Serving the best coffee in Newark since 2003. — Stray’s Newark
The business is built on the mantra that we’ll make you “the best coffee you’ll have today” and we’ve been doing that since 2003. — Stray’s Newark
When a coffee shop claims to be serving the best coffee in town, it as a rule means they are serving crap coffee. Good coffee speaks for itself. World class coffee shops never make such ludicrous claims.
What I found, a greasy spoon cafe serving very bad coffee.
I asked for burger, claimed to be homemade. Did not have. Offered chicken burger. Yuk, No thanks.
Luckily I had had excellent mushroom soup and a bread roll earlier at The Soup Dwagon in Chain Lane.
Menu says locally sourced, but without saying from where meaningless. Contrast with Stokes on High Bridge, locally sourced and they say who supplies.
I ordered a coffee. Service abysmal. A long wait.
When it arrived, looked disgusting, cappuccino carpet bombed with chocolate. A tiny sip, scalding hot, tasted disgusting.
I took it back. Then had an argument, told I should have said if I did not want chocolate, the till said chocolate.
Begs the question how was I to know what the till says? It is not for me to contradict the till, it is for whoever is serving to ask. And a good coffee shop would never dream of offering chocolate. The only reason chocolate dumped on a cappuccino to mask that it is cheap crap coffee.
I asked of the coffee they use. No one knew. The bags of coffee on sale, appeared to be catering supply coffee, no roast date. If we take the best by date July 2020 which for coffee is meaningless the coffee was probably roasted July 2019. In other words old coffee long past its best.
And what does Rich Roast Beans mean? Absolutely nothing. Looking at the beans, dark over-roasted to hide that cheap rubbish coffee, a standardised product requires no skill of the person brewing the coffee.
The coffee supplied by Caffe Moko suppliers of catering supply coffee.
Note: I have asked of Caffe Moko suppliers of the catering supply coffee the roast date for coffee with a meaningless best before date of July 2020. They have lacked the courtesy to reply.
Note: Coffee is at its best within three weeks of roast date. Coffee shops that care about coffee, do not use beyond three weeks. Always check roast date.
Stray’s clueless on use of social media. I had asked from where they source their coffee. Lacked the courtesy of a reply. But, if cheap catering supply coffee easy to see why Stray’s keep quiet.
Second cappuccino arrived a little quicker. It too looked disgusting, a quarter of an inch of froth and foam sitting above the cup. I dipped my spoon in. There may have been coffee somewhere in the bottom of my cup if plumbed the depths my spoon came back up with a slight brown tinge.
A tiny sip, scalding hot, tasted disgusting.
The cookie I had ordered came later. It was not good, sugary and sweet, cheap chocolate, sugar held together with starch with a few crumbs of cheap chocolate added. Not a quality cookie.
I was pleased I did not have anything to eat. Not going by the coffee or the cookie.
I was also pleased I did not have anything to eat, the vile stomach churning stench emanating from the kitchen, I was tempted to ask but thought best not to know.
I asked for a bag for remnants of my cookie. To my surprise a brown paper carrier bag. Surprise turns to shock when I look inside and see my cookie sitting in a plastic box.
Care for the environment, plastic pollution, must have passed Stray’s by.
I walked out, my disgusting cappuccino left untouched. I should have demanded a refund.
I hold no great store with TripAdvisor trolls and fake reviews to ever consider as a reliable source, therefore I merely note in passing with no further comment that Stray’s is ranked at No 20 for Cafes, No 2 tea and coffee shops.
Stray’s claim to serve the best coffee in Newark, the board outside says so, the best coffee will drink all day. Putting to one side demonstrably not true, ranks as some of the worst coffee I have been served, with a service to match, and I have tried to some very bad coffee.
If this is the best coffee in Newark, how bad must be coffee in the other coffee shops?
It turns out, not only are Stray’s serving one of the worst coffees I have tried, served by clueless staff, I only had to walk a few metres down the street to find the claim demonstrably not true.
I popped in Balmforth & Co Coffee House housed in a beautiful old building. Ordered a cappuccino. It was reasonable, in another league to what I had been served at Stray’s. I showed the staff what I had been served at Stray’s. They started laughing.
Stray’s are expanding. Opening in Oakham, Stamford and Lincoln.
Lincoln is saturated with greasy spoon cafes serving bad coffee and corporate coffee chains serving bad coffee.
What seems like a bad joke, Stray’s is offering barista training.
Newark lies half way between Lincoln and Nottingham, hop on a train and spoilt for choice. In Lincoln Coffee Aroma and Madame Waffle. In Nottingham, Cartwheel Coffee, Wired, Outpost Coffee and The Speciality Coffee Shop.
The following day a coffee at Madame Waffle served by a young lady who had only started a few days previous in the month and still learning. She made a coffee that was in another league to what Stray’s are serving.
— to be continued —
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