Got to catch them all. (Church farm tearoom, Hethersett)

Church Farm Tearooms,

Hethersett,

Opening times Mon- Sat 09:00-17:00,

Recommended 

I have visited the Church Farm Tearooms twice, once in summer 2016 as per the post below, and once with a group in Spring 2017 from which I have updated some of my initial comments.

Me and some of my cycling guests about to set off to Church Farm Tearooms in Spring 2017

Back in July 2016 I had been surprised to find that Peter, my student son, had voluntarily left his bedroom and gone outside for a walk. This was most out of character but after engaging him in a game of yes, no, fine, mhhm, I discovered he had started to play the new Pokeman Go game that had become a craze with young people. Apparently if you go out looking for Pokeman on a walk or bike ride then this gives you additional important stuff the further you travel. 

I decided this new enthusiasm for the outdoors gave me a series of opportunities.

1. To get Peter to come on a bike ride

2. To review the recently opened Church Farm Tearooms near Hethersett 

3. To try and understand the ways of the young person

On the promise of plenty of Pokeman action Peter, Chris (Mrs Crusader) and myself set off on my shortest ever cafe cycle ride, just under 13 miles, and opportunity number one was in the bag. 

On route we had to stop every few minutes for Peter to check that the Pokeman Go app was recording the ride. I was informed if we did 5k he would hatch a virtual egg, which is apparently a good thing. Sadly the 3G network in rural Norfolk is poor to non existent even on good days, and this was a bad day, so any potential Pokeman capturing and hatching on this ride wasn't going to happen. I tried to usefully point out that there were some real cows in the field but that didn't seem to help.

Peter seeing if there was any 3G signal so Pokeman could be found

As it was only a short trip it wasn't long before we arrived at the Church farm Tearooms at the Church Farm farm shop just outside Hethersett. Once again there was no 3G service so still no Pokeman activity was possible. 

Outside the Church Farm Tearooms

Personally I couldn't see the point of trying to collect virtual monsters on your phone when you could be doing something useful and interesting with it like me. The church farm cafe has a small outdoor seating facility featuring a table and 4 chairs. Using my phone, I recorded the detail on my outdoor seating areas data capture spreadsheet and snapped a photo to put in my outdoor seating areas picture album. If that's not using technology usefully I don't know what is. 

Outdoor seating area photo to be put in my outdoor seating area album

We decided to go inside and sit in the nicely appointed indoor seating area in a separate part of the shop. But first it was to the counter to check out the cakes so as to award the effective cake selection (ECS) rating. It wasn't the biggest selection but covered all the bases with cakes, brownies and scones. I therefore awarded a covering all the bases sort of ECS mark. 

A covering all the bases sort of cake selection

I had gone for chocolate and orange cake with my hot chocolate, Peter a brownie and a hot chocolate while Chris went for a Mocha and a cheese scone.

When they arrived I was shocked to see my pet hate that the cakes had been delivered served on their serviettes thus rendering the napkin useless for future crumb wiping activity! Remember #keepcakeoffserviettes. 

Cake served on top of the serviette

However I was soon presented with a new dilemma as when our drinks arrived we were given extra serviettes. Did this mean they had solved the #keepcakeoffserviettes problem. 

Extra clean serviettes

After careful consideration I decided this approach may have fixed the crumb wiping issue, as this second serviette could now be used for this , but the first one was clearly unnecessary and a waste of paper as it served no useful purpose other than to get tissue on your cake, which is bad. 

State of 1st serviette after the cake had been eaten

I therefore added the photo to my #keepcakeoffserviettes twitter campaign. I'm sure, like the majority of establishments I have highlighted this issue to, that they will see sense, save money and cut it out. (I'm sure you will all be glad to hear that this practice had indeed been 'cut out' on my return in Spring 2017 as the photo below clearly demonstrates.)        

Cake and serviette clearly separated

While I was tackling the serious issue of unnecessarily mixing cake with serviettes, whilst taking lots of photos of paper tissues, Peter had returned to his game to inform us it hadn't worked due to lack of 3G. He was therefore left with no option but to join in with tasting drinks and cakes. We decided that the hot chocolates were nice but could have been a little stronger, however Chris thought her Mocha was very good and awarded a high guest hot drink quality (GHDQ) score. The cakes all got our approval as they were excellent and so attracted high cake taste quality (CTQ) marks.

Cakes and drinks pre tasting

The Church Farm Tearooms had only been open a few weeks (although the shop has been there many years) but I was informed they had plans to keep expanding the tearoom range and are still learning the ropes and looking to continually improve (note my serviette suggestion). Despite the lack of Pokeman it was a very pleasant stop and I have high hopes for it's future on the cafe cycle circuit. I would definitely recommend a visit.

