Wrong day (Hamptons at the Barn, Bawdswell)

Hamptons at the Barn,

Bawdeswell,

Opening times Mon-Sun 10:00-17:30,

Highly Recommended 

Now that I have visited over 140 cafes or tearooms in the Eastern region, plus another 40 odd world wide, it is difficult to keep track when cafes close or change hands. I'm therefore always grateful to people who notify me of such changes, as happened recently when I was informed that a Cake Crusader top ten rated Cafe, Hamptons in Reepham (see come back in 3 years) had moved to Bawdeswell and was now called Hamptons at the Barn. 

This was the first time I had come across the same cafe, new venue scenario so I had to check the big book of cycle cafe rules to see what to do in such circumstances. Apparently the original scores should be voided and a new set of ratings started. Therefore in order to keep Hamptons on my list I would need to go to their new home. I had originally reviewed Hamptons with Andrew (who is notoriously hard to please) and as he had agreed to be yesterday's cycling guest it seemed like a good opportunity to make the 47 mile round trip and see if Hamptons, now at the Barn, would remain in my top 10.

I normally go riding with Andrew on a Thursday but due to another engagement, and the gale we were experiencing, we would be going on a Windsday. As we set off from Crusader Towers it was hard going as we were being buffeted in the wind so it was disappointing that we were slowed further when Andrew had an early puncture, although it did give me another opportunity to publish a photo of a man mending a bike,

Man mending a bike

It also led to a useful Cycling guest cycling top tip

Cycling guest cycling top tip No 42. To make sure you can get your freshly mended wheel smoothly on to your bike then put it back on before pumping up or the newly inflated tyre won't get past the brakes.  

On this occasion re-inflating was well under way before Andrew remembered, just in the nick of time, to use cycling guest cycling top tip No. 39, thus saving both time and the need for a rant.

Once we were able to set off again the wind continued to try and limit our progress so we had to pedal extra hard until we arrived at Hamptons at the Barn in Bawdeswell.

Parking bikes by the edge of the outdoor seating area

We parked our bikes on the edge of a nice looking outdoor seating area before heading inside. Hamptons at the Barn is both a cafe and home furnishing shop. The cafe bit was packed but the home furnishing bit completely empty. 

Cafe packed whilst home furnishings area remained empty

We were asked if we had booked a table and sheepishly had to admit that we had not. Unfortunately they had no free tables. This was not good but I did notice there were some breakfast bar style seats tucked under the cake counter so I asked if we could perch there and just have a bit of cake. To my relief the Barista took pity on us and kindly said that would be fine before clearing some of the cakes away to make space.

Perching at the cake selection area

Now at close proximity I checked the cake selection and it was excellent having a large number of items including some very interesting ones. I was able to awarded a very high effective cake selection (ECS) rating consistent with it's rating from back in the Reepham days.

Part of the excellent cake selection

I asked if they were always this busy and the Barista said they were even on a cold January day like this one. I did think they should convert the customer free home furnishings part of the barn into an indoor seating area but then I'm more cake than cushions so probably a little biased on that front, even though I'm clearly right.

To go with my hot chocolate I ordered courgette and lime cake and to go with his cappuccino Andrew went for chocolate, berry and beetroot brownie. They didn't have any flapjack to be rated for flapjack of the year 2016 but they did have something called a chocolate Nancy that looked like flapjack. I took some away for further examination at home and can now report that although it was very tasty and oat based it wasn't sticky enough to qualify as flapjack.

Although not part of my rating system we did order some baps for lunch causing more cakes to be removed from the cake display area to make room for us. I'm not sure we could now be considered as 'just perched having cake' but were actually causing full blown kitchen chaos, fortunately all the staff seemed very good humoured about it.

Hot chocolate and cappuccino

Our drinks were both very good and scored highly. Next we tried our cakes. Andrew was clearly still confused and disorientated by us not cycling on our normal day as to my amazement, rather than going into a normal cake based rant, he claimed his brownie was the best he had ever had and wanted to give it an unprecedented 10 out of 10 for cake taste quality (CTQ). It was an excellent brownie but praise like this was most unlike him and he had to go for a little walk to calm down. I get even more worried when I found him in a daze browsing for scented candles in the hopefully soon to be converted shop area.

Although my cake was very nice it wasn't as good as the brownie but with scores combined it still added up to a very high CTQ score.

Cake and best brownie ever

I entered the marks for Hamptons, now at the Barn, into the cafe ratings spreadsheet on my phone to find that Hamptons had performed even better in Bawdswell than it had in Reepham enabling it to move up into my current top 5 rated destinations. I not only highly recommend a visit but, to avoid disappointment, highly recommend booking as well.

