Tea for you and me

Join me on my epic quest to find the best tea ever

Monthly Archives: December 2011


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Jam Factory

Hollybush Row, 27 Park End Street, Oxford, OX1 1HU.   (View on map)

My tea at the Jam Factory.

The Jam Factory is a restaurant and bar that has art classes and things as well. The art on the wall near the table where we sat was very familiar as I’d previously seen it at Jelly so the Jam Factory immediately felt like home (maybe the artists only exhibit in places named after food?). Plus they had a selection of indoor trees growing and I have always wanted to grow a tree inside my house.

The Jam Factory was specifically recommended as a place to go where you could get tea or beer, so some of us had tea and some had beer and some went even further and had coffee. I stuck to tea, but though there was a choice of loose leaf (including Rooibos and green tea) there was no Earl Grey. I went for Darjeeling and a slice of banana cake instead. The seven of us placed our orders and a combination of tea, coffee, beer, cake and caramel shortbread arrived at our table. There was banana cake, but not for me. In the end I went and asked for it and they gave me an extra large slice as an apology. The tea was nice, but there wasn’t enough of it (just a cup rather than a pot) but the cake was good.

Tea and my apology sized banana cake.

Teapot? No. The big jars of loose leaf tea behind bar looked promising, but then it went into a large teabag anyway.
Leaf tea? Yes.
Milk jug? Yes, a little one each.
Price? £2 for a cup of tea, £2.50 for a slice of banana cake.
Cake? Yes – and also flapjacks, museli bars and shortbread.
Go again? I’d quite like to try going here for a meal, but maybe not for the tea.


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The Tea Box

7 Paradise Road, Richmond, Surrey, London, TW9 1RX.   (View on map)

A green throne and grand furnishings at The Tea Box.

Before I go anywhere new I tend to do a quick search online to see if there are any particular cafes or tea rooms that seem like the kind of place I should investigate further. When I was doing my preliminary searching for Richmond only one place stood out and that was The Tea Box. Their website doesn’t give much away (apart from their strap line, ‘About to cause a stir…’) but it wasn’t too far from where I was meant to be going so I thought I’d give it a try.

It looked good from the outside and inside I was happily surprised by the furniture – all old style wood chairs and dark tables, an opulent tea drinking palace. I plumped for a gold table with green thrones, which was very comfortable. The people at the table next to me had a candelabra! Anyway, the tea menu (not pictured here, that’s the tea-you-can-buy-loose-and-take-away menu) had the largest selection of tea I’ve seen outside of Tea Smith.There was also an events listing on the table – adult storytelling, jazz evenings, knit nights…

I went for ‘Indian Tea’ as I wanted something to wake me up. There was also a wide ranging selection of cake, including half a dozen flavoured scones, and I went for the dark ginger cake.

Tea, cake and hourglasses at The Tea Box.

The tea came with three hourglasses so that I could time the strength of my tea perfectly, and advice on which one hourglass I should be watching. The tea strainer lifted out completely and had it’s own saucer so that the brew didn’t get any stronger. The cake was very rich and the tea very strong – just what I needed at this point in the day.

My only niggle was the note in the menu saying they that don’t do refills so please don’t ask – and the waiter underlined this by taking away my pot once it was empty, but before I’d finished my last cup. Considering that the tea here was done so well and there was such an emphasis on loose leaf, it seems odd that they wouldn’t honour the tradition of asking for some more hot water for the pot. Unless it’s not so common now? Is this something that people still do? Obviously, having fresh tea leaves in your pot means you should pay for a fresh pot, but just adding hot water on your old leaves tends to be free. Answers on a postcard, please.

Anyway, overall a very enjoyable trip and one that I will be making again sometime soon if I can.

Teapot? Yes.
Leaf tea? Yes, there’s only loose leaf in here!
Milk jug? Of course.
Price? About £3 for the tea and around £2.50 for the cake.
Cake? Cakes, flavoured scones, meals, sandwiches, hot tea, cold tea, hot fruit punch, lots and lots of choice. Also teapots, tea cups, tea strainers and tea ducks (such an astounding tea related item that I bought one for R for Christmas, it deserves a whole post).
Go again? Yes, yes and yes.


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Court Cafe West

The British Museum, Great Russell Street, London, WC1B 3DG.   (View on map)

The view from my table looking up - the stairs and glass roof of the Court.

I was early for an appointment and The British Museum was the nearest place I could see that had tea, so that’s where I headed. The central area of the Museum is called the ‘Court’ and the first place that did tea I found was one of the ‘Court Cafes’– according to the receipt it was ‘Court Cafe West’.

The cups were the mandatory cultural cardboard (every cultural institution seems to have these nowadays, e.g. Royal Festival Hall and Kenwood House) and once again I spilt it as I was looking for a table. Yes, I know I had a plastic cover but I didn’t bother to put it on the cup. And so I spilt some.

It was the ‘Drury Lane’ teabags again and I’m not a big fan of the taste of these, they always seem to taste slightly metallic. The Earl Grey I had was okay, it did the job.

Teapot? No.
Leaf tea? No, ‘Drury Lane’ teabag, I had Earl Grey.
Milk jug? A big one that you helped yourself to.
Price? £2 – whatever you type of tea you had.
Cake? Cakes, brownies, pastries, sandwiches, biscuits, cold drinks and jelly beans.
Go again? I will probably end up here again the next time I visit the British Museum, but I will try to seek out a different cafe inside the Museum in the hope that they have teapots.

Cultural cardboard at The British Museum.


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Espresso Cafe

Harvey Nichols, The Mailbox, 31/32 Wharfside Street, Birmingham, B1 1RE.   (View on map)

The wall of Harvey Nichols tea related items behind my chair. Note the cups and saucers with the photos on.

I wanted some good tea and we were heading to The Mailbox for lunch anyway, so trying the Espresso Cafe inside Harvey Nichols seemed like the best way of combining the two. It was much smaller than expected and quite busy but we managed to get a table for four and then added more chairs as more people arrived.

There was a range of tea on the menu – the usual suspects plus a Lemon Verbeena – and between us we sampled Earl Grey, Darjeeling and English Breakfast. It was teabag tea, but they were Harvey Nichols teabags so I feel that makes them more exciting. The cups had black and white photos of glamorous people on – the majority of cups had some scantily clad ladies in bikinis with surf boards.

A special view of the table before we poured the tea out just so I can show you how carefully the waiter arranged everything. Note the slightly lifted pot lids (I'm not sure why this was done, but I like that they were all the same - it implies a purpose).

The teapots were metal but they were placed in a precise manner with each lid slightly off.  I have been asked to note that the teapots did not drip, but that the milk jugs did. HR also complained that the handles of the cups were so small you burned your fingers.The cutlery was also very neatly presented and was a nice quality – Arthur Price (yes, I’m afraid I am the kind of person that checks the cutlery when I go out to drink tea).

Teapot? Yes.
Leaf tea? No, but a Harvey Nicholls teabag.
Milk jug? Yes, a tiny milk jug each.
Price? £2.60 – a bit steep for Birmingham but I was in Harvey Nicholls, so what do you expect.
Cake? I seem to remember some cake somewhere, but I couldn’t tell you what it was. There was a full menu and you could have a meal if you wanted one.
Go again? Yes, I’ve had trouble finding good tea in Birmingham and so this is now my default tea place if I go there again.

The table once the tea was poured.