Love it or hate it. (Peppers Tea Room, East Harling)

Peppers Tea Room,

East Harling,

Opening times Tue-Fri 9am-4pm, Sat 10am-4pm

Highly Recommended 

Its been a while since my last new cafe review but to make up for it I have five planned in the next week. It is also the final run in to Sausage Roll of the year (#SROTY) so exciting times in the world of cafe cycle reviewing.

I had been recommended the first of these new venues, Peppers in East Harling, by several people so was eager to check it out. Big George was my cycling guest today. We set off and did some early ride 'training' as, despite the evidence, we continue to try and persuade ourselves we can still become speedy cyclists, even at our age, if we could just pedal a bit quicker.

After our 'fast' efforts we arrived at Peppers which is an extension off the back of a large House in East Harling. 

Peppers is off the back of a nice house in East harling

It was excellent for cycling as the location is unlikely to attract many passing bike thieves so we left our bikes by the door and went in.

Parking up outside Peppers

There were several tables in the wooden section plus a marquee extension, which looked a bit cold today but would be lovely in the summer. All in all a good Atmosphere and Ambiance score could be awarded.

Big George about to start his refreshments

The cake selection looked good too with a good variety of tempting cakes, bakes and scones.

Peppers excellent cake selection

With my hot chocolate I ordered some double baked banana cake. The coffee here concentrated on different beans rather than fancy named nonsense you normally get. You choose a blend for your caffetire from the menu. Big George went for the standard Peppers house blend although other more exciting ones were available but he is a bit mainstream, or so I thought, as he dispelled this view when it came to cake selection. Out of the blue he picked crumpet with marmite and cheese. As crumpet with marmite and cheese is clearly not cake then Big George played no further part in any cake rating discussions, although this didn't seem to bother him. In fact it was so left field that I didn't even know crumpet with marmite and cheese was a thing.

When the coffee arrived it came with a little egg timer which let you know when it was ready to plunge. Sadly Big George couldn't wait and plunged a few grains early but as he thought the coffee was excellent this didn't seem to matter. 

Timing ready for plunge

My hot chocolate was less impressive and not chocolatey enough for my liking but the banana cake was very good indeed. 

Hot chocolate and banana cake

Big George liked his crumpet with Marmite and cheese although he couldn't really taste the marmite which was what attracted him to it in the first place. The more he thought about it the stronger is Marmite craving got.

Big Georges crumpet with cheese and 'marmite' crumpet

Despite the lack of Marmite we both felt Peppers was a very good stop and I would highly recommend a visit.

By the time we set off Big George's need for Marmite had become insatiable so the only conversation on the way back was yeast extract based as Big George told me, many times, that having some on toast would be his number one priority on his return, once he could remember where he had put his jar.

Update: Peppers contacted me as it transpired that due to a mix up the crumpet had been served Marmite free. This is not surprising as Big George being Scottish means no one (including me) can understand a word he says which probably caused the confusion. Rest assured the crumpets normally come with plenty of Marmite.

Ratings based on 2 visits

Hot Choc Quality	Guest Hot Drink Quality	Effective Cake Selection	Cake Quality	Ambiance and Atmosphere	Café Rating
6.5	7.5	7.77	8.7	7.77	7.65

Route

Click Here to download 48 mile Norwich Larling loop GPX file for your GPS

Crack. (Cliff top cafe, Overstrand)

Cliff Top Cafe,

Overstrand,

Opening times Every day 8am-4pm

While auditing my cycle cafe records I noticed that I visited the Cliff top Cafe in Overstrand over 4 years ago and although it had got a rating I had never posted about it. I decided that this needed to be rectified. On the previous trip I had been a little disappointed so I was interested to see if things had improved in the intervening period.

I met up with Andrew at hard to please house in Alysham and put him in charge of  route selection. It looked like a straightforward trip so we set off while discussing matters of the day. 

After a few miles I went over a pothole and was disturbed by a loud crack. I immediately slowed down and looked at the usual suspects on the bike. The tyres were in one piece, no spokes had gone, the chain was still in place etc so I thought no more of it as we continued on our way.

