Yumchaa

We found shelter at Yumchaa during a rainy day (oh, really?), and decided to kill some time there before going back to our hotel to grab our luggage and go to the airport.
Lovely place with attentive wait staff, cute décor, a killer view from Camden Market, tasty baked goods and very good tea. I went with the combo raspberry and vanilla tea + chocolate cake and was not disappointed. They were out of pots so out tea came in mugs, but that’s totally fine by me — and what a giant mug that was, oh my.
Try it out if you’re going through Camden Market and need a bit of rest!

Not a bad coffee, but the real winner here is the view of camden market as you sit on the balcony taking it all in.

This was a great little shop. The baked goods were fantastic and the tea was delicious. We had a great view of Camden and were able to people watch and escape the crazy hustle for a peaceful moment. Was a bit slow and wish they had more seating, but those are little things.
Definitely recommended.

Lady was over worked as very hot and sunny Sunday, so Camden Market was busy and they needed more staff.
Food tastes home made and is nice.

What’s cute about this place:
– The shabby chic appearance and mismatched furniture. (Though it’s gotten much dirtier over the years, with some of the furniture broken and some spotting to the walls, etc).
– The location, which is upstairs and sort of overlooking a bit of Camden’s market shopping.
– Those loose leaf teas. And A LOT of them!
However, after numerous 4 and 5 star experiences, I am sadly just going to leave a 3 star review (truly 3.5 in my mind) because I do feel that management and staff have become disorganized, resulting in disappointing service.
Firstly, on one visit during the heatwave, Yumchaa went half the day without an ice delivery. The one male staffer, and the only one manning the entire establishment, was frantically trying to get ice for the cold drinks when this should have been a responsibility taken care of by management or staff the previous day. That is poor planning.
Not only was there no ice, but he was noticeably behind on making sandwiches and other food fare, even though it was already 11:30. I mean, the lunch rush was sure to be coming quite soon and he didn’t even have any selection beyond hot teas and pre-​made scones. Talk about stressful.
Ultimately, he actually had to leave Yumchaa in order to pick up some sort of delivery. Kindly, he didn’t kick my friend and I out as she is a Yumchaa regular. But instead, he locked the door behind us, thereby locking us in. I was honestly a little startled. While he was gone for about 10 — 15 minutes, we ended up being responsible for explaining to potential customers knocking on the locked door that Yumchaa was temporarily closed and to come back later. Not only that, but I had somewhere to be and started to wonder if he’d be coming back soon, as I was now on his schedule due to the locked door. I was just a customer, and it shouldn’t have been my responsibility to field incoming customers and watch over the place at all.
While I appreciate the trust factor involved, and did manage to get to my meeting on time, it was clear to me that Yumchaa needs more staff and better management /​planning in order to run more professionally. Then this sort of situation could have been avoided.
Hope you get it together, Yumchaa. See you later.

this review is of their tea and their online customer service. i’ve never actually set foot in any of their locations and i’m their #1 fan as of 2 days ago. a while back Husband brought back a few of their teas for me as a gift (we live in ireland at the moment). we both fell madly in love with their earl grey tea. i know, you wouldn’t think you could really do a whole lot with this basic tea, but trust me, yumchaa’s is pretty much the best i’ve ever had.
fast forward to the bottom of the tea pouch… Husband has been complaining that we’ve been running low on the magic earl grey and that we need to go back to london specifically to get more. as much as i love spur of the moment «damn-we’ve-run-out-of-tea» or «crap-​i-​got-​a-​hole-​in-​my-​heattech-​leggins» shopping trips to london, i decided i’d check ye olde interwebs first.
lo and behold, they have a web site. lo and be sad, their online ordering system is on the fritz. never fear tho, they provide an email address and are happy to hear from you.
i trepidatiously (like that?) sent an email asking please could they and would they ship to ireland, and could they do so before valentine’s day. within several hours i received a very chipper reply from a very enthusiastic Louise who said she would be happy to do so and that she would get that out to me tomorrow. i imagined she walked over to the shelves, pulled the teas i wanted, put them in a pouch and walked them over to the post office herself the following morning.
the package arrived on the 15^th (for which i blame my husband’s office’s postal people) with all these cute teapot stamps on it and a personal thank you note from Louise.
the thing that impressed me the most (besides their delicious teas) was how clear it was that Louise absolutely loved her job and was absolutely passionate about tea. it’s so refreshing to find that sort of thing in this fast paced auto-​responder sort of times we live in :)

