cafe | Tea for you and me

November 20, 2016
by tealeaves Leave a comment

Zooby’s

Units 4 & 5, Winter Garden, Surrey Street, Sheffield, South Yorkshire, S1 1LH.

Visited on: Saturday 12th November 2016

The view from our table, looking up into the plants and the arched glass roof.

The Winter Garden in Sheffield is an indoor garden, housed inside a huge arched glasshouse. It’s a nice place to be and, obviously, an even better place to be if there’s tea. Zooby’s is a cafe inside the Winter Garden, with some chairs and tables next to some of the planting.

After the disappointment of Manchester cafes not wanting to sell me rooibos (hibiscus being the ‘in’ thing), it was a welcome surprise to see that Zooby’s not only sold rooibos, it was listed on the menu as a separate category (instead of being lumped in with ‘selection of herbal teas’). I ordered a large cup for the very reasonable price of £1.70.

My large rooibos tea at Zooby’s.

Teapot? No.
Leaf tea? No, but a very nice Clipper teabag.
Milk jug? No, but they added milk for you so none of those tiny plastic pots. Though the cups were takeaway cups (understandable in a garden cafe) and I unfortunately I didn’t have my re-usable cup with me.
Price? £1.70 for a large cup of rooibos tea, £1.60 for a large filter coffee and the bargain price of £1 for a small tea or small filter coffee.
Cake? Yes and flapjacks, crips and sandwiches.
Go again? Yes, it’s a lovely setting. Next time I’ll try and bring my re-usable cup.

October 28, 2016
by tealeaves Leave a comment

Sourced Market, Marylebone

68-72 Wigmore Street, London, W1U 2SD.

Visited on: 24th October 2016.

Rooibos tea in a pot at Sourced Market, with milk in a bottle and a glass of water. Apologies for forgetting to take a photo of the tea once it was poured out.

Oxford Street can be very busy, but if you go through the tiny gap into St Christopher’s Place and out the other side, you come to Sourced Market.

Sourced Market has two locations: St Pancras International and Marylebone. The Marylebone location is a two storey cafe and bar, which also has some expensive but lovely looking food and drink for sale. There’s seating upstairs and downstairs and though it looked busy from the outside, there were lots of spaces once you were inside. The upstairs has a cafe counter, a sandwich and deli counter, a juice bar and a hot food counter. Downstairs is the bar.

Decaf Americano with hot milk on the side (in the trendy milk bottle) and a little glass of water.

I ordered at the cafe counter, but the drinks were brought over to us at our table. The little wooden boards worked well in such a busy place and I liked that everything came with a glass of water. Definitely somewhere I’ll come again when I’m next in this part of London.

Teapot? Yes.
Leaf tea? No, but rather tasty Brew Tea Co. rooibos teabags (there were two in my pot).
Milk jug? The oh-so-fashionable miniature milk bottle.
Price? £4.10 for a decaf Americano and a pot of rooibos tea. For central London, this is very good value.
Cake? Yes, and pastries. Also sandwiches and hot food.
Go again? Yes, it was a great place to escape Oxford Street and the rooibos was very smooth.

October 20, 2016
by tealeaves Leave a comment

Tipsy bean

18 Prospect Street, Caversham, Reading, Berkshire, RG4 8JB.

Tipsy bean (great name) is a cafe/bar in Caversham, where the old Wordplay bookshop and toy shop used to be. It’s a long space with the bar along one side towards the back. The windows onto the street give light to the tables at the front, while the area near the bar is quite dark, but it feels nice and cosy rather than oppressive. The seating matches the change in light – with upholstered grey/cream chairs near the window and a long red leather bench opposite the bar. With dried flower bunches hanging above the bar, red Gerberas on the tables and jam jar style lamps, Tipsy bean has a welcoming feel.

The menu said that they had lots of tea and they certainly seem to – they had rooibos at least and quite a few other varieties (all in boxes on a high shelf at the back of the bar). I wanted to sample their cake, but unfortunately they’d run out.

My tea came in a mug, with a milk jug and a little plate with a sugar. It was a good mug of tea and I enjoyed my visit.

Teapot? No.
Leaf tea? No, but Waitrose rooibos teabags, which I’m quite partial to (Tick Tock and Clipper are my other favourites, just so you know).
Milk jug? Yes.
Price? £2.
Cake? No (sob). But platters (smoked salmon, veggie, meat) and sandwiches and breakfast and nuts and nibbles.
Go again? Yes, both because I liked it and because I’d like to try the cake and the veggie platter.

