Dobbies Garden World, Milngavie

We decided to combine morning coffee with a bit of plant shopping and headed out to the countryside between Milngavie and Bearsden. This Centre is part of a chain but has a much nicer layout than most other Dobbies Centres with a vast area for plants, gifts and a large cafe and children's play area. They were in the process of moving out the summer garden furniture and setting up the Xmas shop which I love! Although maybe just a little too early!
FOOD
They have the most amazing cinnamon and apple scones - our personal favourite but the wholewheat, fruit, cheese etc are all great too. Be a devil and have one with cream and jam and I dare you not to lust after the enormous meringues! Baking is excellent lots of tray bakes, sponges, muffins, biscuits as well as the usual hot meals, homemade soups,salads, sandwiches etc They do a very nice Festive menu too.
Tetley tea, Speciality teas C. Violet loves the 15 Minutes Organic Peppermint and Liquorice -Ugh!, Fresh Juice.
AMENITIES
Large selection of gifts, cards, toys, gardening tools, indoor and outdoor plants, garden furniture in summer and Xmas shop from September on, Aquatics centre, water features
Food Hall has the best deli selection outside the West End, John Brown Buchlyvie traditional butchers - quality meat try the haggis. Great selection of local produce, cheese counter, fresh fruit + veg, frozen foods, cakes and scones, wine. Great for foodie gifts.
Huge car park, flat and level, easy access for wheelchairs and buggies. Gets very busy at weekends. Across the car park there is a country style chain pub -The Tickled Trout, Eqi-Store selling riding equipment, Kaleidoscope- quilt + patchwork materials and PD Stokes Landscapes.
SERVICE
Was good, although not always easy to find a clean table.
VERDICT
Good atmosphere, great scones, nice place to spend a morning , worth the trip, esp nice at Xmas with Santa for the children.

The Oakwood Eatery Killearn Stirlingshire

Had a trip yesterday to the Oakwood Garden Centre near Killearn Village, a short drive from Glasgow. This has been around for a few years now and is very popular for lunch and coffee. We know this as we had to queue for 10 minutes for a table! It is definately a cut above the usual garden centre cafes.
LOCATION
The most amazing views of the Campsies and a bright and spacious area within the garden centre but the window tables are always the first to go. However, if you phone first thing in the morning you can book one! Will remember to do that next time!
FOOD
We had a selection of teas, Tetley, Twinings Speciality and Thomson's Coffee, all very nice. Scones were good but a bit crispy on the outside. The rest of the baking looked lovely, lots of sponge cakes, Coffee, Chocolate and Victoria and Empire Biscuits, Caramel Shortcake, fruit scones and tray bakes. Will try on next visit.
Lunch looked so good we decided to indulge. There was a choice of three soups, Ploughman's platter, fab sandwiches and a selection of hot dishes.
AMENITIES
Light and spacious with easy access for buggies or wheelchairs. Toilets were very designer, clean and modern. Easy car parking outside the garden centre. The centre itself had a good selection of gifts, cards, gardening tools and plants. The village of Killearn is 5 minutes drive away with a good gallery, gift shops an excellent pharmacist and other local shops. Well worth a walk around. Whisky tours available at Glengoyne Distillery nearby and some nice walks.
SERVICE
Staff were helpful and polite.
VERDICT
Great place for tea or lunch. Really outstanding views and well worth a drive to find it.

Cherry Tart

Beanscene Cresswell Lane Glasgow

ATMOSPHERE
Popped into Beanscene Saturday lunchtime. Lively trendy west end coffee shop with a cosy but noisy atmosphere. Large comfy sofas and well spaced out tables. Very busy and mix of music to appeal to younger customers. Full of students, teenagers, young mums with babies and small children as well as a few professionals.
LOCATION
Great position in heart of west end. Quaint quiet cobbled lane behind Byres Road. Near loads of gift shops, charity and junk shops and lots of nice cafes and restaurants. Kelvingrove Museum and Art Galleries, Transport Museum and Huntarian Museum nearby. Botanic Gardens handy to walk off the scones after!
FOOD
Blackboard menu with specials. Lunch menu with large portions obviously catering for the large local student population. A good selection of antipasti, nachos chilli, pizza, crepes and veggie options. We had tea and scones which were a bit dry and not up to our usual exacting standards. Muffins and pastries looked much nicer and I wished I'd had them. (Toffee Apple Muffins looked amazing and Blueberry looked pretty good too) Fairtrade products, teas and a good range of coffees and hot chocolate. Large range of milkshakes and iced drinks looked tempting on a hot day.
AMENITIES
Toilet facilities were not quite up to the volume of customers passing through but I might have hit a bad day. Self service but staff did bring over drinks. Staff were young, friendly and helpful. Loads of papers to read and lots of whats-on leaflets.
VERDICT
Not my scene but ok for lunch with a hungry student son or a quick cuppa.
Cherry Tart


