The Scrumptious Tearooms

I love tea, and, luckily, I grew up with a family who love tea, in a nation that…loves tea! I love having a cuppa and a natter especially with friends or with my Mum in the kitchen. On visits home I always get a cup of tea brought to me in the morning, loose leaf English Breakfast – yes I am spoilt! So when I stumbled across The Secret Tea Society there was no doubt in my mind that I had to become a member and gain access to their fabulous events. So when they asked me to pop in to the Scrumptious Tearooms, and blog about it, I was thrilled. Any excuse to try a new tea, visit a tearoom or tuck into cake is right up my street so it’s lucky this latest venture took me straight down that street into tearoom heaven.

Tucked in the centre of Great Dunmow, a historic village in Essex, you will find the Scrumptious Tearooms, winners of ‘The Best Tea Shop and Coffee Shop in Essex’ awarded by the Essex Life Fine Food and Drinks Awards 2013. The surrounding countryside is scenic, the roads wind around the fields and there are plenty of opportunities to pop into a farm shop to pick up eggs or you know, hay. If you find yourself exploring the area I’d also recommend popping into the pretty little village of Finchingfield, it has a surprisingly steep drive up to the church, a lovely antiques shop and a windmill.

Back in Great Dunmow The Scrumptious Tearooms sits on the corner of the main road through the town. Teapots are painted into the name on the shop front and the hanging teapot sign whispers promises of a nice cup of loose leaf tea; all clearly display their love of tea before you even step inside. On entering I found myself welcomed with a smile into a bustling tearoom, cakes on display and the perfect tearoom music playing, so far, so good!

The menu offered everything from full afternoon tea to homemade quiche and all kinds of cake but I already knew I wanted the Flitch Tea which is a scone, cream, jam and a drink. Now, you may be thinking…’but surely that is just a Cream Tea?’, and essentially you would be right but for two things. First the scone choice and tea choice is in no way ordinary but utterly enticing, ranging from the Golden Monkey tea to Precious Peach and gingerbread hot chocolate to the Breckland Orchard soft drinks. I chose the cranberry and white chocolate scone and English Rose tea. Secondly the name, Flitch Tea, actually hints at a local past time, the Flitch Trials, which are actually quite romantic and have nothing to do witches, thieves or highway men. The story goes that a local Lord and Lady went to the priory of Little Dunmow dressed as common folk and begged for a blessing over their marriage of one year and one day, to gain the blessing they had to prove their devotion. Fortunately they did and the Prior rewarded them with a ‘Flitch of Bacon’. When the Lord and Lady revealed who they really were they gave land to the Priory on the condition that other couples could also receive a flitch of bacon if they could prove their devotion similarly. It is believed the trials date as far back as 1104 and records show them happening in 1445! The trials continue to this day with the next booked in for 2016, but let’s pop the history lesson to one side and get back to the Flitch Tea.

Everything came out together, presented on vintage china which I believe makes every occasion feel special. The Forlife stump tea pot comes with a timer which lets you know when to remove the infuser so that your tea is perfectly brewed – I can’t really put into words how exciting this was for me but if you love tea too then I trust you understand. If you’ve never taken the time to brew a pot of loose leaf tea and properly enjoy it then I urge you to do so as soon as possible and the Scrumptious Tearooms is a fab place to start. The English Rose tea smelt divine and it really delivered on taste. A black tea with the gentle rose flavour that, if you close your eyes, could have you imagining yourself lazing in a rose garden or tucking into Turkish delight. The pink petals were a pretty addition too. I have only recently tried rose tea but I am quickly becoming a fan and this was an excellent example. They also recommend trying it iced with pomegranate and cranberry juice so I have no doubt I’ll be back in the summer to try that.

As soon as they mentioned the white chocolate and cranberry scone I honestly couldn’t resist it but managed to hold back just long enough to take some photos.  The white chocolate added a luxurious, creaminess to the scone and went perfectly with the cranberry. After a quick chat with Jane, the owner, I soon found out that they love being creative with their scones (a woman after my own heart) so you will always find exciting special scones available and usually including a gluten free option. The cream and jam came in handy shot glass sizes which was just right for me, I felt indulged but not sick which is usually the case since I have very little self control when it comes to good food. You know you’ve had a top notch eating experience when you devour every last morsel and drink every drop placed before you and wish it wouldn’t end.

