Out of Office: Working from The Apple Press Coffee Society, Bolney, West Sussex

The first in a series about the places I work when the Inkie headquarters loses its charm. Pubs, cafes, coworking spaces and the odd vineyard, in and out of West Sussex.

I work from home, and mostly I love it. But sometimes the heat, the sameness and the dangerous proximity of furniture built for napping mean I need to get out. We're based in the tiny village of Bolney in West Sussex, so you'd think I'd struggle to find somewhere to take a laptop. You'd be wrong. Today I tried somewhere new.

I've been a fan of the Cider Tap on the Wobblegate orchard ever since friends and family surprised me there for my 40th, many moons ago. They've recently opened a daytime cafe, so with laptop in hand I took myself off to The Apple Press Coffee Society.

There's plenty of parking, and beautiful seating outside, some of it with genuinely appealing shade. But my heat-related grumpiness was already high and I have a well-documented anxiety around laptop battery life, so I headed inside. Instant relief, in the form of three critical things: plugs, cool refreshing air, and a sign promising a selection of alt milks.

I settled at a corner table, plug within reach, and was brought over a delicious iced coconut milk latte. Then I ran a speed test, because I am nothing if not thorough on your behalf. 216.7 Mbps down, 20ms latency, on a cider farm in the middle of the Sussex countryside. That is faster than plenty of offices I have sat in.

So I knocked out this write-up with a clarity my brain hadn't experienced in a while. Whether that was the coffee, the air conditioning or the smell of apples, I couldn't tell you.

My only reservation is the food. I can't eat gluten or dairy, and the pizza menu was not designed with my stomach in mind. There are salads, but cheese is doing most of the heavy lifting in those too. You can get a gluten free pizza, but we all know a pizza without cheese is not the prize.

It certainly won't stop me coming back. The staff and the setup are fab, the temperature is right, and I'll be checking it out again in winter. But unless a little something appears for tricky eaters like me, I'll be having lunch at home. For working, though? It's heavenly. And I will be trying the sorbet.

The practical bit

• Where: The Apple Press Coffee Society, Wobblegate, Old Mill House Farm, Bolney, West Sussex RH17 5SE

• Open: 9am to 5pm daily, later on Saturdays

• Parking: loads, right there on the farm

• Plugs: yes, inside

• Wifi: genuinely excellent. 216.7 Mbps down, 17 Mbps up, 20ms latency. Faster than a lot of offices I've sat in, and more than enough for video calls

• Coffee: proper barista coffee, alt milks available, iced options

• Food: pizzas and salads; limited if you're gluten or dairy free

• Noise: quiet and cosy, no loud music

• Best for: a focused morning or afternoon with a view of the orchard

This post was written from a corner table at The Apple Press while Inkie got on with publishing my marketing for me. That's rather the point of it. If you'd like to run your business from a cider farm too, see how Inkie works.