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As a counterpoint to this: https://singletrackmag.com/forum/topic/disappointing-artisanal-products/ what products or producers are worth spending a little more on?
My favourites at the moment are:
- Laynes coffee in Leeds
- Whittakers gin is incredible
- Saltaire and Ilkley beers (though now they've hit Tesco and Asda can you still call them artisan?!)
- Apple juice and cider from Whin Hill Norfolk cider
- Fudge from that shop at the top of the Shambles in York
- Bread from the Craven bakery in Skipton
Chilli sauces from Wiltshire Chilli Farm are great. Half a teaspoon of this https://www.justchillies.co.uk/product/chipotle-chilli-sauce/ is always welcome in a sausage casserole.
+1 for Laynes
Also in Leeds:
https://www.northbrewing.com
https://www.fikanorth.co.uk
Other places
https://www.thecourtyarddairy.co.uk
https://www.higginsonsofgrange.co.uk
Kaf in Glasgow
Pies from my local pie-monger.
Wigan and pies? It will never catch on.
My local butchers pies.
.
Most whisky I drink counts as fairly small volume, whether that is artisanal is debatable...
.
Pump Street Bakery in Orford, Suffolk. It is fantastic, Everything I've tried there has been top quality and nothing has come close of the many bakeries I've purchased from.
This stuff is amazing - stumbled across a little hut selling cheese and stuff in Amble when we were in Northumberland last summer.
https://www.northumbrianpantry.com/product/northumbrian-redonion-relish/
The Forge Bakehouse in Sheffield for bread and pastries.
Watsons Farm Shop in Hope (particularly the breakfast slices…)
The cakes from Jolly’s coffee wagon at Curbar Gap.
This guy
A trip to Doncaster market if you're close or passing. Fantastic butchers, bread, veg, cheese, fish. Miles better quality than regular supermarket stuff.
Love Watsons in Hope!
Continuing the Leeds theme, this guy's Earl Grey is lovely: https://www.cafe-tea-aire.co.uk/
Almasty beers from Newcastle.
Cheese from https://westcombedairy.com/
My home made bread, not for sale soz, but these guys do a nice loaf: https://landracebakery.com/
Fudge from that shop at the top of the Shambles in York
Is that the stuff that is really really soft ? The fam' brought me back some a few years back from a trip. Very nice i must say but rather sticky for fudge.
Manchester:
Mancoco coffee
Pollen bakery - sourdough/cakes etc
Cloudwater - beer
Track - beer
Cant beat a Percy Turner pork pie, first thing in a morning when they are still hot
https://turnersbutchers.business.site/
Hooray's in Stratford does amazing Gelato https://www.hooraysgelato.com/
My wife loves the coffee from here: https://monsoonestates.co.uk/
Orford bakery, OK will 100% accept that for sure. But not the chocolate shop, if it is still there. Daughter went in with a tenner, came out very disappointed with one tiny bar. And we are, sadly, from London.
Blue Monday by Alex James is the finest cheese I've ever tasted. Not sure if its artisinal though, or just made [s]by[/s] for a rich tory in small quantities and priced accordingly.
Campervan Coffee Roasters in Weston https://campervancoffeeco.co.uk
Fabio's Gelato in Letchworth / Hitchin https://www.fabgelato.com/letchworth
Both two incredible local suppliers to North Herts should you ever visit!
I'll never look back now from proper, local, well roasted coffee. And well made local/walkable Gelato is a right treat....
That's about it for me I'm not very fancy!
...However I have bookmarked a cheese place off that other thread. Mmmmmm!
Cambridge based:
Jack's gelato - possibly the best thing on the face of the earth.
Steak & Honour burgers - described by my boss as 'hipster sh**e'. However, I've never had a bad meal from them, lovely every time.
Maison Clement - bakery that can do no wrong in my eyes.
Coffee is something we struggle with, the apparent 'favoured' shop local is crap in my experience - Bould brothers, meh!
Frozen sausages.
any type.
Manchester:
Mancoco coffee
Pollen bakery – sourdough/cakes etc
Cloudwater – beer
Track – beer
You forgot ABC too...
Local: Anything from Roger's Bakery, Marsden... mmmmm
https://www.rogersbakery.com/
@muddyground yes the Pump Street chocolate is expensive (very expensive) I have tried some to see how it can be so expensive and did enjoy it but it's definitely a chocolate to eat slowly and allow go melt in your mouth, no chewing! I guess it's like the chocolate version of expensive coffee.
