentions to the coffee. Like many a good brunch place, speciality coffee comes as part and parcel of the whole experience and ordering from one of these places is, more likely than not, going to be a safe bet that you’ll get a half decent cup of coffee. Peach, is no different in this aspect as my oat milk latte comes with the obligatory latte art. The coffee is smooth and has no roughness around the edges although, once you get past the initial creaminess of the latte, there is a slightly bitter aftertaste that conjours up something stronger than what it is. A dense mouthfeel makes for a more luxurious coffee experience than many others, as it rolls around the tongue, clinging to the top of the mouth.

It’s pretty good coffee and it stands to reason that it’ll continue to serve as such because of its business model, but in a town like Hertford, a commuter town of limited size where many are used to London speciality coffee, and a place that is rapidly expanding out its own offering in this area, where does it stack up? I can’t see it stealing patrons from the explicit coffee shops, but it is nice to know that there is a place you can eat that also matches up to these should you need your caffeine fix but also need a spot of lunch…or brunch.