The post-run coffee is not a reward. It's part of the run — the final split. This is one of our county guides to the best independent coffee within cool-down distance of your miles: great beans, proper cake, and staff who don't flinch at a damp runner.
Opening hours shuffle around constantly, especially at weekends — check before you set the alarm. Nothing ruins a long run like sprinting toward a closed shutter.
Bath
Colonna & Small's, Bath. Founded in 2009 by three-time UK barista champion Maxwell Colonna-Dashwood and once named Best Coffee Shop in Europe. One of the birthplaces of British speciality coffee — treat it with the reverence you'd give a course record.
Society Café, Bath. One of the most-mentioned names in the city's coffee conversation, and deservedly so. Ask about the beans and you'll get a real answer about extraction rather than a shrug, which after a hard session is the level of seriousness you deserve.
Mokoko Coffee & Bakery, Bath. Coffee and bakery under one roof, meaning the post-run pastry decision and the coffee decision can fail simultaneously. Consistently rated among Bath's best.
Cortado, Bath. Run by Fran and Sophie, an Argentinian-British couple, pairing speciality coffee with Argentinian empanadas. An empanada after a Bath Skyline lap is a cross-cultural recovery breakthrough.
Mjolk, Bath. Built on the Swedish idea of fika by Somerset-born Chris and Swedish-born Hanna — the radical concept of actually sitting still and enjoying your coffee and cake. Runners, notoriously bad at sitting still, should consider it training.
Taunton
The Tea Room @ Bath Place, Taunton. A cosy spot down one of Taunton's most charming little streets, with a welcome warm enough to thaw a winter long run. Yes, it's a tea room. Order the coffee anyway; nobody has ever been thrown out.
Annie's Tea Rooms, Taunton. Locally sourced, organic-leaning food with an art gallery attached — culture and carbohydrates in a single stop after a lap of Longrun Meadow.
Pair it with the run
Bath Skyline parkrun is the scenic, hilly Saturday option — the views are the compensation for the climbing. The Kennet & Avon canal towpath does flat long-run duty out of the city, and the Two Tunnels Greenway sends you through a mile-long Victorian tunnel, which does interesting things to your GPS trace. In Taunton, Longrun Meadow parkrun is right there on the flood meadows — a parkrun literally named for the assignment.
The rules
In the city that helped invent British speciality coffee, ordering badly is the only real faux pas. Cake past 10K: mandatory — and if the 10K included the Skyline hills, make it two slices. Recruit a running partner and claim your refer-a-friend fiver.
Know a Somerset café we've criminally overlooked? Nominate it at @ordinarymileclub. Kit that survives the run AND the café queue: The Full Kit. — THE ORDINARY TIMES, café desk.