Scone Chronicles XXVIII – Tagg Lane Dairy

We’ve been here once before, though on that visit we just bought raw milk, as we’d already had tea and cake at the bookshop down the road.

 

Although there’s no scientific basis for believing raw milk is good for you, I did feel a bit better after drinking the last lot and thought I’d have some more. When reading up on it I was surprised to find that it’s completely banned in Scotland, and many other countries.

Strange how you can buy cigarettes or alcohol from the supermarket but raw milk is heavily controlled.

Anyway, back to the review.

Tagg Lane Dairy is a working farm in the Derbyshire countryside and has a slightly stronger smell of cows than is normal at a tourist destination. Apart from fresh air it has raw milk, organic burgers and a very nice cafe.

The cafe is quite new and is very clean and unfussy. It avoids the modern curse  of being cluttered with tables made from floorboards and various industrial surplus and is far better for that. I don’t want to eat in a workshop I want to eat in a cafe.

The menu seemed to be a bit limited, though I didn’t look too hard at the time. It seemed to offer three sorts of cake and mince pies, but it may do more. It had Victoria sponge, Lemon Drizzle cake and Coffee and Walnut cake. To be honest, you really don’t need more.

They also have plenty of ice cream, or maybe gelato. I’m not quite sure of the difference, but it was too cold for either of them.

To be honest, the best bit wasn’t the excellent cake or the nice clean cafe. It wasn’t even the view (we sat outside so I could take some photos of the views). It was the staff. They were cheerful, efficient and more besides. I’m going to have to use the word “lovely” here. It’s a high praise, and in danger of being gushing, but they deserve it.

So, to sum up, a nice simple stop for tea, cake, ice cream and raw milk. Lovely staff, a pleasant experience and something to look forward to next time I take a trip to Derbyshire.