When you think of Bangkok, shopping, temple visits, and delicious Thai cuisine usually come to mind first. But away from the tourist crowds lies a thriving café scene that ranks among the best in the world. Coffee culture is booming, and there are countless places where you can relax with a perfectly blended cup of coffee. Travel journalist Aleney De Winter explores Bangkok's vibrant coffee culture.

Bangkok may not be the first city that springs to mind when you think of coffee, but the city has enthusiastically embraced caffeine, reinventing its own distinctive style and finesse, and you can find more hip cafes serving artfully prepared coffee specialties than you could ever fit on an Instagram account.

Gone are the days when coffee in Bangkok meant high-calorie, sweet Kafae Boran, made with sweetened condensed milk and cream. While it remains popular with locals and a must-try for those with a sweet tooth, these days, with Bangkok's café culture so enthusiastic, you're much more likely to find espresso or macchiato on the menu. And you're just as likely to encounter a mermaid or a unicorn, as high fantasy is valued in many of these cafés as much as perfect milk foam.

While this means that many of the glamorous, smartphone-obsessed patrons of these cafes are clearly aiming for Instagram, most also boast award-winning baristas who use the finest internationally sourced and roasted beans. So the caffeinated creations aren't just for show. If you're in the mood for a Bangkok-style caffeine boost, here are some of our favorites to get you started.

In Sukhumvit, true coffee lovers flock to Hands and Heart Café, drawn by its modern, minimalist design and hand-ground filter coffee. Equally popular is Ink & Lion, a café with its own micro-roastery in Ekkamai, renowned for its baristas and coffee beans.

Hidden behind the walls of Baan 2459, a boutique hotel in the alleys of Chinatown, lies CHATA Specialty Coffee, a beautiful café housed in a glass building with a crumbling red brick wall that it shares with the neighboring Buddhist temple. Famous for its photogenic milk foam artwork and an award-winning barista who uses only the finest imported coffee beans from around the world, this light-filled spot is a popular haunt for latte lovers and their stressed-out Instagram husbands.

On the northern edge of Chinatown, where the historic streets of Koh Rattanakosin (or Old City) stretch along both sides of the Chao Phraya River, are some of Bangkok's most revered cultural landmarks, including the Grand Palace and Wat Pho, but it is also home to a cluster of hipster bars and ultra-cool cafes.

The charming Oneday Wallflowers, tucked away in a side street on the edge of Rattanakosin (Old Town) in a former kombucha brewery, is a true hidden gem. The ground floor houses a beautiful, uniquely designed flower shop, while a rustic spiral staircase leads up amidst a jumble of jewelry and flowers to delicious rustic cakes and artisan-roasted coffee, as photogenic as the surroundings.

Tucked away in another alley off Rattanakosin Street lies the Blue Whale Maharaj Café, a magnificent three-story storefront serving such beautiful indigo lattes with butterfly pea blossoms that you'll want to rave about them. And Gallery Drip in the old town is a café with its own roastery, boasting a retro flair and a focus on single-origin beans. But it was the "Shrek," a coffee jelly with milk foam and green tea ice cream, that propelled the café to Instagram fame.

Speaking of which, Bangkok offers a colorful array of charming cafes that cater to just this purpose. Dive into the Mermaid Castle Cafe in Siam Square, where two floors of glittering mermaid fashion and collectibles lead to cupcakes shaped like mermaid tails. Or escape the everyday at the Unicorn Cafe in Sathorn, where you can slip into a unicorn onesie and enjoy your coffee in a pastel-colored paradise filled with unicorns.

In the enchanting Mocking Tales in Thonglor, guests sip fairytale cocktails amidst spellbooks and magic potions. And for anime fans, May's Garden House in the Sukhumvit district offers a true Ghibli paradise: a café styled after "My Neighbor Totoro" with a menu inspired by the Ghibli films.