Bev's Delight is a bakery at 48 Tirau Street, Putāruru, in the South Waikato, holding a 4.8 rating on Google. Good bakeries run to an early clock: most bake before dawn, so the bread is at its best by mid-morning and thinning shelves late in the day are a sign of a job well done. Regulars learn the rhythm, asking what came out of the oven that morning and noticing which trays empty first, which tells you more than any price list. Freshness is the real test: bread with a proper crust, pies and slices made on site rather than shipped in. In small Waikato towns, the humble meat pie remains the honest measure of a bakery, with a good custard square a close second. For Putāruru locals and anyone passing through South Waikato, Bev's Delight looks like exactly the sort of neighbourhood bakery worth stopping for.