Deciding
to hit the sales for last minute Xmas gifts and see if any January sale items
might take our fancy, myself and the mister hit Saffron Walden with our need to
shop until we dropped. We hadn’t anticipated the heavy rain fall, with it being
so late in the day, we literally took a rain check not even an hour into our
excursion and took refuge in a lesser known tea room in this historic and
beautiful market town.
Kim’s
Tea & Coffee House is a haven for any tea or coffee lover, with an entire
wall of choices to be made from their dresser displaying jars upon jars of
loose leaf tea and fine coffee, it took us a very long time to settle on our
tipple of fancy.
The
mister chose a Cappuccino with a shot of Belgian Chocolate sauce at £2.20 which
looked amazing and made me almost regret my tea choice for a few minutes, but
my regret was short lived after my Rose Grey tea arrived in it’s own white
teapot and matching cup & saucer. Its scent was as beautiful as it looked,
a delicate blend, a take on the more traditional Earl Grey blend, but with a
rose infusion. It made me glad not to go for a safe Darjeeling or English
Breakfast choice today, it was a generous serving and cost just £1.50 for a
large pot.
There
is quite the selection of teas to choose from including black & blended teas,
green teas, white teas and herbal infusions.
The
cakes and treats are also made on site where possible and I could see a cake
plate full of homemade tea cakes from here, which were very tempting
considering just how cold and wet through we were from getting caught out in
the rain.
However,
as we were browsing the menu, homemade Crumpets with butter sounded amazing, so
simple, yet the first thing we both ordered at the same time as the lovely man
serving asked what we fancied with our drinks. We did chuckle and we were far
from disappointed, they were big and fluffy and you can tell a homemade crumpet
from a mile off. With butter melting into the holes in these goodies, it was
the best autumn warmer ever! All we needed now was the roaring fire and warm
slippers to step into ; )
Whilst we were here, as it was nearly closing time and getting gloomier by the minute, there were one or two of us taking refuge with a pot of tea before tackling the streets again, so it was peaceful and no battle to the tables. They can seat a good 30+ people in this pretty little tearoom, which overlooks the Jubilee Gardens and Bandstand, which is a spot I want to come back to and enjoy a rare tea in the summer.
The
beauty of Kim’s Tea & Coffee House is that you can buy a packet of the tea
or coffee you enjoy to take away with you. They know their stuff, so if you
tell them what teas you do or don’t like, they are in their element in telling
you what they have to offer, I love them!
If
you are unsure what tea or coffee to go for, you don’t need to be an expert to
know or decide and more importantly, you are not made to feel like an idiot if
you aren’t quite sure. There is an extensive tea & coffee menu on each
table, with a little explanation of each offering and the flavour you would
experience, it’s a great start to delve in and get experimenting.
Besides
the espresso-based coffee drinks (including decaffeinated) they have on offer,
they also have more than a dozen cafetière coffees including pure Jamaican Blue
Mountain and Kopi Luwak, as well as various guest coffees, which change every
month or two.
For
the dog lover in me, they even allow well behaved pooches here, should you be
on a mission with the dog in tow. There are many coffee shops in Saffron Walden to choose from, but if you find yourself in this great little town on any day of the week and need a quick re-fuel, get yourself to Kim's to find your new favorite tea or coffee!
Miss Sue Flay
Please Note - I'm not paid or bribed to say these things,
I visit of my own accord, because I'm simply THAT geeky about tea and cake and
all things in between. I pay for my own food and drink, I don't tell the
establishment what I'm doing, unless I enjoy it so much that I want to blog
about it. I then simply ask their permission to do so and I chat to them about
my experience to make them aware that I (and others) have enjoyed it : )
If you would like to discuss an independent review or blog write up
on any of the subjects on my blog, please do email Miss Sue Flay: cake@secludedteaparty.com for a
chat.
No comments:
Post a Comment