Beanscene
DE Courcy's Arcade
5-21 Cresswell Lane
Off Byres Road
Glasgow G12

Scone Secrets

Decided to share my scone making secrets with you! I adore (as does C. Violet) treacle scones and can say without too much boasting that mine are very, very good! Here are the basic rules - never roll out scone dough - use your hands but handle as little as possible. Keep the mix very moist, better to add more flour at the rolling out stage if it's too liquidy. Use the biggest cutter you've got - who wants tiny scones for goodness sake!! Have them for lunch if you're dieting then you don't feel at all guilty!
Treacle scones
Pre-heat oven 220 oC/ 425 oF, grease baking trays.
8oz(225g) self-raising flour, 2oz(50g) butter, 1 oz(25g) caster sugar, 1/2 teasp cinnamon, 2 tablesp treacle, pinch salt, 1/4 (150ml) milk. Sift flour & salt into very big bowl, rub in butter , mix in sugar, cinnamon, treacle and enough milk for a soft dough (bit like making mud pies). Knead till moist and elastic. Pat out with fingers. Use biggest cutter you have. Pop onto greased baking tray, brush with milk . Bake for 15-20 mins. Watch them closely and take out when golden brown. Serve with butter although I prefer any red jam! Enjoy!
Cherry Tart

Worst bloggers in the world!

Both now back from long holidays in Portugal having abandoned blogging in favour of eating Pastel Da Natas and lying in the sun. Tough choices had to be made, blogging about tearooms or relaxing and eating and drinking. No contest!!!
Back to business with a long list of tearooms signed up waiting for their reviews to appear. Well we ate the cakes didn't we!!
Starting with Cafe Review, in Milngavie, East Dunbartonshire. This was recommended to us by lots of ladies who lunch and on the day we visited to review we had a great cup of tea.
Tucked away at the back of Milngavie bookshop, this is small and cosy and has the added benefit of being surrounded by books. There is a small patio out the back for nice days if the sun ever shines again.
We had tea and some of the delicious teabread (coconut, banana or gingerbread) and a freshly made scone. The scone was not the best we have ever tasted (too small and dry) but the banana loaf was moist and yummy. The gingerbread looked very good as a second choice. We didn't visit at lunch time but preparations for lunch looked very promising. Homemade soup changes daily, salads looked fresh and innovative. Feta cheese and cherry tomato, couscous with pine nuts and a selection of sandwiches and toasties all looked fresh and tasty.
Access for wheelchair users would be possible and there was a table of young mums with small children in pushchairs.
Service was outstanding and many people have mentioned this as a positive. Although it is counter service the casual and friendly atmosphere made us feel reassured that less physically able customers would be well supported. Obviously the cafe was full of regular customers but the staff were friendly and attentive to everyone.
We thought that this great little cafe had lots of bonus points because of its location in a shopping centre. The bookshop is excellent and there is a great selection of cards and unusual stationery.
This area is the gateway to the West Highland Way and would be a good place to stock up on a few calories before the walk. The shopping centre includes a small Marks and Spencers, several chemists, Mackays, loads of excellent charity shops, a seriously good handbag shop and a great old fashioned department store as well all the usual gift shops.
Verdict Great place to go for lunch and worth trying for tea and cakes but get the scones sorted out, ladies!
Address: Cafe Review, Milngavie Bookshop,37 Douglas Street, Milngavie Glasgow G62

Pottery or Porcelain?

Being really busy at work is not really conducive to being a blogger but having morning coffee with friends yesterday made me think about it again. We had excellent tea and coffee with beautiful light home made scones and jam and enjoyed it so much we even had a second round. I love this coffee shop and the gift shop beside it is full of lovely things. (My second cuppa actually was peppermint, made with whole dried mint leaves and it was delicious if you love peppermint tea and its calming effect on the digestion.)
We had so much discussion on whether we like to drink our tea and coffee from a fine china cup or a big pottery mug that we began to wonder if we were getting old...But for those of us who are really picky about taste, we decided that a fine china cup is really essential!
Lots of coffee shops are now getting involved in this blog but all are so protective of their very special businesses that pictures have to be perfect, reviews have to be on just the right day and well, I understand all that. When you put a lot of work into something really special it is only understandable to want to see it presented at its best. So watch this space. Things can only get busier.
Crystallized Violet