I love this branch of Yumchaa — the first and the best in my opinion.
I was working back up in Camden for a week in my old office and was taken right back to the heady days of summer 2007 as soon as I walked through Yumchaa’s door. They give £1 coffees for traders or local businesses — bargain, but even for full-​price I think it’s great value coffee.
The chocolate cake is rich, fudgey and decadent, better than the brownies which can be slightly dry. The sandwiches are fab doorstops of goodness.
It is a smaller and therefore more friendly branch, oh, and they let me take plates of cake back to the office until I’ve scoffed them and return their crockery later. Bliss.

Don’t be fooled by Yumchaa saying they are a tea house, they do serve coffee as well which is not too bad. The selection of cakes is pretty much what you would expect — brownie, lemon cake, etc. I tried the brownie which was nice, not too dry and not too heavy or oily either. There is also a selection of sandwiches.
The interior is like Camden itself I suppose — a hodgepodge of random stuff thrown together. It works though and with the big ceiling to floor windows in the front and the skylight in the back it feels airy and light.
The place seems really understaffed though which lessens my impression of the place.
Overall a good place to sit down a while if in the Camden area and you got time to wait for the staff to serve you.

Now this is tea heaven.
I don’t know much about tea, but this little tea house in Camden Lock is just lovely. There are so many different kinds of tea to choose from! But don’t get discouraged, ask for help. Every time I visit this Yumchaa location, I always ask for guidance/​advice on what to order and the staff has always been very nice and helpful. It’s also helpful that they have all the teas out in little jars so you can smell their delicious aroma.
Out of all the teas I have tried, I find the Notting Hill tea to be my favourite. And If you have a bit of a sweet tooth like myself, don’t forget to pick up one of their yummy cakes or cookies to enjoy with your cup of tea.
Also, the ambiance of Yumchaa is so lovely. The inside is so cute with it’s mismatched, shabby-​chic décor. But I love snagging a seat outdoors to partake in a bit of people watching.

This is the first time I have tried Yumchaa, on my many visits to Camden. I had a latte which was nice and not too strong and my son ordered a bagel. Unfortunately he had to enquire which fillings they had, as there was no menu visible displaying prices and choices etc., but afterwards we noticed a small A4 size menu by the till. We sat down, and I liked the ‘Shabby Chic’ surroundings which suited the style of premises. We had to wait over 20 minutes for the bagel to arrive, and that was only because I had to go and ask if it was ready. I can appreciate they were quite busy and there were only 2 members of staff, but by the time the bagel had arrived we had finished our drinks and it was too hot to eat straight away where they had put it under the griddle and had obviously forgot about it. I was a bit dissapointed with the Tea Shop as I had expected more from such a quaint place in Camden.

Great tea selection, in a café that knows that loose leaf is the only way to go!
A great space to sit and relax for a moment while savouring a sweet treat and a cuppa. I’m not sure that I rate the sandwiches though, as the one I had was more bread than filling, but the delicate Ginseng Gardian tea more than made up for it.
Kiddo friendly?
— they do have cut fruit, but most of the food is sweet treats or big sandwiches (bagels or thick bread rolls)
— no changing facilities
— didn’t see a high chair during our visit (though they may have one hidden somewhere).
— pretty big space for a kid to wander around in if you’re there early enough to avoid the lunch rush

As much as I love the Soho location, I’ve gotta give it up for the O.G. Yumchaa. Tucked away in an upstairs room in Camden Lock’s inner yard, their shabby chic style shines through this itty bitty location and they still serve up some of the best tea and baked goods around.
Although it’s a bit, how to say, prim and proper-​er than its gothic rave-​tastic neighbours, Yumchaa provides just the solace you’ll need to continue your tromp around Camden and beyond — enough of a sugar high to bop through Cyber Dog and enough caffeine to party all night at Proud.
Most importantly, it’s just a room full of great people serving up delicious joy in leaf-​form for everyone to readily enjoy. Now who doesn’t love that?

