Yumchaa is huge by London standards. It is big and airy and beautiful. That is why we originally walked through the doors. In fact we had no idea what they sold when we first decided to walk in. The counter is at the very far end of the space and it is pretty difficult to see from the window what is on offer.
But from the moment I walked in I loved this space and we went back several times. I’ve probably mentioned this many times before on this blog but a good hot chocolate is about a lot of things; the chocolate of course but also the location, the feeling of the environment in which you are sipping it. Yumchaa gets points for that.
The thing about Yumchaa that I should probably mention now is that it is, as we soon realised as we approached the back counter, all about tea. Because of that, I wasn’t expecting much for the hot chocolate, in fact I’ll tell you right upfront it was just ok. It wasn’t bad at all, it just wasn’t anything that special. But I still wanted to write up Yumchaa because it was a lot of fun.
Yumchaa is all about loose leaf tea to be precise and they are very particular about it. A typical tea bag contains mostly tea dust and broken leaf particles which do not have the same amount of essential oils that larger leaves have. So Yumchaa says no to the bag and instead provides a range of loose leaf teas and insist that you wait at least 2 minutes before you drink them to give time for the tea goodness to be created.
The tea was lovely, as were the range of tempting cakes they also sell to go with your tea. I had both the tea and the hot chocolate and would come back here for the tea any day. They had a long list of all their tea offerings on display along with little white ceramic pots with a handful of leaves inside for you to smell. My choice was the Chelsea Chai with cardamom, ginger, black pepper, spearmint brittle and sencha green tea.
So back to the hot chocolate. If you are, like me, a hot chocolate drinker, I think you will still enjoy their hot chocolate. As I mentioned it is fine, but, and I know I don’t say this…ever… I would suggest you take a little tiny break and enjoy a tea as well. Perhaps they have a blend of tea that has a bit of chocolate in it? While you are enjoying your tea think about, as I did, how incredible it would be to have a place just like this that specialises in hot chocolate. The counter would have little pots with samples of different kinds of chocolates to smell and choose from. Any entrepreneurs reading this blog willing to give that a go? Invite me please.
Verdict: Great spot. I’d love to visit a hot chocolate café that does with chocolate what Yumchaa has done with tea. Now that would be the ultimate hot chocolate! There are locations all around London including a range of stalls at some of the coolest London markets. yumchaa, 9/11 Tottenham Street, London, UK