I'd agree with ManCoCo coffee and Jack's gelato.
Another one for ice cream, Troytown Farm on the Isles of Scilly, it's really very good but I've never seen it on the mainland.
Sussex Charmer cheese. Also anything from the Nettlebed Creamery or Blue Tin Farmshop back home.
Edgcumbes Coffee, Arundel Brewery mmmm i'm now hungry and thirsty!
For bread in Oxford, Hamblin are excellent: https://hamblinbread.co.uk/
For beer anywhere, Verdant: https://verdantbrewing.co/
Almasty beers from Newcastle.
Second this, though we're spoilt for excellent breweries round here. Two By Two in Wallsend and Full Circle (who although new-ish are quite a sizeable operation - still think they count as artisanal though, having talked to one of the brewers) have been impressing recently.
Some genuinely top notch bakeries/patisseries too: Northern Rye, Kennedy & Rhind, Pink Lane.
Whilst there are quite a few roasteries locally, Heart and Graft in Manchester are my go-to and have been for the last two years now.
With good beer, bread, and coffee, you can get through anything.
Caffè Portico Lincoln. Just try their full English one day.
Since I posted about Cheese in the other thread...I.J.Mellis has a fine,fine selection of cheese. .,
Pump Street Bakery in Orford, Suffolk
Pinney's Smokehouse around the corner also recommended (not the bacon though as it's a major disappointment, too thinly sliced and full of water).
Sounds like Newcastle has changes since the days of choosing between the cheap or expensive options (Skol or Stella) in the Jazz cafe 😀
This is great - it's basically a foodie's guide to the UK (well, England so far!) Any recommendations in Scotland? I've heard there's a great veggie haggis place in Edinburgh.
starling cycles make great bikes
.
Newcastle has a really good 'foodie' (hate that word!) scene these days.
Check out Northern Rye on Instagram
Also anything from the Nettlebed Creamery
I grew up in Sonning Common and folks still live there...... and never knew this existed. A trip is planned.
Almasty beers from Newcastle.
Thirded. Bloody lovely stuff. 🍺
Pollen Bakery in Manchester is amazing.
Dear Green Coffee, Glasgow
Completely fantastic breads in Northumberland:
https://www.breadandroses.co.uk/
Thains pies - Aberdeen
There's a fella makes artisanal, fairly trade-countered, veganuary, non-binatone furniture.
Name escapes me though.. 🤔
The Forge Bakehouse in Sheffield for bread and pastries.
The Forge Bakehouse was the exception in my original thread on this! Portuguese Custard Tarts = 🤌
Edit: I apparently forgot to provide a counter-example in my original thread. So thank you for highlighting!
[i]There’s a fella makes artisanal, fairly trade-countered, veganuary, non-binatone furniture.[/i]
Yeah, I remember him. His work inspired that artist in the South to o out onto the streets and sell his work. Is there anything more artisanal than a street pedlar?
Note the carbon fork and Rockstar racing wheel on the cart
Manchester:
Mancoco coffee
Best thing I did when lock down started was set up a monthly delivery from mancoco.
Campanio bakery in Manchester is excellent. Their cardamon buns are sublime.
At the less hipster end of the scale I also like crust bakery in rossendale. Quality sourdough.
Re the Nettlebed Creamery. Good mix of riding and coffee spots around there now. Theres also a nice new cafe at what used to be the The Crown at Nuffield (by the golf course / cheeky ridgeway start) - Top notch cake.
The village shop in Stoke Row has upped its game hugely as well - good coffee and toasties for a mid ride stop.
me mams been telling me about new Chorizo sausages being sold my Blue Tin for when i'm up next. They also do amazing bacon and sometimes mutton joints.
Can we start posting links to gpx routes with these cafes included?
Thats a bit sophisticated for me i'm afraid but will see if I can figure something out.
ElShalimo
Full Member
Can we start posting links to gpx routes with these cafes included?
Or link them together in a grand tour 😀
Not a product as such but Jodrell Bank cafe is nice. I think it's popular with local road cyclists.
Edit: Lord of the Pies in Stockport gets good reviews too.
If this was the 1930s the word ‘artisanal’ would be unnecessary (and I think it is unnecessary)
It would be just ‘Mrs Bees pies’, or ‘John the butcher’s bacon’, or ‘so and so’s best bitter’.
