Thursday, 18 May 2017

Is Lavender cake really a thing? (Norfolk Lavender Cafe)

Norfolk Lavender Cafe,
Heacham,
Opening times Every day 9-5,
Recommended 
Yesterday myself and Mrs Crusader drove up to Great Massingham to meet up with Cycling guests Barry and Helen and their New Tandem for some cafe cycle action in North West Norfolk.

Our first stop was the Norfolk Lavender Cafe near Heacham. 

In the outdoor seating area at Norfolk Lavender Cafe
It is a very large cafe with an outdoor seating area, sofa based seating area and larger standard indoor seating area able to cope with coach parties. We choose to sit outside and admire the gardens and lavender bushes. It was very pleasant so we awarded a good atmosphere and ambiance score.

As usual Barry refused to have anything to eat or drink claiming he was still full after his large breakfast although I knew it was really because he didn't want to get involved in any cake reviewing nonsense.

There was an excellent cake selection which covered all the bases. Not surprisingly there were also cakes and scones that included Lavender. I awarded a high effective cake selection (ECS) mark.
Part of a substantial cake selection
Chris insisted that I had the Lavender sponge cake to go with my hot chocolate while she had coffee cake as accompaniment for her americano. There were also sausage rolls which I took away to check out later as part of my sausage roll of the year hunt. #SROTY
Sausage rolls to take back to Crusader towers for tasting
Note: they were excellent sausage rolls and made it into my current top 10 for the end of year sausage roll off. It could mean a very long bike ride from Norwich to collect them in December.

My hot chocolate could have been a bit stronger but Chris thought her coffee was very good. The pink lavender cake was definitely a marmite experience as we all tried a bit and it wasn't to everyone's taste. The coffee cake was very nice so I based the cake taste quality (CTQ) mark on that alone as I don't think Lavender cake is really a thing.
Cakes and drinks including the Lavender cake
The Norfolk Lavender cafe was a good stop especially for one that is part of an attraction. I would definitely recommend a visit, especially for fans of Lavender.
Sandpit action from stop at Creake abbey cafe
On the next part of the ride we returned to the Creake Abbey cafe to collect some sausage rolls for #SROTY. I also updated my ratings table and it still ranked very highly. Check out my original review with updated scores (Ruined Abbey Off).

It was another successful cafe cycle ride and helped to fill in an empty part of my cafe locations map. While on the route I spotted several more cafes that need to be checked out so my work is still far from done.

Scores
Hot Choc Quality
Guest Hot Drink Quality
Effective Cake Selection
Cake Quality
Ambiance and Atmosphere
Café Rating
6
8
7.5
7.25
8.0
7.35
Route

Click here to download 48 mile Great Massingham Hunstanton loop GPX file for your gps

No comments:

Post a Comment