Davenports - a wonderland indeed

Davenports - Farm shop, Tea room, Florist.

Bridge Farm, Warrington Road, Bartington, Northwich, Cheshire CW8 4QU

Friends that live nearby have said that they have driven past this many a time, and thought about stopping. All I can say “they must”! Those that don't are missing on a charming family run establishment with a few surprises.

• Taylors, Atkinsons and Tregothnan are just some of specialist suppliers for the connoisseur tea and artisan coffee, of which there is great choice.
• Alice in wonderland theme as homage to Lewis Carol who was born a mile and a half away 
• Real bone china tea service, lace cloths, even a chess set, quirky decor. 
• Full afternoon tea (needs to be prebooked)

Belinda

Lovely personal service, backed up with Belinda Davenport's great knowledge of the tea and coffee is excellent, and she will help the undecided.

Today, she suggested the Kwazulu tea would be more to my liking , and she was right. Jane loved her Atkinsons's earl grey.

Katja's creations, they really have to be seen 

The farm shop - 

We drooled over the Katja's cakes, (they are utterly amazing), before meandering round  local produce delightfully displayed defying any New Year willpower you thought you had.

I couldn't resist a box of cinnamon, date, walnut & orange biscotti, and Jane bought a jar of the legendary Mrs Darlington's lemon curd!

Woke up this morning to 3 followers already - yay!


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"Coffee should be black as hell, strong as death and as sweet as love."Turkish proverb

January 6th

Its way past my bedtime, have I already got into the standard blogging bad habits?!?

More research and a few days later, I set up the easy option for a blog. I just couldn't face the thought of setting up my own domain and website, nor do I have the time this week. 

This Sunday, the first stop is  the Hollies Farm Shop in Stretton with Jane.

The week after, I'm meeting Jaci at Davenports in Acton Bridge.

Need to see if I can enlist a friendly person to help compile a list of places.

Coffee Days and Sundays

2011!

Another new year.......

January 1st 2011


At a party with friends, I arranged to meet Jane next week at a local farm shop with a coffee shop that she hadn't been to. That led to "Hey, why don't we meet at a different farm shop with a coffee shop each time?"  "great idea, we can do all the ones round here" "why don't we do the whole of Cheshire this year?"
That led to "do a blog, Ravi!"

Being a bit of a technophobe and a total novice to blogs was scary so I laughed off the idea.   But coffee I love, tea and coffee shops I love, food I love, meeting  friends at  individual venues with character rather than the samey chain coffee shops is something I already do.

Some quick research revealed that there is no existing guide to all the farm shops with tea shops or cafes around Cheshire; and there are several.
These are special places, each one has its own unique charm, unique decor, and unique menus. They vary from designer concept cafes to small homely rooms that resemble grandma's lounge. In fact the one down the road from me even has my grandma's china service!  They are run by wonderful personalities with stories to tell; people that enjoy what they do and really care about food and service, with home made cakes and biscuits lining the shelves. Many are organic, stocked with local produce that supports the local economy.

25 years ago, I came very close to buying a lease in Altrincham and setting up a coffee shop. It was going to be called "Lazy days and Sundays", which later got changed to "Coffee days and Sundays" so that it wouldn't just remind us all of the Carpenter's song!
For various reasons, I chose not to, and today, I still choose not to have my own coffee shop, yet the dream has still lived on inside me. So the blog had  a name already, how could I not do it?

I couldn't shake off this idea of writing about coffee shops, along with the challenge of visiting all the ones in Cheshire this year. I work more than full time with a lot of travel, am a single parent with a partner in Germany, the rest of my family are in other parts of the country. I spend a lot of time travelling so am not in Cheshire often enough to do coffee every weekend. However, a challenge is just that; after all, if I knew i could do it easily it wouldn't be a challenge now would it? So I took it up.

Here I go!