Time for a much-needed tea break...
I have been a very busy bee this past month, as always, drinking lots of tea! I have been learning about different teas, their origins and how to make a good cuppa! I have also been busy trying new places to eat and drink in London and beyond (as well as visiting my favourite restaurants, bars and cafes), visiting friends and historic places, doing lots of shopping and cooking up a few new dishes with some favourite ingredients.
I thought it was only right that I start my series of "a few of my favourite things" posts by sharing with you some of my great tea tasting and afternoon tea experiences from my adventures in recent weeks!
Chateau Rouge Teas - a very classy afternoon tea tasting!
Last month, the wonderful Sean Farrell, MD and founder of Chateau Rouge Teas, hosted a tea tasting on a lovely summery day at the Vista roof terrace bar at the Trafalgar Hotel. It was a perfect setting for a civilised tea tasting - an oasis of calm above the hustle and bustle of Trafalgar Square, with stunning views across London.
We tasted a selection of four of the fabulous Chateau Rouge teas and enjoyed a delicious afternoon tea with generously-proportioned finger sandwiches and scones.
Sean talked us through the different teas, their origins and what makes them different. We tasted four very different teas from the Chateau Rouge range: Rooibos, Honeybush, Darjeeling and White Monkey.
The unanimous favourite of the day was the Wild Harvest Organic Honeybush, which is a soothing, light, herbal tea and a very pleasant drink. We were surprised by the colour as it infused in the clear teapot - a bright red colour! I was also very surprised when I tasted this by just how much I liked it, as I am usually more of a strong black tea kind of girl, and not a fan of Rooibos.
I found it tasted quite different to Rooibos and was refreshing and comforting. Sean mentioned that its calming properties make it a good choice as a night-time or bedtime brew. I recommend Honeybush tea to anyone who enjoys drinking tea - everyone at the tasting loved it and we just kept coming back for more! I was also very impressed by the White Monkey - a very exclusive green tea, grown on Wuyi Mountain in Fujian, China. The leaves are picked when very young, resulting in a fresh and sweet-tasting tea - again quite different to other green teas I have tasted.
We ate a delicious afternoon tea to accompany the different teas - food paired with the chosen teas for the tasting. There were cucumber, salmon and egg finger sandwiches and enormous scones with jam and clotted cream. Sitting in the sunshine at Vista Bar, I could happily have whiled away the whole afternoon! And it only started to rain once we had tasted all the teas and eaten our tasty treats - fantastic timing!
Sean, who is on a mission to get the nation drinking really good quality tea, also gave us some very handy tips for making the perfect brew! You can find out more on the Chateau Rouge website and in their tea-themed online newsletter.
Top tips for making the perfect cup of tea!
General rules for making tea - whole and loose leaf tea
- Green tea: leave water stand for 2-3 minutes after boiling before putting in tea leaves and infuse for maximum 2-3 minutes. Drink black and for more cups just reinfuse the leaves with slightly hotter water for multiple infusions (to get more out of the leaves).
- Black teas (Earl Grey, Assam, Ceylon and breakfast teas): use freshly boiled water and infuse for 2 minutes. Best black, especially for premium varieties, but also good with drop of milk.
- Black teas (Darjeeling, first flushes and rarer assam or ceylons):
use water just off the boil, or for more delicate leaves (with lot of green), leave the water to stand for 1-2 minutes. Infuse for 2-3 minutes (2 minutes for more delicate leaves) and re-infuse slightly hotter/longer. Best drunk black as milk will mask the flavour. If you do prefer milk, then brew stronger with more leaves.
- Oolong teas (Formosa Pouchong, Himalayan Oolong): production half way between black and green, so make the tea halfway between black and green ie. water 1-3 minutes off the boil and infuse 2-3 minutes.
Oolongs generally infuse 2-3 times, so make sure not to burn the leaves with the first infusion and will get lots of use off the same leaves.