In fact even Cadbury’s or Terry’s chocolate was probably very good back then.
(TLDR version: it’s all pretty much bolx)
I count my self lucky as a child to have been around family members who grew up in the 1930s and were still buying and using stuff from local families/grocers/companies and traditions before taste and quality began being sold off/merged etc. in short - before supermarkets.
Nowadays it just seems that ‘artisanal’is a catch-all word for ‘not mass-produced shite’ (yet can still be shite as it’s just a gravy-train term for attractively-packaged small-batch goods, not necessarily championed for their quality or flavour - but for being nicely packaged and ‘artisanal’)
It’s a minefield.
My anecdote:
The last good bacon I ate regularly was in the mid/late 1970s (come from a big baconite family). We just bought it from local shop, sliced at the counter.
Over the decades since I pretty much gave up on decent quality bacon. However, around 2016 IIRC I stayed near a small village in Shropshire. There was a village butcher. I noticed how sparse it was. Thought was closed, one day went to get milk and croissant from the Spar and saw the butcher opening shop. I asked if he had bacon. He identified a cold slab with a joint, I nodded and he put it on the slicing machine. Cut to my liking (med/thick). Again, just like old days. I ordered three slices. It was £2 something. The shop was just basically empty of signage, no lights, no rows of packets, no anything really. No, not even plastic parsley. I may as well have have time-travelled to a village butchers 1916 for all I could discern.
Anyhoo, I took the rashers to the nearby holiday residence and cooked them gently in a frying pan. The fat rendered down perfectly, clear like water. The meat cooked in it’s own fat. The scent transporting me back to the 1970s as a child. I could hardly believe it. This bacon was the bacon of all bacon. I dipped thick bread slices in it. The flavour was out of this world. Unsmoked. Not too salty.
Just an amazing taste of a rich, traditional bacon. Decent caramelisation, newr-crisp rind and clear, thin, hot fat. Incredible.
Why incredible? Because this was everyday quality back in my childhood, when we’d get it from the local (tiny) corner shop owner who also kept a small meat counter. It was just ‘bacon’.
FFWD to a few months ago, I passed through a local farmer’s market and spied me a well-patronised ‘artisanal’ farm butchers selling bacon and sausage. I gave in and ordered about 5-6 (IIRC) rashers which cost me £6 and change. Much was made via signage and how the pigs were rare-breed, carefully cured etc etc. I looked forward to cooking it hoping it would render and taste similarly (or even better) than the unannounced, modest old-school butcher in the Shropshire village. You’d think so, paying 30% more?
Anyway this stuff refused to render down and the rind remained chewy, while the bacon tasted overly-smoky and just as tasteless, salty and a bit weird/vomity back-taste, just as the Waitrose etc most expensive offerings. Supermarket bacon is like a different meat altogether to the real deal. And so was this ‘artisan’. In fact it was maybe less enjoyable even than the cheaper shite.
My dreams must now remain in the 1970s as the Shrophire village butchers has since closed. Goodbye old days. Fartisanal prattle will not be believed. I’m actually now glad that pigs won’t suffer for me, as the last temptation has closed shop. I enjoy though that it was an authentic find. Just someone serving tasty food minus buntings, backstories, and fanfares. Supermarkets and car-culture put these people out of business.
Whoever put the ‘artis’ in artisanal was having a laugh. Yech. Harumph. Etc.
You’ve/we’ve all been had since.
(Conveniently forgot that I bought some ‘handcrafted’ (it really is) goat’s milk soap last week from a local honesty shop, and Mrs P says it’s amazing/best soap she’s tried! As a sometimes oldskool self-conscious male I pretended not to notice the quality of soaps. But it really is very good soap 😉)
To wrap up this very very long rambling rant, and in a nutshell:
I love supporting hand-made, small-concern and ethical goods
I love quality, hardwearing, tasty etc.
I (on the whole) despise supermarkets and mass-produced shite with attendant gluttony/greed/environmental destruction/packaging
I bemoan the fact that what often used to be everyday quality is now relegated to ‘luxury’ ‘artisanal’ products which often don’t even reach the standards of what used to be ‘everyday’, and even if they did are nonetheless now reserved for the lucky rich few or those of us who chance upon a rare find and enjoy a ‘luxury’ once every 5 years or so.
