Tea for you and me

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

Author Archives: tealeaves


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The Dorchester

Park Lane, Mayfair, London, W1K 1QA

An out of focus ballerina at the Dorchester

The Dorchester is another of the big name hotels in London that is famous for providing a good afternoon tea. We went there for Dad’s birthday and weren’t disappointed. I booked the tea well in advance so that we could get space and booked it earlier than Dad’s birthday so that we wouldn’t pay the very high price for Christmas Carol singers. When we arrived we were met by ballerinas in outfits relating to Alice in Wonderland. Apparently October was the month of the Mad Hatter’s Tea Party. This was all well and good, but sent me into a panic as I’d booked the standard afternoon tea which was considerably cheaper than the Mad Hatter’s Afternoon Tea and we hadn’t allowed for an increase in price. My Mum took over and spoke to the MaÎtre d’ and they said we had booked before the special event was planned and that they would give us the normal price. As it was a birthday they also offered my Dad a complimentary glass of champagne.

Tea pots and cake stands at the Dorchester

We had our own waiter who was superb and served us tea and then a succession of waiters and waitresses served us sandwiches and scones followed by beautiful cakes all themed round Alice in Wonderland. The students from the school of ballet also gave a short performance/reading from Alice in Wonderland which we couldn’t see from where we were. We were near the pianist though who asked us for any requests and happily played them. My Dad was also presented with a glorious chocolate birthday cake and boxes of the cakes we couldn’t eat. The service was impeccable.

The Dorchester is well worth a visit but I was more impressed with the Ritz. The waiter there knew the tea by smell and didn’t have labels on the pots. And the messing up of the booking also took the shine off the Dorchester. There was also the glitz of the Ritz. If you’re going to spend a lot of money on afternoon tea it may as well be the most gilded afternoon tea you can find.

The Alice in Wonderland themed patisserie items at the Dorchester

Teapot? Yes.
Leaf tea? Yes.
Milk jug? Yes.
Price? £34.50 for afternoon tea.
Cake? Yes.
Go again? Not at the moment, I’d like to try some of the other big London hotels first or maybe the Ritz again.


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Patisserie Valerie

11-13 Acorn Walk, The Centre MK, Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, MK9 3AD

Tea and ice cream at Patisserie Valerie

Milton Keynes is a strange place. I hate to say it as I so wanted it to be otherwise, but it is a strange place. I’d never been before and was looking forward to disproving all the stereotypes about concrete and roundabouts and coming to the conclusion that it wasn’t so bad after all. I was half right. The roundabouts I didn’t mind, I quite like driving round roundabouts and I had a sat nav so I wasn’t confused. The concrete also didn’t bother me, the wide streets made me think of Sweden and I liked the space.

The strangest thing about Milton Keynes is that there is no town centre. I headed towards the middle of the town and found a shopping centre. I walked through it and out the other side and found a dual carriageway. I tried a different exit and found another dual carriageway. This carried on for a while. I walked round the whole shopping centre and tried to find somewhere that resembled a normal town centre where I would find a cafe I could blog about. I couldn’t find anywhere. I tried the theatre area and the park and no luck. The centre of Milton Keynes is a shopping centre called ‘The Centre MK’. I found the ceiling low and being inside all day when I wanted to be outside very oppressive. I didn’t like it. In the end I ended up back where I started and went to the cafe I had first seen.

Patisserie Valerie is a chain of cafes that has patisserie style gateaux and pastries. I was hot from all my exploring so I had ice cream instead. It was very good and the tea was loose leaf.

Teapot? Yes.
Leaf tea? Yes.
Milk jug? Yes.
Price? £2 for tea and £1.75 for ice cream, between £2-£4 for macaroons and cake.
Cake? Yes.
Go again? Yes, seems like the best cafe in the centre of Milton Keynes.


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Cafe Mei

205 Upper Richmond Road, London, SW15 6SQ     020 8789 9988

Tea at Cafe Mei

This doesn’t look like much from the outside but inside it’s small but perfectly formed and smells divine. The owner is a patisserie chef by trade and all the cakes, pastries and cookies are made by her. This is an up and coming road with many posh shops selling not quite useful things but this cafe does excellent tea with a homemade biscuit for only £1. A treat.

Teapot? No.
Leaf tea? No.
Milk jug? No, milk put in with it.
Price? £1 for tea and biscuit.
Cake? Yes and many other lovely looking things.
Go again? Yes.