When we arrived at the Cliff top cafe I got in traditional cafe pose for the cafe snap. As I stood there with my handle resting artistically on the saddle I noticed that it was wobbling and on closer inspection realised the loud crack from earlier had been the seat post partially snapping. 

Outside Cliff top cafe when I first realised problem with my seat post

I showed Andrew the damage before we went inside. It was a little disconcerting but I decided that as we had got this far it would probably be ok for the rest of the ride (although as it turned out I was wrong).

Examining the pole damage

I was impressed with the make over the Cliff Top cafe had had since my last visit as it was now light and airy. Although I would have preferred it, Andrew insisted that it was too cold to sit in the nice outdoor seating area where you could really enjoy the fantastic sea view. As I'm always careful not to upset him and trigger a 'hard to please' style rant we compromised with a seat by the window. All in all a very high AAA mark.

View of sea from outdoor seating area

The cake selection was also good with a nice selection of cakes. I went for fruit cake and Andrew a bakewell slice with a cup of tea.

Good cake selection

My hot chocolate was a pretty decent one and the cakes were good too but they had made a mistake with Andrew's tea. It came fully constructed with teabag removed and milk already added. Andrew rightly pointed out that as everyone likes their tea different it is better to leave the bag in and let the customer add his own milk. As this one was too weak for Andrew's tastes he only gave a poor guest hot drink quality (GHDQ) score.

Cakes and drinks

Overall the Clifftop cafe was a very pleasant surprise after my previous visit and I'm sure it won't be 4 more years before I return.

As Andrew had had a disappointing guest hot drink experience he suggested we make a short detour to Holt  so he could go to his favourite hot drink provider, The Black Apollo. It is also one of my favourites too so I didn't take much persuasion.

Once on the hill out of Overstrand it was clear that all was not well in the saddle post department as it started to bend backwards with my saddlebag scraping against the wheel. I had an image of it suddenly snapping in half causing me a potential serious cycling injury so we stopped to investigate further.

As I picked the bike up to lean it against the hedge the seat post snapped leaving half of the pole stuck down the tube and the saddle half in my hand.

Cycle post in more than one piece

Cycling guest cycling top tip no 63: Make sure you regularly grease your pole to avoid it getting stuck when it needs removing.

Fortunately I'm a regular follower of cycling guest cycling top tip no 63 and so with a bit of a wiggle managed to free the broken half from the frame as this could have been a real problem if it had got stuck. I then put back in the half with the saddle on which meant my saddle was now a few inches lower than normal but I could safely cycle it again.

Repaired bike with low saddle

Fortunately the loose in length wasn't too uncomfortable so we continued to Black Apollo as planned. 

The black Apollo in Holt

The only weakness Black Apollo had ever shown was in the size of it's cake selection so I was excited to see it had grown with a number of excellent new additions making it into an extremely effective one. I had some honey and ginger and Andrew a portuguese tart. As well as the excellent cakes Andrew(who is notoriously hard to please) wanted to give his coffee 10 out of 10. I obviously couldn't allow this as I feel you always need to leave room in your ratings incase you come across an even better example in the future.

Cakes plus empty cups as we had already enjoyed our excellent drinks

However I did update my ratings spreadsheet with today's marks (remember cafe ratings are based on average of last 3 scores) moving the Black Apollo even nearer the top of my all time cafe's list.

There was no more drama on the rest of the ride but I will urgently need to find a new seatpost before my next planned ride in a couple of days time to save my knees and back from any permanent 'low saddle' damage.

Scores for Cliff Top Cafe

Hot Choc Quality	Guest Hot Drink Quality	Effective Cake Selection	Cake Quality	Ambiance and Atmosphere	Café Rating
6.5	5	6.2	6	8	6.34

route

Click here to download 41 mile Alysham Overstrand Holt loop GPX file to your gps

I saw an old Lady that swallowed a Bee/Wasp. (Henry's Tea and Coffee Store, Cromer)

Henry’s Tea and Coffee Store,

Cromer,

Opening times Every day 8am-8pm,

Recommended 

Much of my recent cycling activity has been targeted at going faster as part of my current triathlon obsession but this has reduced the number of cafe cycle based rides I have done, although cake still forms the basis of my nutrition plan.

However yesterday it was all about the cafe as I took Mrs Crusader up to Hard to Please House to join Andrew (who is notoriously hard to please) on a ride up to the coast.

