diff --git a/benchmark/.eslintrc.json b/benchmark/.eslintrc.json
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..b93af0c5e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/benchmark/.eslintrc.json
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+{
+  "rules": {
+    "no-unused-expressions": "off"
+  }
+}
diff --git a/benchmark/demo.ts b/benchmark/demo.ts
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..98b10994a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/benchmark/demo.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,49 @@
+import * as Benchmark from 'benchmark'
+import Liquid from 'src/liquid'
+import TagToken from 'src/parser/tag-token'
+import Scope from 'src/scope/scope'
+
+const engine = new Liquid({
+  root: __dirname,
+  extname: '.liquid'
+})
+
+engine.registerTag('header', {
+  parse: function (token: TagToken) {
+    const [key, val] = token.args.split(':')
+    this[key] = val
+  },
+  render: function (scope: Scope) {
+    const title = this.liquid.evalValue(this.content, scope)
+    return `<h1>${title}</h1>`
+  }
+})
+
+const ctx = {
+  todos: ['fork and clone', 'make it better', 'make a pull request'],
+  title: 'Welcome to liquidjs!'
+}
+
+const template = `
+{%header content: "welcome to liquid" | capitalize%}
+
+<ul>
+  {% for todo in todos %}
+  <li>{{forloop.index}} - {{todo}}</li>
+  {% endfor %}
+</ul>
+`
+
+export default function () {
+  console.log('--- demo ---')
+  return new Promise(resolve => {
+    new Benchmark.Suite('demo')
+      .add('demo', {
+        defer: true,
+        fn: (d: any) => engine.parseAndRender(template, ctx).then(x => d.resolve(x))
+      })
+      .on('cycle', (event: any) => console.log(String(event.target)))
+      .on('complete', resolve)
+      .run({ 'async': true })
+  })
+}
diff --git a/benchmark/index.ts b/benchmark/index.ts
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..c61ad558d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/benchmark/index.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+import output from './output'
+import tag from './tag'
+import demo from './demo'
+
+async function main () {
+  await output()
+  await tag()
+  await demo()
+}
+
+main()
diff --git a/benchmark/output.ts b/benchmark/output.ts
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..50a7f4cc3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/benchmark/output.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,26 @@
+import * as Benchmark from 'benchmark'
+import Liquid from '../src/liquid'
+
+const liquid = new Liquid()
+
+export default function () {
+  console.log('--- output ---')
+  return new Promise(resolve => {
+    new Benchmark.Suite('output')
+      .add('literal', test('{{false}}{{"foo"}}{{32.322}}'))
+      .add('truncate', test('{{"foobar" | truncate: 3}}'))
+      .add('date', test('{{"now" | date: "%d%Y%m"}}'))
+      .add('escape', test('{{"1<2" | escape}}'))
+      .add('default', test('{{"" | default: 3}}'))
+      .on('cycle', (event: any) => console.log(String(event.target)))
+      .on('complete', resolve)
+      .run({ 'async': true })
+  })
+}
+
+function test (str: string) {
+  return {
+    defer: true,
+    fn: (d: any) => liquid.parseAndRender(str).then(x => d.resolve(x))
+  }
+}
diff --git a/benchmark/tag.ts b/benchmark/tag.ts
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..292dc3591
--- /dev/null
+++ b/benchmark/tag.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,30 @@
+import * as Benchmark from 'benchmark'
+import Liquid from '../src/liquid'
+
+const liquid = new Liquid()
+
+export default function () {
+  console.log('--- tag ---')
+  return new Promise(resolve => {
+    new Benchmark.Suite('tag')
+      .add('if', test('{% if "foobar" %}foo{% endif %}'))
+      .add('unless', test('{%unless "foo"%}true{%else%}false{%endunless%}'))
+      .add('for', test('{% for i in (1..3) %}{{fooloop.index}}{% endfor %}'))
+      .add('switch', test('{%case 3%}{% when 1 %}1{% when 2 %}2{% when 3 %}3{%endcase%}'))
+      .add('assign', test('{%assign a="foo bar"%}'))
+      .add('capture', test('{%capture foo%}what is this{%endcapture%}'))
+      .add('increment', test('{%increment a%}'))
+      .add('decrement', test('{%decrement a%}'))
+      .add('tablerow', test('{%tablerow i in (1..10) cols:3%}{%endtablerow%}'))
+      .on('cycle', (event: any) => console.log(String(event.target)))
+      .on('complete', resolve)
+      .run({ 'async': true })
+  })
+}
+
+function test (str: string) {
+  return {
+    defer: true,
+    fn: (d: any) => liquid.parseAndRender(str).then(x => d.resolve(x))
+  }
+}
diff --git a/package-lock.json b/package-lock.json
index 42482b208..9420c5206 100644
--- a/package-lock.json
+++ b/package-lock.json
@@ -329,6 +329,12 @@
         "lodash": "^4.17.11"
       }
     },
+    "@types/benchmark": {
+      "version": "1.0.31",
+      "resolved": "https://registry.npmjs.org/@types/benchmark/-/benchmark-1.0.31.tgz",
+      "integrity": "sha512-F6fVNOkGEkSdo/19yWYOwVKGvzbTeWkR/XQYBKtGBQ9oGRjBN9f/L4aJI4sDcVPJO58Y1CJZN8va9V2BhrZapA==",
+      "dev": true
+    },
     "@types/body-parser": {
       "version": "1.17.0",
       "resolved": "https://registry.npmjs.org/@types/body-parser/-/body-parser-1.17.0.tgz",
@@ -884,6 +890,16 @@
       "integrity": "sha512-zyPgY5dgbf99c0uGUjhY4w+mxqEGxPKg9RQDl34VvrVh2bM31lFN+mwR1ZHepq/KA3VCPk1gwJZL6IIJqjLy2w==",
       "dev": true
     },
+    "benchmark": {
+      "version": "2.1.4",
+      "resolved": "https://registry.npmjs.org/benchmark/-/benchmark-2.1.4.tgz",
+      "integrity": "sha1-CfPeMckWQl1JjMLuVloOvzwqVik=",
+      "dev": true,
+      "requires": {
+        "lodash": "^4.17.4",
+        "platform": "^1.3.3"
+      }
+    },
     "body-parser": {
       "version": "1.18.3",
       "resolved": "https://registry.npmjs.org/body-parser/-/body-parser-1.18.3.tgz",
@@ -8734,6 +8750,12 @@
         "find-up": "^2.1.0"
       }
     },
+    "platform": {
+      "version": "1.3.5",
+      "resolved": "https://registry.npmjs.org/platform/-/platform-1.3.5.tgz",
+      "integrity": "sha512-TuvHS8AOIZNAlE77WUDiR4rySV/VMptyMfcfeoMgs4P8apaZM3JrnbzBiixKUv+XR6i+BXrQh8WAnjaSPFO65Q==",
+      "dev": true
+    },
     "pn": {
       "version": "1.1.0",
       "resolved": "https://registry.npmjs.org/pn/-/pn-1.1.0.tgz",
diff --git a/package.json b/package.json
index 4314bd377..b5e07da2c 100644
--- a/package.json
+++ b/package.json
@@ -10,6 +10,7 @@
     "unit": "mocha 'test/unit/**/*.ts'",
     "e2e": "npm run build && mocha 'test/e2e/**/*.ts'",
     "test": "npm run unit && npm run e2e",
+    "benchmark": "ts-node --require tsconfig-paths/register benchmark",
     "coverage-html": "nyc --reporter=html npm run unit",
     "coverage-coveralls": "nyc npm run unit && nyc report --reporter=text-lcov | coveralls",
     "build": "rollup -c rollup.config.ts && ls -lh dist",
@@ -46,6 +47,7 @@
     "@semantic-release/git": "^7.0.8",
     "@semantic-release/npm": "^5.1.4",
     "@semantic-release/release-notes-generator": "^7.1.4",
+    "@types/benchmark": "^1.0.31",
     "@types/chai": "^4.1.7",
     "@types/chai-as-promised": "^7.1.0",
     "@types/express": "^4.16.1",
@@ -55,6 +57,7 @@
     "@types/sinon-chai": "^3.2.2",
     "@types/supertest": "^2.0.7",
     "@typescript-eslint/eslint-plugin": "^1.3.0",
+    "benchmark": "^2.1.4",
     "chai": "^4.2.0",
     "chai-as-promised": "^7.1.1",
     "coveralls": "^3.0.2",
diff --git a/src/render/syntax.ts b/src/render/syntax.ts
index 074469618..4ba09331c 100644
--- a/src/render/syntax.ts
+++ b/src/render/syntax.ts
@@ -44,7 +44,8 @@ export function evalExp (exp: string, scope: Scope): any {
 }
 
