One trip to France, one minor health crisis and 10 days with very limited internet access ago, we finished 24 hectic days in London. I blogged about more than a dozen tea experiences. Here, in compendium form, are the rest!
These are not in order, chronologically or quality-wise.
Brown’s Hotel Afternoon Tea. The same price as The Dorchester, and on a par. Better patisserie items and better jam than the Dorch. I’ll be writing this one up in an article on a UK food site. Top Notch. And we had the best seats in the house. Scores 99
Maison Bertaux. I was looking forward to this venue more than any other. It was a let down. The cakes billed as “the most expensive in London, but also the best” might have been the former but were not the latter. The range of teas was OK, the service was mostly fine but they made an awful fuss about us moving one table one foot sideways. The art on the walls was juvenile, and it wouldn’t have scored as high as it did – 75- if we had not bought the party with us. They made us feel like we were intruding on a booking set for several hours hence – quite maddening considering the efforts I’d gone to to book up to three months ahead.
Violet – We tracked across most of Hackney looking for this – it’s hard to find. Our guide book, which is out of date suggests that May King Teas are on sale there, but instead, it was Postcard teas (see next item). Despite the hike and the change of tea, this was a first rate experience. The greatest toasted sandwich I have ever eaten, faultless cakes and a great Yunnan Red Cloud tea served in a lovely iron pot. If we were not planning to head immediately to Haggerston Tea Rooms, we could have stayed there all afternoon drinking tea. Scored 99, which really is the maximum you can score without throwing in some genuine tea-nerdy conversation.
Post Card Teas – this is a tiny tea shop run by Tim, a man who likes to go and shake the tea farmer by the hand before importing their tea. Often there are biographies of the tea grower attached to the tea. Excellent tea and wonderful packaging. We bought some tins as gifts, basically for the cute bears and kittens on the labels. They also had a great tasting bench and Tim is a kindred spirit in the quest to have teabags banished forever. I’ll rate this as a 95, but only because there is a limited range of activities here – i.e. no tea and cake; it’s a retail tea shop only.
Teasmith (Spitalfields) – Whilst highly regarded, we found this place a dead loss. Minimalist decor, modern tins – all of that I can handle. In fact, the layout was clever. The white tea I had was excellent, though not excellent enough to justify the price. The palmiers we ordered with our tea were both the smallest and tastiest I have ever tried.
Where it all went wrong was when Lady Devotea asked for milk. First, they claimed not to have any – they acted as though she’d asked for boiled weasel intestines – and then they begged her not to use it. I guess no-one’s ever thought of putting milk in Indian tea before. Oh, that’s right, except 1 billion Indians for starters. The atmosphere was so sterile in there, it’s a score of 51. Lucky to get that – you can’t sell someone a cup of tea and then tell them how to drink it. Time they grew up.
Haggerston Tea Rooms – These guys are trying to create an oasis of tea calm in a fairly run-down neighbourhood. Looking around the shop and at the range of teas, they do a great job. We’d love to support them in this. We had been in contact with them prior to arriving in the UK and seemed all set to do a talk there, but they just stopped contacting us – we don’t know why. (*NOTE: Have since heard of illness as a reason.)
We really got what they were doing. It was a shame that when we got there, the one staff member seemed to be on a tea break with a friend and was not overly engaged with the concept of serving us tea. The Ceylon Kandy was nice – Lady D’s Nilgiri not so much. It scored a 78, but I believe on a good day it could easily get much higher.
We were delighted to find loose leaf tea at both the Museum of London Tea shop and the Apostrophe cabin outside the Tower of London. As I always support those who supply loose leaf, my plan would be to continue to buy it but not drink it. Both were cheap tea and, far worse, unfiltered London water. The second one it tasted as though they were collecting the water via a bucket on a rope out of the back window straight into the Thames.
One of the best experiences of all was a complete accident, whilst waiting for a film to start we wandered about and found the Couscous Cafe – This is a lovely little Moroccan cafe/restaurant off Queensway in Bayswater. We popped in for a a tea, and found it tiny – about ten tables. I had a mint tea, Lady D had a mint and orange blossom tea. Both were superb and served in a very traditional fashion. So nice we went back for a full meal and more tea the next night. Scores 95 as a tea experience, even though they only had mint tea with a couple of variants. Go there for a meal!
Clarke’s on Kensington Church Street is more of a pastry shop. The tea was poor and unmemorable, but the savouries are worth buying and taking home, where you can make yourself a decent cuppa.
That’s a rundown; somewhat delayed, of the tea activities we managed in amongst and amazing time of sites; activities and people that left is feeling we had barely scratched the surface of London.
More places to visit!
Would you divulge the locations of these, most notably Violet, Post Card Teas, and Haggerston Tea Rooms?
You have certainly perfect the art of tea-tourism. If I were to advise as to a future literary work, you should do a Rick Steves-styled Tea Travelogue. You’d be sensational at it.
Such a totally you summary.