It was going to be a straight forward 30 mile round trip up to Henry's Coffee and Tea Store in Cromer. The ride started smoothly enough as me and Andrew discussed matters of the day with Mrs Crusader following behind. Then suddenly I became aware of some yelping and shouting coming from my rear. It transpired that Mrs Crusader had tried to reenact the old song about the woman that swallowed the fly. She had in fact failed at the first hurdle as it was a bee/wasp she tried to swallow before realising her mistake and swotting it out of her mouth. This had upset the bee/wasp which had punished her by stinging the inside of her lip leading to the commotion.

A bee and wasp like one of which stung Mrs Crusaders lip

There was little we could do about it in the middle of the countryside so with her face starting to swell up we continued to Cromer.

We soon found Henry's Tea and Coffee Store (or cafe). There was a couple of outdoor seating options available but in case we were attacked by more insects we opted to sit in the comfy chair indoor seating area. I took charge of ordering as Mrs Crusader's swollen lip made understanding her quite difficult.

Outside Henry's.

The cake selection was very good although had majored on traybakes rather than sponge cakes. I went for Apple and Blackberry cake, Mrs Crusader Carrot cake and Andrew millionaires shortbread.

Good and effective cake selection

I was also able to check out their sausage rolls as part of my #SROTY research.

Todays sausage roll offering

Cakes and drinks soon arrived with hot chocolate, mocha and cappuccino all being rated as good if not spectacular. The Carrot cake was the best cake offering which we all thought was excellent giving a high Cake Taste Quality (CTQ) score.

Today's cakes and drinks

Overall Henry's Coffee and Tea store (or cafe) had got good marks across the board and was a very nice stop. I would recommend a visit.

Meanwhile Mrs Crusaders face had now started to swell and go red so we decided it was time to set off home in search of some antihistamine. Fortunately on the way back things started to return to normal, swelling wise, but I was concerned that she may now want to act out the rest of the song so made sure we avoided all spiders, cats, dogs and horses on the way back.

Scores

Hot Choc Quality	Guest Hot Drink Quality	Effective Cake Selection	Cake Quality	Ambiance and Atmosphere	Café Rating
6.8	6	7.8	7.8	7.3	7.14

Route

Click here to download 29 mile Alysham Cromer loop GPX file for your GPS

Missing money. (Red Lion Cafe, Coltishall)

Red Lion Café,

Coltishall,

Opening times Tue-Sun 9-4

Today I took the opportunity of trying out another pub/cafe hybrid. Currently cafe cycle rules only allow a pub to be considered for a review if it has a completely separate cafe area and not just if it sells coffee and cake at the bar. The last qualifying cafe of this type I had visited was the Acorn tearooms at the Oak pub in Poringland but sadly the venture didn't last and closed earlier this year. I knew the Red Lion at Coltishall also claimed to have a separate cafe to the pub so with cycling guests Mrs Crusader, Barry and Helen and their Tandem we set off to find out if it was suitable for review.

Things didn't start well when Helen suddenly demanded we stop to buy eggs available at the end of someones drive. Whilst photographing the event, as it was the most exciting incident on the ride, I realised that I had lost the £10 that Mrs Crusader had asked me to look after. Despite tweeting a picture of a similar looking £10 no one came forward to return it so I hoped it won't be an expensive stop.

Helen buying eggs while I sure for the missing tenner

We arrived at the Red Lion Cafe in Coltishall where I was relieved to see that the cafe area was completely separate and even had it's own entrance, thus clearly qualifying it.

Outside the Red Lion Cafe special non pub entrance

It was too late in the year to make use of any outdoor seating so it was straight inside to check the cake selection which wasn't bad. It was also good to see that sausage rolls were available for #SROTY testing.

Cake selection

The drinks, cakes and sausage rolls soon arrived with sausage roll tasting causing much debate. As they were of the short crust variety, favoured by Mrs Crusader, she was keen it made the sausage roll off finalists list which is currently heavily weighted towards flakey. As I was already in her bad books I agreed that it had just crept in. 