Doyle's Cafe and Deli

Good Monday morning so far! Nipped out for some bin bags and ended up buying lunch to go from my local cafe and deli.(Cupboards are very bare in my house, no time to shop!) Came home and immediately ate the Paradise Slice with my morning coffee sitting in the garden. There are no words.....well, plenty obviously, but it was a fine piece of cake, Cherry Tart, sorry you weren't here!. Moist and juicy and full of cherries and such like with sugar on top. The cafe is delightful and service impeccable. Exactly the kind of place Cherry Tart and I are tracking down so relentlessly. More on this to come but if I tell you that their lemon drizzle cake and chocolate rum cake are also divine and at Christmas time they sold the best truffles I have ever tasted....Well worth a review I think. One of my personal best in Scotland and in a gorgeous rural setting. More on this to come and watch out for pictures. Sometimes I think I have the best job in the world....

Crystallized Violet

Cherry Tart in Sagres

Still blogging from sunny shores in Portugal. Don't you just hate it? We took a local EVA bus with friends to Pousada Da Infanta and I had my favourite coffee of all-um gallao. A clifftop setting, land's end views and a long milky coffee-perfect! Let us know your favourite tea and coffee shops at home or abroad.
Off for another of those pastel da natas.....
Cherry Tart

Story from Darling Daughter

I like this story. It made a lot of sense to me.

The Mayonnaise Jar and 2 Cups of Coffee

When things in your life seem almost too much to handle, when 24 hours in a day are not enough, remember the mayonnaise jar and the 2 cups of coffee.
A professor stood before his philosophy class and had some items in front of him. When the class began he wordlessly picked up a very large and empty mayonnaise jar and proceeded to fill it with golf balls. He then asked the students if the jar was full. They agreed that it was.
The professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into the jar. He shook the jar lightly. The pebbles rolled into the open areas between the golf balls. He then asked the students again if the jar was full. They agreed that it was. The professor next picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar. Of course, the sand filled up everything else. He asked once more if the jar was full. The students responded with an unanimous "yes". The professor then produced two cups of coffee from under the table and poured the entire contents into the jar effectively filling the empty space between the sand. The students laughed.
"Now" said the professor as the laughter subsided "I want you to recognize that this jar represents your life. The golf balls are the important things-your family, your children, your health, your friends and your favourite passions-and if everything else was lost and only they remained, your life would be full. The pebbles are the other things that matter like your job, your house and your car. The sand is everything else-the small stuff. If you put the sand into the jar first" he continued, "there is no room for the pebbles or the golf balls."
"The same goes for life. If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff you will never have room for the things that are important to you. Pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness, spend time with your children, spend time with your parents, visit with grandparents, take time to get medical checks, take your other half out to dinner, play another 18 holes. There will always be time to clean the house and fix the drains. Take care of the golf balls first-the things that really matter. Set your priorities. The rest is just sand.
One of the students raised her hand and enquired what the coffee represented. The professor smiled and said "I'm glad you asked. The coffee just shows you that no matter how full your life may seem there's always room for a couple of cups of coffee with a friend."

Pastel de Natas-every day!

Blogging from very sunny shores, Portugal to be exact. Scones are in very short supply out here so, strictly for business purposes, I've taken to comparing the delights of pastel de natas(custard tarts).. Sheer joy-wish you could share the taste sensation with a cup of lovely coffee.

Cafes here are full of women chatting and eating pastries and drinking cha(tea). Feels very like home but warmer of course.
Adeus
Cherry Tart

The Cocoa Tree Shop and more..

Today is the day we are finally online and people who find us can send messages, tell us all their morning coffee and afternoon tea chat, share recipes and view gorgeous china in our Cup of The Week slot. We also want ideas about new coffee shops to try. All very exciting! Our aim is to ultimately find the top 100 tea and coffee shops in Scotland and as self-styled experts in all things related to life in tea shops, Cherry Tart and I have had plenty of experience of sitting drinking tea and coffee and sorting out our lives. (You never do that over lunch or dinner do you? Why is that?) We are also very picky. A lovely cup of steaming coffee and a fabulous scone with cream and jam can be spoilt by grumpy staff or a grubby table. All coffee shops should have a Critical Friend visit once a month. What is it in Scotland that we find difficult about staff training and smiling at customers! Enough moaning... My Critical Friend, otherwise known as Darling Daughter, thinks I spend too much time chatting and not enough time reviewing so..