I had a little wander around the tearoom before leaving which is elegantly decorated in a duck egg colour and there are lots of personal touches such as the teaspoon coat hanger and teacup lights. The toilets are signposted, the newsletter is on the wall and a full length mirror is available to check your tea dress before returning to your table. The parlour room in the back has a beautiful fire place and so does the room upstairs which can be booked for private parties. They are also working on a Library room which will be available to book too. Jane clearly has an infectious passion about the tearooms and I have no doubt that exciting events (keep an eye out for their Knit and Natters and their first Supper Club), fine tea and interesting bakes will continue to be at the heart of them.   You can visit them on Facebook or Twitter and get more information here and if you’re a member of the fabulous Secret Tea Society don’t forget you get a discount with your membership card!

I’ll leave you to admire their awesome answer to tea room lighting!

Feeling Festive in Cambridge

It’s the time of year where, everywhere you turn, there are endless opportunities to do something festive, eat a mince pie, down some mulled wine or sing carols, so where do you start?! This year we decided to explore the Mill Road Winter Fair and took the opportunity to check out The Cambridge Brew House – we were not disappointed!

First up the Mill Road Winter Fair, almost the entire road is closed to cars and people pour out filling it to the brim to enjoy all the festivities. There has been a Winter Fair on Mill Road since 2005 and from what we hear it gets better every year. It is a great opportunity to explore all the independent shops available on this road, the area really excels in community spirit all year round. One of the main events is the parade although, don’t feel too bad if you miss it as, there are a number of acts performing dance, music, and more up and down the road the whole time.

We hit the road at the bridge and headed away from town, there was a huge queue for delicious hot dogs with proper sausages at Andrew Northrop’s Butchers and this was just the start of tasty offerings available. We made room for chips and calamari at The Sea Tree, these truly are my favourite calamari, the batter is amazing, it’s so light you really get to enjoy the squid. They also offer Gluten Free batter! We waved at Santa in the window at The Old Chemist Shop Antique Centre and grabbed a large cup of mulled wine from Limoncello which was made using amaretto – yum. We always enjoy a visit to Limoncello, its a wonderful Italian deli with samples to try and superb sandwiches. We popped into Romsey Mill to see the HATs competition and the Bouncy Castle and were lucky enough to hear a children’s choir singing Christmas Carols, they were excellent and really made us feel Christmassy, yep even more than we already were!

We then wandered back the other way taking in the sights and sounds before checking out the food court area. I was devastated to arrive at Steak and Honour just too late, they had sold out, so I’ll just have to hunt them down for another opportunity. We picked up some amazing Macaroni Cheese, but sadly don’t remember who made it but it was delicious and super cheesy, just the right strength of cheese, warmed us up. Mr Cake’s stall was buzzing but again we missed out as he had sold out of his salted caramel truffles, but all the treats looked really special, great gift ideas.

We couldn’t walk past Hot Numbers without picking up a coffee (if you’re serious about coffee this is a must!) and popped into Cambridge Wine Merchants to pick up a bottle of wine for a Christmas party. They have an excellent selection of wine and beers but the thing that really caught my eye was the Gin Advent Calendar – one for next year I think! Finally we explored the craft tent and found some of our crafty friends selling wonderful gifts, cards and more; Rachel Thompson Design, Purplespoon Design (beautiful Christmas Cards from Purplespoon Design in the picture below) and Retrovert. There was much to see and experience that we couldn’t possibly do it all so of course we’ll be back next year and recommend you all pop along too. Keep reading to find out how we got on at The Cambridge Brew House!