This establishment seems totally out of place in Soho. You expect edge, shadows, excess, naughtiness and gloss in this part of London, rather than light, cakes, teas and wholesome goodness.
Maybe it’s the place where the bad boys and girls head to feel good?

Great cappuccino and good tea selection. Cool folks too.
Love the view of my favorite place in the world!

Au milieu de la folie du marché de Camden, voilà un charmant petit endroit cosy où souffler un peu. Situé en hauteur, on une jolie vue sur les stands du marché et sur le canal. On peut s’asseoir à l’intérieur ou en terrasse. Le service est plutôt aimable.
A la carte, une sélection de thés plus savoureux les uns que les autres. On a goûté le «Walk in the woods» à base de thé noir et de fruits rouges. Possibilité de commander un brownie ou des scones pour accompagner. Un vrai moment d’apaisement, tel qu’on n’a plus envie de partir! On peut y acheter des sachets de thé (environ £4.5 les 100 grammes). Les trois sont à £12 plus une tasse gratuite! Les vendeurs du stand sont belges et français.

A lovely little place to rest your feet.
We sat outside when we came, it’s in a nice location where you can see the canal boats and the many food stalls beneath. The staff were friendly and polite, even when we took ages digging out all our change.
Good classic rock plays inside, you can hear it enough for it to be a nice background noise outside but not so much that it gets in the way of conversation. We had plain old regular tea and coffee so can’t really comment on the exotic ones on display, but i can say they smelt quite nice. The cakes were also nice.

Awesome spot to sit down and enjoy some great tea and incredible baked goods. Cousin and I stuffed out faces with their brownies until we couldn’t breathe, literally. I barely made it to the underground without wanting to come back for more. Great location with tons of shopping around. Its a must if you’re in the area!

This is very special place hidden on the second floor in the inner yard the Camden Lock. The tea room has to most wicked selection of very extraordinary teas.
All displayed in cute jars and the wooden mix and match decoration is heart melting. During summers the have few seats outside with a great view over the markets and the canal. The second floor location is much more quiet and the relaxing tea moment can be close to perfect.
Although the first time I went there, as a coffee addict I just ignored all the teas and ordered coffee. I shouldn’t have. It was just horrible, like poison. But I understand, if you have seen the effort to get close to hundred different teas on your selection getting a coffee machine would feel just wrong. They just got it for idiots like me. After that I have just sticked with the tea and the best cups ever.

Exactly what’s been missing in Camden is a quirky, no-​frills tea shop just outside the Lock Market shops. They really only do tea, but they do tea really well. They keep all their blends in cups at the counter, so the best way to choose is to follow your nose. And the staff know their stuff, too, and can not only list all of the ingredients of each tea but can recommend something to suit your mood. They also serve cakes and sandwiches.
The décor’s nice and simple, white-​washed brick, tile-​topped tables and pastel upholstery. They had rock tunes playing just loud enough to be identified but not so loud that you can’t have a conversation. If they get free wi-​fi, I’ll never leave.

I first came across Yumchaa after meeting them at a stall in Partridges Market on the Kings Road. After taking their tea home with me to try, I thought I would visit their café in Camden, and I certainly wasn’t disappointed!
If you like tea, this is the place for you. They do the obvious ranges of black and green teas for the less adventurous, but their range of red and fruit teas are amazing. They are beautiful to look at too, and very aromatic, with lovely flowers and chips of odd little things put in to add flavour.
I loved the ambience and décor, it seemed to fit right in with Camden’s vibe and the cakes are a welcome surprise. If you are heading to the market, make this a stopping point, as it is well worth it.

What a lovely place. I like the décor with one wall beautifully wallpapered, while the rest is left with bricks roughly painted white.
Yumchaa is situated on the first floow gallery that overlooks the mooring place for the canal boats and offers a nice alternative to the more obvious coffee place downstairs right by the entrance.
As Yumchaa is all about tea, we sniffed the cups with samples of leaves and didn’t take long to choose our favourites. They have a good selection of black, green and herbal (mainly rooibos) teas, all brewed in pretty china pots that sit on their cups.
A very civilised haven within the madness of Camden.
It’s a shame though that all the pastries, muffins and cakes are so obviously mass-​produced — home-​made cookies would be much better suited.