Liverpool's mum and daughter coffee van where fans are queuing for mini egg iced lattes

A little Liverpool roadside coffee van run by a mum and daughter has become a huge hit for speciality flavours, including its latest creation – a mini egg iced latte!

Rosie Holt and her mum Julie Broome quit their jobs to launch Cornhill Coffee outside the historic Baltic Fleet pub in June 2024.

Since then, they’ve built up a community of devoted regulars who queue in all weathers to get their hands on the pair’s unique coffees.

Previous favourites have included banana bread latte, Biscoff, cherry blossom matcha, and festive specials like orange and Black Forest mochas. Now they’ve got a new social media sensation thanks to their Easter-themed iced Latte.

Rosie said:

“Our mini egg iced lattes have gone viral on Instagram, and ever since we launched them we’ve had queues up the road because everyone’s ordering them. We do a matcha and a regular coffee one which are new for this year. I just thought I should do something around Easter because we like to give people things they’ve not tried before.

“I’m obsessed with anything coffee or matcha so I started experimenting with flavours, and adding things into a cup that I thought might taste like mini eggs. It’s basically a combination of different chocolates, different syrups and blended mini eggs so when you sip it through a straw you get tiny bits of mini eggs, with some extra eggs on the top as well.”

For 26-year-old Rosie and her mum Julie, being creative and hands-on in the van is exactly what they hoped for when they first came up with the idea for Cornhill Coffee. Rosie’s dad Simon owns The Baltic Fleet and the family lived above the pub when she was little so she’s always loved being around customers.

After graduating from uni in Newcastle with a degree in fashion, design and marketing she went into marketing but never loved it. With Julie keen to leave her accounts job too, the two decided to look into opening a business together.

Rosie added:

“A few years ago, my dad had tried to do a food van outside the pub but it just never really took off, so there was a van just sat there not being used. We went to the Liverpool Coffee Festival and met Neighbourhood Coffee, we got chatting to them and found them so inspiring and encouraging.

“We both love our coffee and I’d done a lot of baking in lockdown, so the idea stemmed from that. Our original plan was to see if it worked on the pub’s land, which we were really lucky to be able to use, and then take it to events and festivals.

“We never thought it would be as successful as it is where it is, but we’ve just really enjoyed being where we are. The community in the area is massive, we’ve got to know everybody, and although there is a coffee scene in the Baltic Triangle and we’re not far away, it feels like a separate part of Liverpool where we are.”

“We’re on this quiet nook on the dock road and people are literally queuing along the pavement. I look up at the queue and can’t believe people are willing to wait. We’re just so grateful that they choose to come to us.

“We open Wednesday to Saturday until 2.30pm, and on a Saturday morning especially we often have queues before we open. In January we shut for the month and mum and I went to Thailand because the January before we stayed open and it was hard, the weather was horrendous, equipment broke and it ended up costing us more than we made.

“We were very nervous about doing that because we have regulars and you worry they’ll find somewhere else, but we kept up with socials while we were away and when we came back it felt like something levelled up our business – it was like summer at peak time but actually in freezing February.”

Rosie’s marketing background has helped Cornhill Coffee to grow a following on Instagram and TikTok, and she says they’ve been amazed by the response from customers.

With plans to expand on the pub site in late spring, Rosie says they’re both so happy they took a chance on the business.

She added:

“I love working with my mum and seeing her every day, it doesn’t feel like work, and I can’t imagine ever going back to a corporate job. We wanted to do something we’d be excited about and look forward to doing every day and this year has been amazing.”