 export function evalValue (str: string, scope: Scope) {
-  str = str && str.trim()
+  if (!str) return null
+  str = str.trim()
   if (!str) return undefined
 
   if (lexical.isLiteral(str)) {
diff --git a/test/stub/mockfs.ts b/test/stub/mockfs.ts
index 3806f7c25..60aee1445 100644
--- a/test/stub/mockfs.ts
+++ b/test/stub/mockfs.ts
@@ -14,7 +14,6 @@ export function mock (options: { [path: string]: (string | fileDescriptor) }) {
       : val as fileDescriptor
   })
   fs.readFile = async function (path) {
-    console.log('mock fs read called', path)
     const file = files[path]
     if (file === undefined) throw new Error('ENOENT')
     if (file.mode === '0000') throw new Error('EACCES')
@@ -22,7 +21,6 @@ export function mock (options: { [path: string]: (string | fileDescriptor) }) {
   }
 
   fs.exists = async function (path: string) {
-    console.log('mock fs exists called', path)
     return !!files[path]
   }
 }
diff --git a/test/unit/util/error.ts b/test/unit/util/error.ts
index ebab9c5f9..8a17c582c 100644
--- a/test/unit/util/error.ts
+++ b/test/unit/util/error.ts
@@ -45,7 +45,6 @@ describe('error', function () {
     it('should contain stack in err.stack', async function () {
       const err = await expect(engine.parseAndRender('{% . a %}')).be.rejected
       expect(err.message).to.contain('illegal tag syntax')
-      console.log(err.stack)
       expect(err.stack).to.contain('at Liquid.parse')
     })
     describe('captureStackTrace compatibility', function () {
@@ -148,8 +147,6 @@ describe('error', function () {
         'RenderError'
       ]
       const err = await expect(engine.parseAndRender(html)).be.rejected
-      console.log(err.message)
-      console.log(err.stack)
       expect(err.message).to.equal(`intended render error, file:${path.resolve('/throwing-tag.html')}, line:4, col:2`)
       expect(err.stack).to.contain(message.join('\n'))
       expect(err.name).to.equal('RenderError')
diff --git a/tsconfig.json b/tsconfig.json
index 3cd2d81b7..131ac40c5 100644
--- a/tsconfig.json
+++ b/tsconfig.json
@@ -11,10 +11,11 @@
     "baseUrl": ".",
     "paths": {
       "src/fs": ["src/fs/node"],
+      "benchmark": ["node_modules/benchmark"],
       "src/*": ["src/*"],
       "test/*": ["test/*"]
     }
   },
-  "include": [ "src", "test" ],
+  "all": true,
   "exclude": [ "node_modules", "dist" ]
 }