September 11, 2016
by tealeaves Leave a comment

Ancoats Coffee Co.

Unit 9, Royal Mills, 17 Redhill Street, Ancoats, M4 5BA

Visited on: 27th August 2016

The inside/outside area at Ancoats Coffee Co.

I know, I know, going to drink tea somewhere that calls itself a coffee company is bound to end in trouble, but I was with people who wanted to drink coffee. And that’s fine, I used to drink coffee too (just not as much as I drank tea). Plus, the whole reason we were in Ancoats in the first place was that H had mentioned how good the pizza was at Rudy’s Pizza was and I wanted to try it (it was very, very good).

H had heard about Ancoats Coffee Co. and how it had good coffee. So off we went. It’s in a converted mill, with seating inside and seating inside/outside – outside the coffee shop but underneath a glass roof, in what would have been a courtyard in the mill.

The cappuccinos and the biscuits.

We ordered our drinks: H had a decaf cappuccino (and wasn’t impressed when they charged an extra 50p for decaf without that being obviously listed on the menu or being warned about it first) and E had a normal cappuccino. I tried to have rooibos, but I think now rooibos tea has become so mainstream that Tetley sell it, it’s too mainstream for hipster Manchester – I couldn’t get rooibos in any of the places we went in during this visit. I ended up having red berry and hibiscus on the advice of the guy who served us. We also had two lavender and lemon biscuits – one for me and one for E and H to share.

The biscuit was delicious, sweet and light and with a lovely lemon icing. E and H said that their coffee was very good. My tea was, well, not really my cup of tea. It came in a tea pot, so that was good, but it also came with an empty carafe and a wine glass with honey on the inside. I don’t take sugar with my tea and wouldn’t have ordered a biscuit if I’d known that the tea would come with honey. Anyway, I tried it as it was. I quite like the idea of having the carafe to pour the tea into once the tea is strong enough, but the tea itself was quite bitter. You needed the honey to offset the bitterness. The issue with having the honey in the glass is that the first glass of tea is very sweet and the last glass of tea is not sweet at all. I didn’t finish it. It’s my own fault really, I know I don’t particularly like red berry style fruit teas, but I wanted a cup of tea.

Tea in the carafe, honey in the glass.

Tea in the glass and so the honey is in the tea too.

Overall verdict? We liked the space and E and H liked their coffee, but we would have liked a little more information before ordering. I would have liked to know the tea would come with honey and H would have liked to know that having decaf coffee would be an extra 50p (H would have had a normal coffee if that had been explained).

Teapot? Yes, and a carafe too. First time I’ve ever been given both.
Leaf tea? Yes. Well, I suppose technically it wasn’t tea, but it was a loose infusion.
Milk jug? No milk with this beverage.
Price? £2.70 for the infusion/tea, £1.50 for the biscuit and £3.20 for the coffee (I think, not too sure of the coffee price as I wasn’t drinking it).
Cake? Yes and brownies and biscuits.
Go again? No. Not unless I was with people who really wanted coffee.

July 21, 2016
by tealeaves 1 Comment

Reefside Kiosk

Boscombe Pier, Boscombe, Bournemouth, Dorset, BH5 1BN.

Visited on: 31st May 2016

Dorset Tea from the Reefside Kiosk, Boscombe Pier.

R and I walked from Bournemouth seafront to Boscombe Pier in the rain. It wasn’t particularly cold rain, but it was more than just drizzle and so by the time we arrived at the pier we were both in need of a cup of tea.

Ice cream with a flake, sea in the background.

Ice cream! With a flake! Next to the sea!

Reefside Kiosk is a kiosk at the entrance to Boscombe Pier. The kiosk had black tea, green tea or fruit tea, but unfortunately no rooibos or decaf. R was happy as he’s a fan of green tea and had a cup of that. I’m not a fan of fruit tea (it makes my teeth feel funny) and green tea has caffeine in. Reader, I wanted a cup of tea badly. I ordered the black tea. Then I moved across to the Reefside Ices window and ordered an ice cream (because we were at the seaside).

The tea came in a paper cup and was a Dorset Tea teabag. The milk came in little plastic pots. There was a wooden stick instead of a spoon. But wow, did that cup of tea taste good. Was it the fact it was caffeinated? Was it that it was a brand local to where we were? Was it that I drank it sat on a bench watching the rain fall on the sea but stayed dry as the benches on the pier are covered by a roof? Probably it was all of those things.