With opportunity two on the list completed we set off on the short trip back home which fortunately had a 3G signal most of the way although not enough for the game to be explained to me in ways I could understand. Surprisingly Peter said he was prepared to try a cycle ride again but this time the ride would have to be in more urban territory where a phone signal could be guaranteed. This is clearly the way of the young person so maybe I had cracked opportunity three as well.

The view of my cycling guests in Spring 2017 was very consistent with my previous visit and they were particularly complimentary of the coffee. In fact the ratings of the group were exactly the same as the ones I gave previously. Despite Barry trying to use 'alternative facts' when reviewing his coffee, it just went to show that my rating system was operating like a well oiled machine. They too would recommend a visit as they all said how much they had enjoyed their stop.

 Scores based on two visits

Hot Choc Quality	Guest Hot Drink Quality	Effective Cake Selection	Cake Quality	Ambiance and Atmosphere	Café Rating
6.0	8.0	6.0	8.0	6.5	6.90

Route (In 2017 I managed to get my group of seven to do a more respectable 28 miles.)

Click here to download 13 mile Norwich Hethersett loop gpx file for your GPS

Meal times (Janeys Village Cafe, Hethersett)

Janey's Village Cafe,

Hethersett,

Open Sun-Thur 8.00-3.00, Fri-Sat 8.00-7.00

It's always good news when I hear about a new cafe that has opened and available for a cafe cycle ride. It is especially good news if you are planning to set the world record for a calorie neutral bike ride (see Calorie Neutral Cycle ride) and need some cafes that are open after 5.00pm. Janey's Village Cafe in Hethersett ticked both theses boxes so with today's guest, Chris (Mrs Crusader), we set off on a 27 mile loop to try it out.

The ride itself was uneventful and despite the strong wind it was an enjoyable couple of hours  spent in the saddle. We cruised through the sunny Norfolk country side until we arrived in Hethersett and Janey's Village Cafe.

Outside Janey's Village Cafe

Today's weather was sunny but windy and a bit cold. As there was no outdoor seating area we were saved the difficult sitting choice (in or out) that one always gets wrong on day's like these. 

Janey's village cafe operates a waitress based serving system so there is no counter with cakes on display. To decide what we wanted, and award the effective cake selection (ECS) rating, we could only go off the cake selection blackboard. On the cake selection blackboard there were 4 cake qualifying items, so we ordered them all, but could only awarded a lowish ECS score. For clarity although toasted tea cake has the word cake in it I consider it to be a fruit bread and therefore it doesn't count as cake.

Cake selection blackboard

For drinks it was hot chocolate for me and skinny Mocha for Chris. While we waited for our order I noticed that despite the time being well past mid day everyone else in the cafe had ordered the full English breakfast. When I was a lad breakfast was the meal you had to start the day, it had to be done and dusted by 9.00 and be oat based. Sadly times have changed and Breakfast is now just another menu item rather than a meal time in it's own right. One could argue that cake and scones are tea time fare and shouldn't be eaten for lunch either but lets not go there.

Good looking scones and cakes

Our drinks and cakes arrived and I was pleased to see that my very large cheese scone had been warmed. We opted to try the scones first and found the cheese one to be a little disappointing being a bit dry and not very cheesy whereas the fruit scone was excellent and in fact Chris felt it was one of the best she had ever had. The cakes were nice and we both agreed the carrot cake was the better of the two as the lemon drizzle was a bit too sweet for our tastes. Overall a pretty good showing on the cake front.

Drinks, the hot chocolate was very good

The scone contrast continued with the drinks as I found my hot chocolate to be very good on all three key criteria of flavour, thickness and temperature. Chris however found her Mocha too sweet but this was probably as there was no proper frothy coffee machine in operation. In these circumstances it is always best to stick to a normal filter coffee rather than go fancy.

Janey's Village Cafe is only in it's third week of operation so it was good to see it busy and looks like a good addition to the cafe world. I wish it well for the future. I will certainly be putting it on the list of cafes on my world record attempt in August. With its late opening time I will visit it towards the end of that day when I expect people will still be having evening breakfast and I hope to still be having late evening afternoon tea. 

Scores

Hot Choc Quality	Guest Hot Drink Quality	Effective Cake Selection	Cake Quality	Ambiance and Atmosphere	Café Rating
7.5	5.0	4.5	7.0	5.0	6.0

Map of Route

Click here to download 28 mile Norwich Wymondham loop GPX file for your GPS