As the discussions got more heated I completely forgot to take the cake and drinks picture so you will just have to imagine what cakes and mugs of drink look like. I can report my hot chocolate was a fairly standard example and the Mocha and cappuccino guest hot drinks were all a bit to weak for their likings. However the Banana loaf and Victoria sponge were both very good cakes and scored well.

I thought the Red Lion cafe was a good example of a pub cafe and hope it is a successful addition to the cafe scene.

In a desperate attempt to get Mrs Crusaders money back I'm now offering a £10 reward to anyone who finds it.

Scores

Hot Choc Quality	Guest Hot Drink Quality	Effective Cake Selection	Cake Quality	Ambiance and Atmosphere	Café Rating
5.8	5	6.3	7.8	7.5	6.48

Route

Click here to download 36 mile Norwich Coltishall loop gpx mile to your GPS

Management speak. (Courtyard cafe, Fakenham)

The Courtyard Cafe,

Fakenham,

Opening times Every day 9:00-17:00 

The weather has been so inconsistent recently that I have had several planned cafe cycle rides called off by my cycling guests. However there was no danger of this happening yesterday as it was a clear blue sky that greeted us for the ride. I also had two cycling guests booked in from the previously cancelled efforts. One was Cake Crusader veteran Andrew (who is Notoriously hard to place) and the other was Matt, an old work colleague of ours who was new to cycling and currently between roles in the world of big business.

As we left Hard to Please House (HTPH) on our trip to Fakenham it was difficult to understand much of what Matt was saying as he spoke in Management speak, a language I had become rusty in. The only thing I understood was about blue sky thinking and agreed with Matt that I thought today's sky was blue.

Moving forward we successfully overcame all the opportunities that challenged us on our journey and hit the key objective of getting to the courtyard cafe at Pensthorpe nature park with an excellent performance rating, apparently.

Outside the Courtyard cafe at Pensthorpe 

The Courtyard cafe is indeed courtyard based and sitting there on such a lovely day it not surprisingly attracted a high AAA mark.

The courtyard the cafe was named after

The cake selection was prettying good too and between us we covered the coffee, victoria and muffin cake bases. 

Lots of cake options

When our food and drinks arrived the hot chocolate and cakes performed well but the coffee had some developmental opportunities. 

Cakes and drinks about to undertake their performance review

The courtyard cafe was a nice stop and of similar standard to a number of attraction based establishments I have been too. Whilst there I also checked out their sausage roll for sausage roll of the year #SROTY. It was pretty good but the standard of my current finalists is so high it didn't make the cut.

Penthorpe courtyard cafe sausage roll offering

Our next objective was to take Matt to a top ten rated cafe as he wanted to see what world class looked like. We had chosen Heydon Tearoom as it was on route back to HTPH and would give me the opportunity to check out their sausage roll as well.

Preparing to go across the tea room in Heydon

As we sat outside on a warm Autumn day and enjoyed some of Norfolks best cakes Matt could see the attraction of a more chilled life outside the hectic world of big business of which he likes to operate in. We then spent a few minutes updating the ratings for Heydon Cafe and Shop before completing our trip. 

Self proclaimed star cakes at Heydon Tea room

Back at HTPH Matt told us how much he had enjoyed the ride although he insisted on a post ride feedback and review session so we could agree what went well, what went badly and how to improve for next time. 

Scores

Hot Choc Quality	Guest Hot Drink Quality	Effective Cake Selection	Cake Quality	Ambiance and Atmosphere	Café Rating
6.9	5	7.1	7.2	7.4	6.72

Route

Click here to downlaod 44 mile Alysham Fakenham loop GPX file to your gps

The Celtic Trail Day 4 (Tenby to Swansea)

The Celtic Trail Day 4
Annies Cafe, St Clears,

Open Mon-Fri 9-4.30, Sat 9-3,
Recommended,
Flanagans Coastline cafe, Llanelli, 
Open Mon-Sun 10-5
Highly Recommended

It was going to be a weather lottery today as it looked like it could get rather wet. As we hopped on our bikes we were not sure just how lucky or unlucky we would be but it was time to say goodbye to the Ironman action at Tenby. 

Leaving Tenby

We set off in a light drizzle and soon were enjoying are best sea views of the week although Mrs Crusader informed me that she had to get off and push 4 times in the first 5 miles despite me promising a flatter day.