I chatted this morning with Sophie from The Cocoa Tree Shop in Pittenweem, a fabulous place which we hope will become one of our top 100. Anyone going for a day out to the East Neuk will not find a better place to sit and drink coffee, tea or amazing hot chocolate. The White Chocolate with cinnamon is just sensational and just the job after a long hike along the coastal path. Like so many really great coffee shops it is also quirky and interesting and full of personality. More on this later but thank you, Sophie, you gave me lots to think about.

So now to work, a day lined up visiting coffee shops with Cherry Tart and working out our review process. All fascinating stuff and makes my hassles with uploading (or is it downloading ?) pictures seem worth it. Now I can do it I can't stop doing it so as no one has sent me a special tea cup I will have to use one of my own.

Crystallized Violet

My gorgeous azalea

How about this? My first photograph! And lets face it, it really is gorgeous. Still not a tea shop in sight but, oh well, getting there. Baby steps!

A Gingerbread Moment

My daughter texted this morning to ask, rather unhelpfully, if there were ever going to be any tea or coffee shops on our blog as promised. Fair point made, I think. The answer is yes but it is all rather more complex than Cherry Tart and I initially imagined. Several fabulous tea and coffee shops are signed up to appear on our blog and be reviewed by us but we have had a few technical off- days. Sunny weather has had a wee bit to do with our problems as well, as, being Scottish, we absolutely have to stay outdoors for every last hour of daylight when the sun is shining like this weekend. Obviously our blog is not live yet and no one is too keen to appear on it until we are more fully up and running. To anyone looking for a cup of coffee, please come and look again, we will get there.

In the meantime, we really are working hard in the background. By way of an apology, I am giving all of you out there my recipe for the best gingerbread in the world. I can take no credit as it is adapted from a recipe from Rachel Allan, one of my favourite chefs on t.v. Rachel, if you ever read this and I am breaching some legal ruling in sharing this, I am your biggest fan, please don't sue me! This, and hundreds of other treats, is from Rachel's Favourite Food for Friends. My copy is sticky with use.

This is sticky and golden and all things gingerbread should be. You need:3 oz butter, 5oz golden syrup(maybe half treacle if you like it and I do!), 8oz marmalade(half a 1lb jar and ginger marmalade works a treat) 8oz sr flour, 4tsp ground ginger, 2tsp ground cinnamon, 1 beaten egg and 2 tabsp milk.

Assembling all these ingredients is the hardest part as the rest is a dawdle. Butter and line an 8in cake tin and put on oven at 170degrees (fan 150). Melt butter, syrup and marmalade on a medium heat and stir. Cool for a few minutes. Add beaten egg and milk and pour all this into the dry ingredients, folding to mix. Bake for 40-50minutes until a skewer comes out clean. Eat when still warm with a lovely cup of tea at your side and I promise you it will be a golden moment.( I think the ginger marmalade just gives mine a wee edge, Rachel. It was that A in what we call in Scotland, Home Eccy, that just tipped mine over into perfection. I've seen your pictures in the books and your house is definitely much nicer than mine so don't feel bad...)
Crystallized Violet

Tomorrow is Another Day

Just when you think you have really cracked things, life goes pear-shaped once again! After my proud boast of yesterday to deliver a scone picture...Need I go on? Someone, somewhere has my scone picture but it is certainly not on our blog where it belongs. How can I confess this to Cherry Tart? Will any tea room ever trust me again to deliver a review complete with pictures? Am now business failure.


To make things worse I decided to cover up my incompetence with a plateful of my own scones, well risen with much baking powder, on a very pretty plate(Oxfam circa last week). After much artistic agonising about whether the gorgeous pale blue plate looked better with rosy pink or pale purple napkins and whether I should take a photo in front of my new butterfly lavender or a jug of lovely cream roses, I remembered that I am now a trusted tea and coffee shop reviewer and should know better than to be so duplicitous.


I now feel incompetent but amazingly virtuous. Fat, obviously, after eating several scones, but resorting to Scarlett O'Hara mode, tomorrow really is another day.

Crystallized Violet

Oh yes, I'm a blogger..

I feel really cheerful that I am now a blogger when a few weeks ago I didn't even know what blogging was. How very rewarding! If I can become a jobbing blogger at 55 what other possibilities could there be out there?