The ice cream helped too. My ice cream was Purbeck ice cream and I had a two scoops cone: one of honeycomb hash and one of chocolate. With a chocolate flake. It was very good.

Boscombe Pier, unlike Bournemouth Pier, is free to walk on and has no amusement arcades. When we were there they were installing mini golf (though this seemed a risky entertainment for a pier – how many golf balls were going to go in the sea?). There were also musical instruments that you could play and I had a go on all of them. They made lovely chiming noises.

The view from our bench.

We didn’t go further than the pier, but Boscombe seemed much quieter than Bournemouth. It was very peaceful sitting on the pier and looking out over the sea, listening to the waves and watching the birds. The setting makes this one of my favourite places to drink tea so far. Thanks to the lady in Bournemouth’s tourist information office for suggesting that we walked down to Boscombe pier.

The view of the Reefside Kiosk from the road. I took this after we’d eaten, notice that the ices section has now closed for the day.

Teapot? No.
Leaf tea? No, but it was a Dorset Tea teabag and we were in Dorset.
Milk jug? No, little plastic pots.
Price? £1.60 for a cup of tea. £3.60 for two scoop ice cream and an extra 30p for the flake (worth every penny).
Cake? No, but there were sweet crêpes, which looked amazing. Sadly I was too full to try one when we were there.
Go again? Yes.

January 24, 2016
by tealeaves Leave a comment

Farewell, Cafe W

I’ve been adding reviews to this blog for a number of years now and have seen a fair few cafes open and close in that time. One of these days I’ll manage to double check all of the reviews and note which ones are now shut.

The most recent one to close is Cafe W in the Oracle Waterstones, as the whole shop has shut down. There is another Waterstones in Reading, but that one doesn’t have a cafe.

In my review of Cafe W I said I’d like to go back when they were more established (and I wanted to see what their tea was like in a pot rather than in a paper cup). I’m sure that they must have got their crockery sorted a while back, but I’m afraid I didn’t make it back before they closed.

Other Waterstones have cafes and they’re also called Cafe W, so I could try one of those instead. The cake sold at the Reading Cafe W was supplied by Picnic, so you can still get the same cake in Reading.

It’s still a shame though. So long, Cafe W, thanks for all the rooibos tea.

September 17, 2015
by tealeaves Leave a comment

Manhattan Coffee Club

Upper Level, The Oracle, Reading, RG1 2AG.

Visited on: Saturday 5th September 2015

The interior of the Manhattan Coffee Club, I liked how the big glass windows let in as much light as possible.

Another new cafe in the Oracle shopping centre, the Manhattan Coffee Club has been open for a couple of months now. It’s not that big, and in keeping with all the cafes inside the Oracle, has no natural light, but it still feels relatively light and airy inside. This light feeling is partly created by the green plants on every table and by the door, but unfortunately all of them are plastic.

The chairs were far more comfortable than they looked – with a solid seat that I didn’t mind sitting for an hour in. The table tops were rough planks of wood and while these look nice I imagine they’re a complete pain to keep clean. Certainly my table had crumbs stuck in between the gaps.

No loose leaf tea here, but they did have rooibos – Chilli Chocolate flavour. The barista let me sniff the teabag before purchasing as I wasn’t sure about it and I appreciated that. It didn’t smell of chocolate at all and indeed it didn’t taste of chocolate either, but the chilli gave it a warm zing when I drank it. No teapot, but at least the mug came with a saucer so I had somewhere to deposit my used teabag.

I seem to have developed a habit of ordering the chocolate brownie wherever I go, so I stuck to form and ordered another one here. This time the brownie was slightly chilled and had a fudge-like texture. I enjoyed it and would order it again.

There are some nice touches here, like the wooden tray my items were brought on and the community book swap area in the corner. The salads, sandwiches and toasted sandwich looked really good too. Overall though, it’s not somewhere I think I will go again. Partly it’s things like the plastic plants and the bumpy table that put me off, mainly it’s that there wasn’t a teapot and that I didn’t particularly like that flavour of rooibos tea. I imagine that if coffee is your hot beverage of choice that this is the place to go though, so if it is give it a try and let me know.

Tea and brownie at Manhattan Coffee Club.

Chilli chocolate rooibos and a very nice chocolate brownie at Manhattan Coffee Club.