- Rooibos or Honeybush: These are herbal teas with no tannin, so can be left to steep. Use boiling water and leave to infuse for as long as needed to the required strength. This infuses really fast and gets multiple uses off the same leaves, as the leaves are also cut larger.
Honeybush is more delicate than Rooibos, so is best taken black and better if not left to steep for the first infusion.
The perfect teapot...
Ideally you want a teapot that can remove the tea leaves after infusions, so that they don’t go bitter, but equally, if you only have a strainer then only add enough tea leaves and water for the cups you making and pour out all the tea (strained) after 3 minutes (or the time required for that tea). You can then just make a fresh pot with the same leaves for the second and third infusions.
The golden rule is not to leave the tea to steep too long, as it goes bitter - and if you make the tea correctly for the first infusion, you won’t need any milk to counteract the bitterness and will get more pots off of the same tea leaves.
Tea and food...
It's always best to experiment, as tastes differ, but each tea has unique flavours that - like wine - seem to bring out the best in both the food and the tea - complementing each other.
As a general starting point, for afternoon tea, why not serve up different teas with different courses?
Smoky teas go well with salmon or creamy cheeses like brie. Oolongs go
particularly
well with salmon as have a smoky taste.
Darjeeling-style teas go well with hard cheeses and ham - or even quiche Lorraine. The tea is slightly astringent and goes better with savoury dishes.
Strong black teas (eg. Assam, English Breakfast) seem to go well with rich dark cakes, like fruitcake or dark gateaux.
Jasmine and flowery teas (including Earl Greys) are delicious with sponge or light cakes as they don’t mask the delicate 'flowery lightness' of the teas.
Some teas are better with dark chocolate - like the Golden Monk from Darjeeling - and some Ceylon teas are naturally 'creamy', which compliments creamy sponge cakes.
Time for the perfect cup of tea...
A visit to Bath later that week brought more adventures in tea drinking (and cake tasting!), courtesy of the absolutely gorgeous Tea House Emporium, tucked away down some winding stairs in the former Eighteenth Century cellars on New Bond Street.
The tea and coffee menu is vast - I was spoilt for choice and wanted to try them all! In the end I went for a strong Assam - Assam OP Blend - and an enormous slice of my favourite cake, Lemon Drizzle Cake!
We were served tea timers with our tea and cake, with an alarm set for when the tea had brewed for the optimal time. I enjoyed a refreshing and hearty pot of tea, balanced with the sweet, gooey cake! Highly recommended...
The Tea Emporium is quirky, cosy, and devoted to tea, with a lively mix of antique furniture and assorted tea-related paraphernalia adorning the walls and display cases.
The surroundings were so set apart from the busy pavements, lined with shoppers and roadworks, that it was like being in another world - I felt like I'd just popped through the wardrobe to have tea with Mr. Tumnus in Narnia! The pictures I took (scroll down for a selection!) all came out with a rather ethereal quality - rather like the feeling of sitting down in this wonderful tea grotto and enjoying a relaxing cuppa!
You can also try to recreate the feeling at home, as they have their own shop above the Tearooms and an online store.
Hope you like the pictures and have enjoyed the latest tea adventures!
I'm tired now and craving a cup of tea! Going to have a soothing cup of Lavender Black Tea from Pure Fresh Tea before bed. I was intrigued and very happy to find something that combines two of my absolute favourite things, lavender and tea! I recommend this blend for fans of black teas who enjoy the relaxing scent of lavender for a calm and soothing tea break. The organza tea bags are great if you like good quality tea but want a quicker cuppa.
I will also be drinking it from my patriotic mug from Waitrose, in support of Team GB in the Olympics!
Until next time, when I'll be sharing with you more tea adventures, recent shopping favourites, some of my new favourite recipes and recent restaurant experiences, enjoy your tea break - and sweet dreams!
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| Sitting in the tea grotto that is the Tea House Emporium... |
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| The magical Tea House Emporium |