After all that walking, eating and shopping it was clearly time for a sit down and a brew, of the beer variety on this occasion. We made a beeline for The Cambridge Brew Houseafter some top recommendations.  It was buzzing, great atmosphere, and we went straight to the bar to find out what was on offer, the answer…plenty! Unfortunately I had to drive so I ‘forced’ my husband to try a number of beers, he made a really noble effort and started by ordering a tray of beer including a really festive smelling one. I wouldn’t know where to start to explain the variety of beer on offer here, including their own micro brews, so you really do have to just go and enjoy yourself to find out. Go soon so you can also check out their fun take on a Christmas Tree as I wasn’t able to capture it well enough on camera. We sunk into two really comfy seats by a window and took in our surroundings. We didn’t have long and wished we could have stayed for dinner, the menu looked amazing. I had my eye on the Sir Guby platter although I would have been torn between that and the Sausage Feast platter but it was the Twice Cooked Sticky Beef I can’t get out of my head, how amazing does that sound! Not to mention the intrigue of being able to go ‘dirty’ or ‘filthy’ on the Steak Burger! We’re keen to get back for one of their Brewery Open Evenings (second Tuesday of each month) and really can’t wait to hear about their Beer and Food Matching Experiences! For more info check out their website or you can follow them on Twitter or Like them on Facebook!

Hope you are all enjoying the festivities available near and far. Let us know what puts you in the festive mood!

Happy Holidays!

With Thanks to Bekki C for some of the photos above. If you would like to use any of the photos in this or any of our posts please contact us first and link back to us.

Make mine a gin!

At The Teatime Treatery we love food, drink and travelling around exploring so we’ve decided to share some of our adventures with you, right here, on our blog and news page. Being local to Cambridge we’ll often be found exploring the local area but we’ll also be sharing adventures from wherever the mood takes us.

Most recently our adventures took us to a new restaurant in Cambridge, The Pint Shop. We heard rumblings of their opening on Twitter and with the tagline, ‘Meat. Bread. Beer’, we were immediately intrigued. A quick visit to the website let us peek into their sample menu and gave an insight into their vision, “Pint Shop is all about creating a special place to hang out, eat, drink and chat. A place for people to share good times, be merry and have a blast”. So, how are they doing…?

My husband and I have been lucky enough to travel all over the world (maybe we’ll get to our 8 month honeymoon on here some day) and he loves trying a new beer, mostly pale ales and craft beers from independent breweries so this seemed like a winning venue. Having said that he will, of course, drink most beer you place in front of him.  We popped in on Saturday for a light bite and a drink(s). It’s easy to find being located near the Corn Exchange and opposite a lovely material shop that I love to browse in.

On entering we quickly found the bar, always a good start, and, perhaps more importantly, the toilets were well sign posted. The atmosphere was relaxed and the bar staff friendly. Our friends had a table so our first job was to take in the beer menu, chalked up on the wall with details of brewery, style, region and alcohol by volume.  There is plenty of choice and something for everyone, we could happily have stayed to work our way through the menu. We started with the Mariana Trench from Weird Beard and a Citra from Kernal Brewery. Needless to say they went down all too quickly and we were soon hankering for another drink and food. Unfortunately we seemed to be, either too early or too late for scotch eggs but all the bar snacks looked fab and we got a sausage roll and a beetroot and goats cheese cob. You can tell they care about ingredients since even the beetroot tasted like no ordinary beetroot. I can only imagine the rest of their food is just as good and will back to find out, just, you know…to be sure. If beer isn’t your thing, never fear, they have an incredible selection of gins too, 40 I think. We enjoyed some delicious sloe gin, refreshing and fruity, and all our gin drinks came garnished with a juniper berry.

I had a little venture around the building, which is actually an old bank, and it was surprisingly spacious. If you, like me, find the state of toilets at dining establishments to be of high priority then you will not be disappointed at Pint Shop. They were clean, stylish and I liked the old style lighting, lets hope they stay this way. The picture I missed on my way in to the toilets was unmissable on the way out, the flash of pink put a smile on my face and you’ll just have to visit to see it for yourself, ladies that is, no idea what goes on in the gents.

So, overall our visit was far too short, we had a great time and look forward to popping in to try more great food, beer and gin! Our advice, pop in for merriment and good times, and if you’re looking for a special and slightly different take on Christmas menus check theirs out and see if you can get a booking.

Fore more info visit their website Pint Shop or follow them on Twitter @PintShop