Caffè Nero Archives - Scones, history and a dollop of politics

This is a lovely little cafe tucked away in Kings Court, just off the High Street in Falkirk. Originally called Kings Arms Court, any hostelry of that name has long since vanished into the mists of time. It is great to see establishments like Tea Jennys thriving in spite of the tax avoiding multinationals like Starbucks, Costa and Caffé Nero snapping up all the prime sites in town. Of course, as we reported in an earlier post some places could do with taking a leaf out of the multinationals book. Because, aside from the tax stuff which isn’t really their fault, they really do know their business. You get the feeling though that Tea Jennys, has probably looked closely at what the multinationals are doing, noted it, then decided to take an alternative approach. It does everything the big boys do but just does it differently.

tea and tea cosies at Tea Jennies, falkirk — tea and tea cosies

The meals, cakes and scones are home made for a start, all excellent, but it is the other little touches that set it apart. The home-knitted tea cosys, a different one for each teapot. There was a santa hat and a christmas pudding on ours. No tea bags here either, the tea is proper leaf tea served in proper tea pots, in proper tea cups with a proper tea strainer. The decor is a bit chintzy .. but different. Certainly not like any multinational that we have visited. The service is warm and friendly. Unfortunately when we visited they only had cheese scones left. Equally unfortunately they forgot about the scones in our order.

Prospering

A gentle reminder, however, brought profuse apologies .. and our scones, nicely toasted. Not topscones but very good, we may have to come back earlier in the day to catch a plain or a fruit scone. Something to look forward to next year. It’s not as if Tea Jennys is simply holding its own against the multinational competition it appears to be thriving. They recently opened a deli and an additional cafe further along the street. Long may they continue to prosper.

Here’s to 2016

This is probably our last scone of 2015. It only leaves us to wish all our readers a very merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. And thank you for all the support and enthusiasm throughout the year. Here’s to 2016, may all your scones be topscones.

FK1 1PG tel: 01324 228185 Tea Jennys TA

Now you might be a bit surprised by this post because we are reviewing a multinational coffee house. Caffé Nero to be exact. One of these dastardly companies that pays no tax. Prepare yourself for a bit of a rant. Of course we never thought we would have to review such places because we didn’t think any of them did scones .. but we were mistaken, Caffé Nero does, maybe because it is British, so we felt duty bound to give them a try.

Tax

The whole tax thingy is a bit of a mess. Starbucks takes the brunt of the criticism because they are the biggest and the most famous. Caffé Nero has not paid any UK tax since 2008 because it exploits the same loopholes that Starbucks and all the others use. Boots has avoided £1.2b by simply not being registered in the UK. There is nothing illegal about this practice so our sympathies lie with the companies which, like all companies, are duty bound to maximise profits for their share holders. Otherwise they are deemed to be negligent. The problem lies with the loopholes themselves and that’s a governmental issue.

Loopholes

The UK government gets a lot of stick for not closing them but, if you are expecting them to take decisive action any time soon, don’t hold your breath. Most of the government exploits the exact same loopholes for their own personal benefit. Luckily, the European Commission is not so queasy about tackling the problem. They recently decreed that Starbuck’s tax exemption in the Netherlands amounted to a state subsidy and was therefore illegal. As a consequence they were ordered them to repay £22m to the Dutch government. They did the same for Fiat which is registered in Luxembourg and presumably this principle will apply to all multinationals in due course. If it does we should all benefit .. hurrah!

Going offshore

As far as the UK is concerned there may also be light at the end of the tunnel. Not because of government action, heaven forbid, but because, Crickhowell, a small town in Powys, has elected to move ‘offshore’. It has registered all it’s businesses in the Isle of Man … the same as Caffé Nero. Now they will no longer have to pay tax either .. brilliant! No skullduggery .. all done in discussion with HMRC. If all towns were to follow suit, and we cannot see why they wouldn’t, perhaps then the UK government might eventually waken up to the concerns of ordinary people who have to pay every last penny in tax .. or go to jail. Enough of all that frippery we hear you cry .. the scones!

Black magic

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Our scone came complete with butter and jam and, if we had wanted, a sealed tub of clotted cream. All in all it was quite good. Doesn’t fit the criterion, so it never had a hope of getting a topscone award. However, we can see how folk coming into Caffé Nero could ask for this and enjoy it, so hats off to them for being able to produce this level of standardised product across its empire.

Scotland Bill

The bad news today is that 10 Tory MPs sat through the debate on the Scotland Bill then 400 came in to vote down all the Scottish amendments. It will now fester for months in the unelected Lords. The good news is that a wee firm in Crieff is to start exporting oil to the Middle East. Okay it’s rapeseed oil … but still. Maybe they would like scones as well?

FK1 1NR tel: 01324 623906 Nero

Scones, history and a dollop of politics

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