‘It's not Terry’s, it’s soft vegetable oils and sugar’
‘It may be ‘rare breed’, but whatever you did to it makes it taste like chewy puke’ [/spoiler]
The best cake is still to be found at the church hall or village fete for a pound a slice, not at the artisanal arseholery for a fiver.
*edit 😳 soz 4 massivrant
....parklife
TL;dr - I bought some bacon once and was disappointed by it
I think the slightly sad part of this is that what we get marketed as artisan etc. in the UK was just what was considered normal in much of Europe for decades, and probably still is. Because we've traditionally had a fairly shit food culture we act like decent bread and coffee is some incredible revolutionary thing.
In France you get local bakers producing fantastic patisserie and baguettes etc and it's not held up as bring anything special or trendy or particularly expensive. It's just a bakers which is good because people wouldn't put up with a shit one. I have heard this is changing/dying off a bit in some places in France though.
Any cheeses from The Courtyard Dairy. I was given a three-month three cheeses/month tasting for a Birthday present. They did not disappoint.
https://www.thecourtyarddairy.co.uk
Since Baxters bought and subsequently ruined Garners (formerly half-decent Pickled Onions/Shallots), I was for years out of options for even half-decent traditional pickled onions. Then recent good fortune found me a village shop in Herefs which sells many large jars of some local lady’s pickled onions and shallots.
They're very often as good as those my father made. That is to say they are most often (not always, such is the nature) beautifully crunchy, dark at the stem, outer skin often speckled with beautifully flourescent quercetin. The pickling vinegar is good, not too harsh, and has taken on the strong the taste of onion. Also no fancy flotsam and jetsam.
The labels are plain white and written in biro, and a big jar is less than £3. Does this disqualify from being ‘artisanal’ for purpose of thread, or is the correct definition acceptable 😉
If this was the 1930s the word ‘artisanal’ would be unnecessary (and I think it is unnecessary)
Tee hee P7eaven - i grew up in rural Lincolnshire, where all that was still pretty much standard. Even in the early 2000s i got handmade butter wrapped in greaseproof paper from the 'providore' pork and poultry from separate butchers, proper bread, etc, etc. Moving south was horrific. I remember spending an entire morning driving around Berkshire looking for a decent butcher ... there was nothing.
Nowadays I can't get the same quality meat, but it's matched by all the locally grown bananas, pineapples, lychees, macadamias, salad, tomatoes, avo's, strawberries.
That's brilliant P7eaven - I had no idea the humble pickled onion could generate so much passion! Definitely on the list 🙂
The cheese from The Courtyard Dairy is wonderful. I've been lucky enough to have been given cheese gifts from there and all of the cheeses I've tried are amazing. They are from small producers across the country.
They do online cheese, or cheese & port, evenings too. I know of people doing that for their Xmas office party. The bloke who runs them is basically the cheese whisperer.
This is a belter from courtyard dairy:
https://www.thecourtyarddairy.co.uk/shop/buy-cheese/goats-sheep-cheese/sinodun-hill/
Another addition is Triangle Bakehouse in Ripponden
If you're up that way pop in for amazing sourdough, coffee, cardamom buns etc.
https://trianglebakehouse.co.uk/
Frazzles
Slowly taking over Cumbria the world, produced in my home village, and available at the amazing Torpenhow Cheese Shed:
https://torpenhoworganic.co.uk/
Sharrow Vale's Perfectionary bakery, the Beer House and the cheese shop not to be overlooked
Machester's Smithfield Market Tavern for ace beer and sublime organic pickled eggs, oh my word...
Fortaleza tequila - made the old fashioned way - too good to put in cocktails
Another addition is Triangle Bakehouse in Ripponden
Agree. I ride over for goodies when the early morning weather looks good.
Even better though... if you're ever in Newcastle... FAB Bakery... Fenham Hall Drive... same sort of idea... but a step up. No really. Hard to believe I know. So, so good.
Whether you’re bearded or clean shaven The Gentleman’s Face Care Club is ace.
https://gentlemansfacecareclub.com/
Further up the coast from Orford the Magpie Bakery exists. They also do good cake and bread. There are some outposts in Norfolk but we'll forgive them.
Passing through Great Bircham, stop at the deli for pork pie or sausage rolls. Time it right and they will be warm from the oven.
Byfords in Holt is recommended by one of our drivers for the cake as is Strattons in Swaffham (not always open due to min wage staffing issues).