Timberyard – Old Street, London

I am currently recovering from a week of very early starts. Monday to Friday I yawned my way through work, dragging myself out of bed at 6 o'clock every morning, then on Saturday I faced an even earlier start to catch my 6am train to London to meet Ellen. I was not begrudging that, though. A friend, good food and sights were waiting for me at the other end, and my 21 hour day was so worth the sore feet I am faced with now.

First stop was Timberyard – a coffee shop that boasts runner up of London Coffee Shop of the Year. We stepped inside and, like typical bloggers, whipped out our phones and snapped everything in sight.  

Timberyard is artfully crammed with food and drink and everywhere I looked there was something new, something else to consider, and choosing what to order was very hard. 

I don't think I have ever been to a coffee shop where choosing what to order is such an overwhelmingly difficult process. All the cakes, pastries and sandwiches looked incredible, and the drinks too. 

The barista let us try the two iced teas on offe – Earl Grey and Hibiscus berry. I wasn't keen on the Earl Grey, but the berry one was lovely. I decided I needed a strong coffee, however, and picked the peanut butter chocolate brownie to go with it.

We were told to take a seat, and within a few minutes our food and drink were brought over to us on a wooden tray, along with a large bottle of water which we hadn't asked for, but it was appreciated all the same.

The brownie was fudgey, chewy and full of chocolatey-peanutty goodness. It wasn't too sweet, or too nutty, but had a perfect balance of salty peanut butter with rich chocolate flavour.

Ellen ordered a rhubarb and custard pastry which she polished off in no time. We were so impressed with Timberyard's sweet treats. Some of their other original creations included salted caramel brownie cakes, peanut butter and banana loaf, double chocolate doughnuts, blueberry doughnuts and lemon curd doughnuts, to name but a few.

But what about the drinks? Taking the safe option after my uncertainty over the unsweetened iced teas, I opted for an Americano, served in a little black tea cup with a delicious caramel coloured crema sitting on the surface. It was good coffee – admittedly it could have been hotter, but I'm a bit weird about beverage temperatures.

Ellen's orange juice was vibrant in colour and she described just how good it tasted over on her blog, Devilishly Destructive Delights. (Go follow her, she writes good stuff!)

Ok, so Timberyard may look like every other hipster cafe in London, but it's genuine, I promise. Just look at that glass panel on the floor. Stuff like that amazes me, and those suitcases make such cute coffee tables. The staff were lovely, attentive and made the whole experience one worth raving about on WNW. We decided even before we left that Timberyard was a winner, and we would be visiting again. If only more coffee shops like this existed instead of the hard, plastic and cold chains that bombard every town in the UK, but I guess the rarity of places like Timberyard is part of their charm.

Have you been to Timberyard before? If you live in or near London, it's worth the tube journey to catch up with a friend or spend time with your thoughts while sipping a matcha green tea latte(!) Check out their website here and take a peek at their Instagram – the photos are gorgeous.