How do you take yours? A skinny double, iced and black or perhaps it has to be African, organic and caffeine-free.

Step out on any street in Brighton and the waiters are falling over themselves to fill up your coffee cup or tea pot.

Drinking in or taking away, the daily caffeine fix has become as familiar as milk and two sugars with a caf culture which has been brewing away since the seaside tea rooms of the Thirties and Forties.

Brighton has been named the tea and coffee capital of the South after a survey revealed the city has the joint highest number of cafs in the UK outside London.

The title can only be equalled by Blackpool, another popular seaside resort, which is also home to 47 tea rooms and coffee shops according to research commissioned by the Royal Mail.

Although the number of cafs in Brighton cannot compare to the 115 outlets found in the capital, with an estimated 165 million cups of tea consumed in the country every day, the city has something to offer even the choicest palette.

At Tallula's Tea Rooms in Hampton Place, customers can pick from a selection of 19 teas with table service in a traditional setting complete with crisp white tablecloths and a discreet showtunes soundtrack.

It opened 18 months ago paying tribute to the quintessentially-Brighton cafs enjoyed in previous decades as well as meeting contemporary demand for teas and coffees from across the globe.

Decaffeinated Rooibos tea or a detoxifying organic drink with nettle and red clover appears alongside the more familiar English breakfast and Earl Grey brews.

Customers are handed coffee in a cafetiere and sandwiches without crusts in a deliberately long-order atmosphere where the espresso-to-go is frowned upon by co-owners Jonathan Hales and Peter Sharkey.

Mr Hales said: "If you want tea or coffee, you can come in and sit at a table with a white tablecloth and we bring your order over on a tray.

"This is not a grab-a-coffee-and-run atmosphere and we wanted to slow down rather than be a fast-food venue.

"There is an overspill from London too and people come here for the day and we need to accommodate them so there is a modern twist with herbal teas, organic and fair-trade coffee."

Tallula's takes its inspiration from Glasgow's Willow Tea Rooms, the sleek design of Charles Rennie Mackintosh and is named after Jodie Foster's showgirl character in the film Bugsy Malone.

The origins of the peculiarly-named Mock Turtle are less apparent more than 30 years after Gordon and Birthe Chater launched the tea room in Pool Valley, Brighton.

The caf's home-made cakes, cream teas and meringues are legendary securing a loyal fanbase and even the interest of film-makers in Korea who have followed the couple at work in the kitchen.

Jam jars filled with spreads line the walls, while cakes with conspicuously-missing slices sit in the window, daring even the strongest-willed customer to order tea or coffee without a sweet on the side.

Mr Chater said: "Brighton is full of fashion-conscious people, who like to be seen and love to sit in the window of a tea room - there is a large caf society here.

"It has changed so much since we opened when there were loads of people who took afternoon tea as a daily part of their lives and every day the buses used to pull up and people came in.

"The city is a holiday destination, a conference place and somewhere to do local shopping for a lot of people and that is why it is filled with people who like to meet in cafs."

The apple cakes are made with fruit from orchards in Eastbourne, hand-picked by Mock Turtle staff, and served with cream from Guernsey cows.

Mrs Chater sticks to the savoury recipes while her husband perfects the selection of between 20 and 30 sweets in a routine which has remained the same since the pair opened to gale-force winds in 1972.

The familiar faces continue to visit the Mock Turtle soon appearing with their children and grandchildren as the taste for a tea and cake or coffee and Welsh rarebit continues to entice families, students and tourists alike.

Even the influx of High Street coffee bars serving up routine blends and beans has failed to upset independent cafes in Brighton with many owners claiming it has boosted trade.

The Redroaster in St James's Street, Brighton, takes its name from the on-site coffee roaster used to prepare beans for the house blends.

Imports from Brazil, Ethiopia, Columbia and beyond mean caffeine-lovers would be hard pushed to find a wider choice of coffee anywhere else in the city.

Redroaster's managing director Tim Hume said: "The High Street coffee houses do not impact on us. In fact, they have done a good job in spreading the idea that drinking coffee is a good alternative to going to the pub at lunchtime.

"We were here before any of them and we offer a better product in a place with ambience.

"A significant proportion of people in Brighton want something independent and caf culture has taken off along with the search for a more relaxing lifestyle."

The large sofas and array of tables and chairs at Redroaster attract a never-ending queue of customers many armed with a loyalty card which rewards them with one free drink in every six.

Magazines and newspapers strewn across the counter are well thumbed as visitors enjoy what Mr Hume views as one of the few pleasures during the working week.

He said: "Coffee is an affordable luxury.

"If you go to a place that does coffee as well as it can be done and you can spend time over that, in a hectic world, people recognise that as a real reward."

Friday, September 2 2005