When visiting a café or coffee house, the range of food options available on the menu could persuade you to visit one place or another. This is especially important in Bristol and the South Gloucestershire area where nearly every block contains some form of coffee shop, café or tea house.
However, specialist drinks are on the rise as a number of speciality coffees, teas and unique concoctions have made their way onto the menu. For those not looking for a splash of caffeine, milkshakes can be a refreshing choice.
Freak shakes, on the other hand, are an entirely different beast altogether, the drinks that combine a dessert drink with a full-blown sugar rush. One coffee house, the Beehive Coffee House in Downend, serves a range of freak shakes that makes it well-renowned, perfect for a morning trip.
The Beehive Coffee House, which is also a Hong Kong-style tea house which serves Asian food, has a number of different freak shakes available including specials dependent on the season. But the weirdness of some of the shakes made it an intriguing prospect for me personally.
The menu features 15 freak shakes, featuring simple creations like a choc or vanilla shake, all the way to the birthday shake featuring actual birthday cake with it. I chose to have the Custard Queen shake, which is a custard cream shake with actual custard creams on top, white chocolate buttons, marshmallows, pretzels, wafers, whipped cream, white chocolate sauce and a Simpsons style doughnut.
My colleague, who was brave enough to come with me on the sweet adventure, went for another speciality of the coffee house, the hot chocolate. She had the Unicorn Hot Chocolate , consisting of “pink white hot chocolate, whipped cream, rainbow drops, marshmallows and sparkles”.
As we waited for our drinks, we noticed that the coffee house was cosy and had a chill vibe. The decor was bee-themed, as was the entire premises, with lots of plants which made it feel very welcoming.
The drinks arrived, first was the hot chocolate which was jaw-droppingly beautiful, which really tested my allegiance to the milkshakes. The rainbow drops on top of the whipped cream made the drink look amazing.
Shortly afterwards was my custard cream shake, which bearing in mind was a freak shake, was full to the brim with goodies. It was overflowing which turned the drink into an established freak shake.
It was massive and very tasty. The further I got into the shake, the more I started to realise little quirks about the drink, including the fact that the ‘lid’ of the shake was the pink doughnut with sprinkles. The straw went through the hole of the doughnut.
The actual shake itself tasted like custard creams, which even though it was the main feature of the freak shake, was still surprising that the taste of the biscuit was there. But the additional custard creams would have easily made up for it if it needed to.
Despite the fact that I really enjoyed the drink, it defeated me. The freak shake, costing £9.95, was so big and with all the sweet treats which it came with, was worth the price for sure. The doughnut as the ‘lid’ was a nice creative touch.
The hot chocolate was very sweet and good, according to my colleague, who added that it was “not for the faint of heart”. The hot chocolate was £5.95, again representing value for money.
Over the last few months, the coffee house has received a number of low-starred reviews on TripAdvisor. However, I would argue that the Beehive Coffee House is worth a journey to, and the freak shakes worth raising your glass to, if you can avoid anything spilling.
Join our WhatsApp groupdedicated to events, reviews and food & drink news.