A key part of reviewing coffee and tea shops for the good of the nation is that you have to actuallly post them on your blog. The reviewing is the easy part. This has been a very steep learning curve for me and I urgently want a fanatical IT person to be my New Best Friend. For example, how could I know that your most recent blog automatically appears at the top of the page? It's not at all obvious to me.(Thanks for sharing that Cherry Tart!) And, oh the stress of not knowing if your blog has posted or vanished off into internet infinity...

A whole world of new worries has opened up which makes me think I have now made an interesting new career choice. What could I have been thinking? Did I really think along the lines of Hmm what am I really rubbish at that I can turn into a business? I know, using any form of technology for longer than 5 minutes. That'll do it! It gives learning on the job a whole new meaning.

Re the scone debate, my neighbour protests that proper scones do not, ever, contain Mars Bars and the like. Try telling that to the Dublin Coffee Shop Set who devour many scones daily full of lumps of rhubarb, pears and all sorts much more exotic than a few bits of chocolate. But I take the point. We are tracking down real quality without too may frills.

Tomorrow, one of my favourite coffee shops, located just outside the picturesque village of Fintry in Stirlingshire, is sending me a picture of their scones in advance of their review. Now I have a whole new quandry. How can I get a photo up on this blog when I can hardly post a few words? There will be tears before bedtime and possibly something slightly stronger than tea will be required....

Crystallized Violet

Tea People

I always divide people into two types - tea and coffee. Crystallized Violet and I are tea people - Tea Jennies. I remember visiting some ex-pats and calling one of their children "a real wee Tea Jenny". She was delighted with the word and spent the rest of the day hooting with laughter every time she repeated it. I feel the same - It's a lovely warm word. Tea's such a personal thing - my new favourite is Yorkshire but I keep returning to one of my old favourites Scottish Blend which has stood the test of time and my many fads. What's your favourite and do you have a different one for each season? Do you favour real tea or teabags? - for me real tea is only for special occasions and only if I can find my little house tea strainer!! But I have to admit - I'm a teabag girl - Crystallized Violet goes to a bit more trouble!! I do love my teeny, tiny teapot though - it makes 2 cups - cos I always think one is just not enough especially in the morning, two is the magic number !
What is your favourite tearoom time? I love 10.30, 1pm and 3.30 - all different atmospheres and with different types of people too!! I think that makes me just plain greedy!

Must sign off now, have been so busy typing hadn't noticed it's suddenly got very cold.
I'm frozen and need a cuppa to heat up. Now what will it be?

Take Care
Cherry Tart

What Makes a Good Scottish Scone?

First of all, it has to be home made! Sounds obvious but doesn't always happen. Secondly, if is is home made, it is not an excuse for a really bad scone which is more like an over cooked rock bun. Additions of raisins, cherries, chocolate, apple, spices, mars bars, treacle (yummy, my favourite) cheese or wholemeal flour are all very welcome but the scone must be light and preferably quite large(according to Cherry Tart!) and served with proper butter and home made red jam. So there! Paler imitations simply will not do. Where do you find these amazing scones? Apart from at my sister's house, not very many places! We have experienced some very poor examples but this website will hunt out the better ones for you. All you have to do is log on regularly and we will do the really hard work. Sitting in tea rooms, eating scones, chatting and looking at the gift shop next door...... What an exhausting drag! The things we have to do in the pursuit of excellence. We really are dedicated to the cause.

Scone recipes produce endless debate. I'm with the Goddess Delia on this but Cherry Tart favours her own Special Recipe from ye olde tatty recipe folder!! Delia, but with serious modifications of her own...
Mmmm just off to make some treacle scones(no not really, because life is too short and I have loads of work to do but it was a nice warming thought anyway.) Oh well, back to the real world.



Crystallized Violet

Join us in the wonderful world of morning coffee and afternoon tea!

Welcome to our blog!!
We just love going out for afternoon tea, don't you? In these troubled financial times it is a much better option than lunch or dinner. As two ladies who have been rehearsing this activity all our lives, we feel well qualified to help you to find some of Scotland's greatest tea and coffee shops. Join us in the wonderful world of coffee, tea and light shopping in between! We have a passion for tea rooms, scones and a good chat with friends. We are both busy people but selflessly we dedicate some time to planning the next outstanding tearoom experience. We are on the hunt for the Holy Grail of tearooms, the perfect cup of tea or coffee and fabulous home baking served with a smile! We have looked in vain for a site that gives us information on this in Scotland so have decided to do it ourselves!
Crystallized Violet and Cherry Tart