I do think that Manhattan Coffee Club should be congratulated on opening in the Oracle shopping centre. An independent ethical coffee shop in a shopping centre is not a usual thing and I hope they are very successful.

Teapot? No.
Leaf tea? No. The London Tea Company ‘Rooibos Chilli Chocolate’ tea bag. Looked like all their tea was tea bag tea.
Teapot? No.
Milk jug? I don’t know. This particular tea didn’t need milk and everyone else I could see was drinking coffee. Feel I’ve failed a little as I didn’t find this out.
Price? £1.90 for speciality tea, £2.30 for the brownie.
Cake? Yes, plus brownie, millionaire’s shortbread etc. Also sells salads, sandwiches and American chocolate and snacks such as Hershey’s.
Go again? Probably not -there are other cafes nearby that I would prefer to go to.

August 29, 2015
by tealeaves 1 Comment

Cafe W, Reading

Waterstones, 12 Holy Brook Mall, The Oracle, Reading, RG1 2AQ.

Visited on: Saturday 29th August 2015

A fuzzy photo (sorry) of what the Costa Coffee in this Waterstones used to look like.

View of what the new Cafe W looks like. The plant pots on the tables are a nice touch.

So, here we are. Cafe W. So new it’s not listed on the Cafe W page on the Waterstones website yet. It was advertised as opening yesterday, but when I turned up yesterday afternoon there were no tables or chairs – instead people were running round unpacking things and being trained on how to use the coffee machine. I came again today and low and behold: a new cafe.

Not everything was up and running yet. There were paper cups because there were problems with the dishwasher (apparently it ‘blew up’), but as it’s the first day and things aren’t yet ship shape, all the hot drinks were discounted to £1. Fair enough.

Most impressively, they have a selection of loose leaf tea that includes rooibos. I tasted some of the chocolate cake that was in tasting chunks on a plate on the counter and it was a good strong flavour. I ordered some (instead of a chocolate brownie) on the strength of the taste and the recommendation of the lady behind the counter. It was nice, but very soggy – one of those cakes that are designed to be gooey and pudding like. I wasn’t that keen. I’ll try the chocolate brownie next time.

Rooibos tea, milk in a paper cup and a generous slice of chocolate cake at Cafe W.

There are less tables in here than there used to be when it was Costa. Other changes include the walls now being Waterstones green and the tables being a lighter wood. Overall it feels much brighter. The staff were friendly and chatty and I’d be interested to come back again when they’re more established.

Teapot? No. But perhaps there will be teapots once the dishwasher is up and running?
Leaf tea? Yes, Suki loose leaf tea.
Milk jug? No, but milk was provided in another paper cup so I could add my own and the lady serving me apologised for the lack of jug, so I’m guessing there will be a jug when the dishwasher is sorted.
Price? £1 for the rooibos tea (reduced from £1.80) and £2.50 for the chocolate cake.
Cake? Yes, chocolate cake, carrot cake, croissants, chocolate brownie and some sort of square traybake with jam.
Go again? Yes. This isn’t my favourite cafe in Reading, mainly because though there are windows the windows look out into the corridor of the Oracle shopping centre and so there’s no natural light, but I will come back again because I like the feel of the place and because they have loose leaf tea. Also, if it’s the same as the Costa before it, it’s a useful cafe if you need to get some work/tea drinking done after 6pm (as the Oracle stays open to 8pm every weekday).

August 27, 2015
by tealeaves Leave a comment

Intrigue in Waterstones

I think this is the first time I’ve seen a poster with the words ‘See you there’ and thought, ‘Yes, you will’.

There are two branches of Waterstones in Reading, one in the Oracle shopping centre and one on Broad Street. The one in the Oracle used to have a Costa Coffee inside it, but, in line with Waterstones’ policy of not renewing external coffee company contracts and instead putting in their own cafes, this has now closed.

While I’m sad to see the lovely and super friendly Costa coffee staff go (they’ve gone to the Debenhams a few metres away), I am intrigued by the thought of a new cafe. Waterstones branded cafes are called Cafe W and I’ve never been in one. Not ever.

When I went in yesterday there was a white hoarding around the area where the Costa used to be and a smell of fresh paint. Tomorrow, there should be a whole new cafe there. I’m not sure what it’ll be like, but I’m going to go and find out. And then, dear reader, I’ll post about it on here so you can know too.

Tea for you and me

Join me on my epic quest to find the best tea ever

Tag Archives: cafe