Bean and Bud

bbc-1We love Bean and Bud.  Without a visit to this coffee (and tea) shop, no visit to Harrogate is complete.  It’s a compact and friendly place, on a busy little street filled only with small independent and charity shops.

Bean and Bud sets the gold standard by which all cups of coffee should be judged. Choose between one of their two weekly featured beans – or something else if you prefer – and your coffee will never be churned out, just because they’re busy. Your cup will be perfectly prepared, with attention to every detail – a glass of iced water with your espresso, for instance.

They got our loyalty the first time we went.  For years, every coffee shop we’ve visited has lazily assumed that Malcolm, as the Real Man in the relationship, would need the espresso, whereas the Little Lady (me) would require a version with milk in.  Actually it’s the other way about, and Bean and Bud made it their business to find out – and then remember – our preferences.

I don’t care for tea much (yes, I am English) but friends who do admire the speciality loose leaf teas, weighed and brewed for just the right amount of time.  Perhaps I ought to give them a go.

 At lunch time, there are just a few types of sandwich on offer, but they’re on decent bread, well-filled with proper ingredients – local cheese, good serrano ham, fresh zingy salads, home-made chutneys.  But could you resist the home made cakes?  They’re not airy calorie-fests filled with cream and topped with thick layers of icing, but densely flavoured with gingered treacle, poppy seeds, bitter chocolate, citrus zest.

Come with a friend, and you’ll find a cosy corner to sit and chat while your coffee or tea is made.  If you’re alone, there’s a decent selection of newspapers to read.  This is a Daily Mail free zone.

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There, I’ve gone and made myself nostalgic for another of their fine espressos.  Time to plan the next visit.

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Author: margaret21

I'm retired and live in North Yorkshire, where I walk , write, volunteer and travel as often as I can.

24 thoughts on “Bean and Bud”

      1. I thought it might be where we had coffee when Mr E came with me last year. It was indeed very good. And I recommend the fabric shop and the craft shop over the road and the cheese shop up the road. And there was street parking too.

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  3. Oh, that sounds just my kind of place, and with proper cakes too! We’re the same as you and Mal – I’m black, he’s white, as it were – and always experience the same colour prejudice … except in one place we frequented on our Catalunyan hols, in Torroella di Montgri, which also had fab coffees (lots of different beans) and even fab cakes!

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  4. I had to laugh at the gender thing…I have Americano with hot milk and Colin has a cappuccino….they always look at me and ask if I want chocolate on it and at the table they invariably try to hand him my drink! A visit north is on the cards….see you in yon caff!

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  5. You had me at Harrogate! Long time since I’ve been there – I live in a different part of the country now. The cafe sounds lovely. I don’t drink coffee now but when I did, it was always strong, black and no sugar! And I love the smell of fresh coffee beans 😊

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  9. I like the sound of this coffee shop! I do drink coffee but these days it has to be the milkier sort. I suddenly couldn’t drink it after having my second daughter and it took years for me to be able to drink it again. I am now forbidden strong coffee by my doctor! I prefer loose leaf tea and can’t stand tea-bags (too dusty and the flavour is wrong somehow). I also have found most tea and coffee-shop cakes are much too sweet these days. Harrogate and Bean and Bud are on my list of places to visit!

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  11. How perfectly civilised to serve a glass of water with the espresso 🙂 Nobody does that around here. In fact we find we need to compromise and settle for Americanos – black, no sugar – when at coffee shops. At home our cheap little moka pot does a good job, but rather lazily we most often use the coffee plunger (or do you call it a French press?). The gender-based coffee prejudice is par for the course! Okay, that’s it, despite the 40 degree heat I’m off to brew a pot of coffee …

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    1. Neither of the above. Like you, I often make coffee in what seems most often to be called a cafetière, which needs to be brewed on a daily basis in both hot and cold climates, I find.

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