Secondhand Land. (Old Orchard cafe, Ditchingham)

Old Orchard Café (Emmaus),

Ditchingham,

Opening times Every day 10-4,

Recommended 

Before I set off back to Europe, this time for my final Ironman triathlon in Austria, I just had time for a quick cafe cycle ride with Mrs Crusader.

I had recently seen signs to a second hand shop and cafe when cycling out towards Bungay so I was curious to check it out. It turned out to be the The Old Orchard cafe at the Norwich Emmaus community near Ditchingham. I knew nothing of this organisation but apparently they take in homeless people who then work there collecting and selling second hand stuff but much more importantly they run their cafe.

Outside the Emmaus Community entrance

When we arrived we went inside and I was pleased to see it had a fine cake selection as well as sausage rolls (which I tried out as part of my search for sausage roll off the year #SROTY).

Good cake selection

I was also pleased to see that there was a proper coffee maker as well. I went for raspberry and white chocolate crumble thing with my hot chocolate and Mrs Crusader choose orange cake with her americano.

We took our refreshments out to the garden area to try them.

Garden area available for cafe users

Things didn't start well as my hot chocolate was rather too weak and milky but Mrs Crusader said her coffee was very good and gave a high guest hot drink quality (GHDQ) mark.

Cakes, drinks and sausage rolls

Both our cakes were excellent and it was the best crumble type tray bake thing I could remember so I awarded an excellent cake taste quality (CTQ) score.

It was an excellent stop in a good location for cyclists and I'm surprised not to have known about it before as it could easily become a cyclist favourite. I recommend you try it out.

When I got back I got told off by my Ironman triathlon plan for doing too much cycling instead of resting so it might be a week or two before my next post, although hopefully it will include a 'brief' section on how my triathlon went so something to look forward too! 

Scores

Hot Choc Quality	Guest Hot Drink Quality	Effective Cake Selection	Cake Quality	Ambiance and Atmosphere	Café Rating
4.5	7.0	7.0	8.0	7.0	6.70

route

Click here to download 40 mile Norwich Bungay loop gpx file for your gps

Just in time. Hatters Tearoom (Dereham)

Hatters Cafe,

Dereham,

Now Closed Down

As my Twitter and Facebook follows may know I have been away in Europe competing in the prestigious cafe cycle tour of Slovenia. As well as me, some (well one actually) of the finest cafe cycle riders in the world were also in the field but I managed to beat Andrew (who is notoriously hard to please) in the general classification as well as mop up all the king of the mountains points. To keep him interested I did introduce a best old rider competition which, as the only entrant, he duly won. 

Action from Stage 3 of the cafe tour of Slovenia

I'm only telling you this to explain why it has been so long since my last new cafe post (and to help massage my ego of course).

It had been nearly 6 weeks since I had last caught up with Big George so it was good to put these two things right as we met up for a ride out to the other side of Dereham.

As always Big George turned up with an excuse to explain his forth coming poor performance explaining he had been stung by a bee and his leg had been poisoned. He claimed he was on antibiotics and proudly showed me a large purple rash on his leg (that suspiciously looked like a ribena stain) but I went with it and promised we would take it easy to help aid his recovery.

It was a hot day but we had much to catch up on as we headed off into the wind. I tried to retune into Big Georges broad scottish accent which was made doubly difficult as his words were being blown about in the wind. Despite using all my powers of concentration I couldn't make much out. Then I remembered I never listen to him anyway so it wasn't really a problem and we soon arrived at Hatters tea room on the A47. 

The first thing I noticed was a 'to let' sign so I was worried it had closed down. Fortunately this was not the case but on further questioning I discovered that the current occupants are looking to move on in the near future so if you want to go there I suggest you do so soon.

Outsider Hatters Tearoom

We took a seat in the outdoor seating terrace before checking out a good cake selection.

Good cake selection with most of the bases covered

I went for carrot cake and was also pleased to see there were sausage rolls available which I could try out in my sausage roll of the year contest #SROTY. 

Todays sausage roll entries

Big George had Victoria sponge with his sausage roll and coffee.

The sausage roll was good but didn't make my current finalist shortlist. We both liked our drinks and thought the cakes were good ones too.

Todays refreshment selection

It is a shame that Hatters cafe may not be in action much longer as it was a good stop and worth a visit.

On the way back I asked Big George if he had done much cycling since our last trip in April.

He explained that he had been working on his cycling technique and was keen to share what he had learnt.

Cycling guest cycling top tip no 62. To cycle up hills more efficiently; sit at the back of your seat and push down with your heels.

As I waited at the top of the next hill it was clear Big George had still not mastered cycling guest cycling top tip no 62 yet.

Scores

Hot Choc Quality	Guest Hot Drink Quality	Effective Cake Selection	Cake Quality	Ambiance and Atmosphere	Café Rating
6.5	6.5	7.0	7.75	7.0	6.95

Route to be published soon