Spoiled for choice. (Horatio Mugs, Holt)

Horatio Mugs,

Holt,

Opening times Mon-Sat 9-5, Sun 10-4,

Recommended 

This morning I set off to 'Notoriously hard to please' Andrew's house in Aylsham for a ride. When Andrew is in charge of 'planning' then the route, ride distance, destination etc aren't confirmed until just after they have happened. I was therefore surprised when he suggested we went to Holt and then claimed he had done some Holt cafe based research on his laptop. I was impressed until it materialised that the Holt cafe based research on his laptop had only confirmed that there were, in fact, cafes in Holt, a fact I was already aware of. Sadly his Holt cafe based research on his laptop had not managed to actually decide on which one to go to. I had recently been told that Horatio Mugs in Holt was worth a visit so we set off there.

It was a glorious crisp December morning ideal for a pre Christmas cycle making it a very enjoyable ride to Holt only spoiled by Andrews internet rant. He was complaining about the number of out of date cafe reviews he had come across blaming this on his failure to be able to pick a cafe venue. 'Who is responsible for keeping these things up to date!' He asked me.This somehow led on to a moan about what will happen when the web cloud thing fills up due to irresponsible people storing their rubbish photos, that they would never look at again, in the virtual world. All excellent points but I wasn't sure why he was telling me as I couldn't do anything about it myself (although I am aware of a very useful up to date cafe review based blog, that would solve part of his problem).

We arrived at Horatio Mugs in Holt and I asked Andrew to take a photo for me. He unnecessarily took several which are even now further clogging up the web cloud thing!

Outside Horatio Mugs in the 'thin people only' outside seating area.

I was glad to see that Horatio Mugs had an outside eating area but, as you can see in the photo, it only seemed suitable for very thin people. It did, however, provide an excellent viewing point for Holt's one way system but we decided to leave that excitement for another day and sit indoors. Inside there was a nice warm and lively atmosphere with a choice of an informal (sofas) or formal (table and chairs) area. We went informal.

On entering I was immediately struck by the enormous number of cakes available most of which I would like to try. The cakes were very large and I had no choice but to awarded the highest effective cake selection (ECS) rating to date of 9.75. 

Vast and tempting cake selection.
 I had to push past the mini father Christmases in the queue as they
were taking too long deciding on their cake choice.

The second best ECS was Byfords of Holt, which is about 100 yards away. They obviously like their cake in Holt, which probably explains why the thin people only out door seating area was empty.

I ordered Hot chocolate and carrot cake (I really wanted the chocolate and banana cake but for reviewing purposes went for a tearoom staple) and Andrew went cappuccino and almond slice. The cakes were good, although we both agreed the cake was better than the slice, and I wished I could have tried some others. Andrews coffee was fine but unfortunately the hot chocolate wasn't as it had lots of very hot milk and very little chocolate. This was a shame as apart from the hot chocolate the rest of the experience was very good and I'm sure to come back again and try a different cake. 

On the way back we were overtaken by a grouse shooting party setting off in their land rovers. This sent Andrew off on another rant about posh toffs pointlessly shooting innocent slow moving birds. But it pasted the time as we sped back enjoying the fabulous Norfolk country side albeit minus a bit of wildfowl. 

Hot Choc Quality	Guest Hot Drink Quality	Effective Cake Selection	Cake Quality	Ambiance and Atmosphere	Café Rating
4.5	6.0	9.75	8.0	7.5	7.15

Route

Click here to download 32 Mile Alysham Holt loop GPX file for your GPS