As we set of back to Norwich the wind seemed to get stronger and the clouds darker giving some dramatic looking Norfolk skys to enjoy.

Dramatic sky to enjoy

It was still obvious that not doing our ride on the normal day of the week was causing Andrew issues. Not only had he given unusually high marks, stopped ranting the whole time and shown an unhealthy interest in home furnishings but was now talking about putting the bins out when he got home, which I happen to know would be a day early. We will definitely be going back to a Thursday for our next ride so that normal service can be resumed.

Scores based on 2 visits

Hot Choc Quality	Guest Hot Drink Quality	Effective Cake Selection	Cake Quality	Ambiance and Atmosphere	Café Rating
8.00	8.00	8.45	8.63	7.00	8.02

Route

Click here to download 49 mile Norwich North Elmham loop gpx file for your GPS

Lull before the storm. (Tea Post, North Elmham)

Tea Post,

North Elmham,

Opening times Mon-Fri 09:00-16:00,

Sat 09:00-14:00

Recommended 

According to the latest weather stories in the press we are about to enter the windy season with 3 months of gales forecast. Apparently today will be the last good cycling day for a while so I planned to make the most of it. I had arranged to go on a 50 mile ride with Andrew (who is notoriously hard to please) out to North Elmham. Blog reader Myra had emailed me to suggest 

Try the Tea Post in North Elmham  nr DEREHAM .

Wonderful ambience ,very good food and the cakes are soooooo yummy.   Go try !!!

Anywhere who's cake can attract 6 o's, plus 3 exclamation marks, looks like a must goooooo toooooo venue and was therefore perfect for today's last non windy ride.

Despite the fact I had washed my summer bike and put it away for the winter I decided that on such a nice day it was worth one more trip out. This proved to be a mistake and I should have follow the old rhyme 'once washed and away, until spring it must stay'.

It wasn't long before the route started to take in stunning views of the Norfolk countryside and in such good lighting conditions we came across an artist painting the landscape. Since the success of my pen and ink cake drawing, (see Poetry Corner), I now consider myself a bit of a painter so I stopped and whipped out my water colours. Can you tell which is the photo and which is my painting. 

Pretty tough to spot the difference but anyone who knows the area will know that I have added a fictional church on the hill (yes it really is a painting) so that one is my water colour.

With art completed it was on to North Elmham where we found the Tea Post on the main road through the village.

Outside Tea Post at North Elmham

We went inside to discover that this was not only a cafe but a post office as well (the clue was in the name).

Tea Post is both a cafe and Post Office

I checked out the cake selection and it was a good one with sponge cakes, fruit cakes, cup cakes, slices and scones all available so I awarded a high effective cake selection (ECS) rating.

Good cake selection

With my hot chocolate I ordered Victoria sponge and the compulsory cheese scone, as part of my cheese scone serving temperature research (sadly cold). Andrew (who is notoriously hard to please) ordered a cappuccino plus chocolate and orange cake.

We both thought our drinks were a bit too milky but we were really here for the soooooo yummy cakes!!! Fortunately I can report that Myra was spot on and we both thought the cakes were great and did deserve 6 o's, 3 exclamation marks and a high cake taste quality (CTQ) score.

Soooooo yummy cakes!!!

Overall the Tea Post at North Elmham was a spot on stop for a bike ride with friendly staff, good value quality food and excellent cakes. It also has the added Post Office bonus meaning that, as you don't seem to be able to get 3G in North Elmham, if you want to let someone know about the excellent cake you can write them a postcard and have it in the mail before you have left the cafe. Unfortunately when we wanted to do this we discovered the post office didn't actually sell post cards but you can always use a sealed envelope instead (ask your parents).

With 'post card' sent it was now time to set off home. All the roads today were extremely muddy which particularly annoyed Andrew as he to had recently washed his bike. Things were not helped when I then took us down a very muddy off road track. 

One of the many muddy roads we went on

However this led to today's cycling guest cycling top tip

Cycling guests cycling top tip No 36. A stick makes an excellent mud removal tool for de-clogging your brakes.

Andrew cleaning brakes with his stick tool

On our return home I once again washed my bike but this time I've definitely put it away until spring.

Scores based on three visits

Hot Choc Quality	Guest Hot Drink Quality	Effective Cake Selection	Cake Quality	Ambiance and Atmosphere	Café Rating
6	6.5	7.2	8.23	7.1	7.01

Route

Click here to download 49 mile Norwich North Elmham loop gpx file for your GPS