One of many early climbs

As the rain stopped we came to the big long climb I had been dreading as I knew some of the sections would be too steep for Mrs Crusader but she purposefully battled through them before we eventually made it to the top and on to an early cafe stop.

Mrs Crusader walking up the big hill of the day

We arrived in St Clears and our target cafe. There was no outdoor seating area at Annie's cafe but inside was nicely appointed. 

Outside Annie's Cafes

Once again the cake selection was small with only chocolate, carrot or Welsh fruit bread to chose from. We decided to have half each of the two cake choices. Mrs Crusader thought her Mocha was the best this week but my hot chocolate didn't compete with some of the other excellent ones I have enjoyed so far. Overall still a good showing but not the winner.

Cakes and drinks at Annie's cafe

After the coffee stop we had two more large hills to get over and these took sometime to complete. To add to the jeopardy the weather app was now predicting thunderstorms in the next two hours.

More hills as the storm clouds gather

After we summitted the last of the hills it was obvious that Mrs Crusader was pooped and her energy supplies were drained. Fortunately the remaining 30 miles left today were flat but as I was out of dilithium crystals to repower her engines I suggested we abandon tomorrow's day 5 and catch the train back to Newport instead.

Mrs Crusader was now officially pooped

This suggestion got immediate approval and seemed to give her renewed vigour knowing that this would be her final effort of the trip. The good news continued as we reached some stunning views along by the estuary but the biggest surprise was the sun had come out and all talk of heavy rain on the weather app had gone.

Fabulous views over the estuary on the way to Swansea

We then hit the millennium coast path which was several miles of good quality track with great views to accompany us until we got to our second cafe stop Flanagans Coast line cafe. I had been here before on my cycle across Great Britain but had arrived 5 minutes before closing on that occasion so it didn't get a fair crack of the whip.

Outside Flanagans Coastline Cafe

Mrs Crusader was still clearly very tired as she tried to climb the stairs before slumping into her chair with head in hands. While she was busy suffering I ordered drinks and an excellent looking piece of yogurt and berry flapjack. 

Mrs Crusader still suffering

The cake selection was good and the fabulous views of the coast line resulted in high marks for those categories. 

My hot chocolate was another fine example and the flapjack was some of the best ever. We both agreed that this was the best cafe we had found on the Celtic trail and as we won't be going to anymore I declared it the winner of my search. 

Some excellent cake and drinks

We now had just 20 miles to go to get back to the hotel and fortunately it was nearly all on good off-road track. It  took a while but eventually we hit the Swansea seafront and then cycled along it back to the Premier Inn we had left  3 days ago.

Final stretch back to hotel in Swansea

We had covered over 250 miles (most of it up) of the Celtic trail in 4 days which I had very much enjoyed but I had learned 3 things

1. Sometimes it best to quit while your ahead

2. There are a lot more hills in Wales than I had thought

3. Mrs Crusader does not like cycling up hills, which is why we live in Norfolk

Map route

Profile 

Cafe ratings for cafes reviewed on (or near) the Celtic trail

Cafe	Hot Choc Quality	Guest Hot Drink Quality	Effective Café Selection	Cake Taste Quality	Atmosphere and Ambiance	Total
Bradleys Coffee Shop	7.6	7.25	7	7.6	7	7.29
Cafe Espresso	Na	Na	Na	Na	Na	Na
Time Coffee Bar	7	7	6	6.95	6.25	6.64
Caffi Becca	3	5.25	4	7.25	6.25	5.15
Sands Cafe	8	7.65	5.25	7.5	8.2	7.32
Cwtch Cafe	8.5	7	4	8.5	7.5	7.10
Annies Cafe	6	8	5	7.75	7.5	6.85
Flanagans Cafe	7	7	7	8	8	7.4

Stats 

	Miles	Average Speed	Hours on bike	Meters climbed
Newport to Swansea	57.7	10.3	5:35:50	679
Swansea to Fishguard	69.5	10.4	6:43:15	2075
Fishguard to Tenby	61.7	10.0	6:11:02	1411
Tenby to Swansea	70.1	10.5	6:39:09	1313
Swansea to Newport	Na	Na	Na	Na
Overall	259.0	10.3	25:09:16	4573