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The Walk

12 Bridlesmith Walk, Nottingham, NG1 2GR

The view from the doorway of The Walk - look at the cake!

The Walk was the second stop on our tea tour of Nottingham and we weren’t disappointed. It has restaurant opening hours and opens for lunch onwards, on the Saturday we went we turned up 15 minutes after opening time and there was a queue. This cheered us no end – tea that causes queues must be good.

We didn’t have to queue for long, though had we wanted to sit outside we could have jumped the queue but we decided against it as it was a bit nippy.

Afternoon tea was on the menu but even we were tempted by the other things on there. Everything on the menu sounded excellent and the food on other tables smelt wonderful. I’d love to go back and eat more some other time.

There was no tea menu on the menu but we asked for our favourites and got them. We ordered an afternoon tea each which took a long time to arrive. We asked the waitress and she said they were putting the finishing touches to it. When it did arrive we understood why it had taken so long. Everything was fresh and tasted heavenly. The only problem is a familiar one – there were a range of cakes and pastries and none were the same. How to decide who gets what? How to decide what to eat if we’re not even sure what they are? In the end we took the honourable way of splitting every item into quarters and tasting each one. They were all lovely. My only negative point would be that the service was very slow, even drinks took a long time to arrive. It was very busy but perhaps more staff on a Saturday would be wise.

Afternoon tea at The Walk

Later we discovered that they will be introducing a tea menu and had tea sample boxes with vials of each type of tea to smell and choose from. We also spotted that the customers outside in the garden had blankets provided to keep out the chill. A momentary worry that we chose the wrong option was dispelled when we reassured ourselves our tea would have got cold if we had gone outside. On cue, a waitress came past with a tray of teapots in hand knitted tea cosies. Oh well, next time.

Teapot? Yes.
Leaf tea? Yes.
Milk jug? Yes.
Price? £15.95 for afternoon tea.
Cake? Yes, so much of it!
Go again? Yes.


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Lee Rosy’s Tea

17 Broad Street, Hockley, Nottingham, NG1 3AJ

Inside Lee Rosy's Tea

It was that time again and E, H, N and I were off to try tea. We had picked Nottingham as we hadn’t tried that way for tea before and had done some online hunting that had yielded two potential tea places. The first was Lee Rosy’s Tea.

It’s not in the main shopping area, but instead a little way away oppostite the Broadway Cinema. We rounded the corner and spied the shop and it was just the kind of place I had been hoping it would be. Free wifi, a cosy atmosphere, adverts for book groups and knitting groups and so many different types of tea. I wished it could be nearer where I lived so I could go there more often.

I chose (after much deliberation) a pot of Darjeeling Puttabong which I’d never heard of before. We had the choice of a mug or a pot and I chose a pot thinking that it would give me more tea and it did, but it gave me too much tea! I never thought I’d say that but it had at least three mugs worth and I couldn’t finish it. It’s hard for me to admit that but there, it’s out in the open now.

Tea and a cappucino at Lee Rosy's Tea

The Darjeeling Puttabong was good and so was E’s Jade Oolong. N had English Breakfast which he said was nice and H had an ‘all right’ cappucino. A good find and worth a visit.

Teapot? Yes.
Leaf tea? Yes.
Milk jug? Yes, a very large milk jug, just how we like it.
Price? £2.50 for a pot of tea.
Cake? Yes.
Go again? No.


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The Stables Cafe

Village Life, Old Shire Horse Centre, Bath Road (A4), Littlewick Green, Maidenhead, Berkshire, SL6 3QA

Tea and cake at The Stables Cafe

I’d driven past Village Life a couple of times before it clicked that it wasn’t an advert for a way of living but actually a collection of shops calling itself Village Life. It’s a strange idea of village life as the shops there wouldn’t be very useful in a village, for example: a gift shop, an expensive craft shop, a shop selling only Christmas decorations. The cafe was the only place with any people in it when I went and it had a selection of food and cake on offer. The cake was a nice fruit cake and the tea was hot. It’s a useful place to stop if you’re on the A4 and need a break and a cup of tea. The petting farm might be worth a visit if you have children but otherwise the other attractions don’t hold much attraction.

Teapot? Yes.
Leaf tea? No.
Milk jug? Yes.
Price? £1.60 for tea and £2.75 for cake.
Cake? Yes.
Go again? No.

It also offers a discount if you’re a Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead Advantage card holder.


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For all the tea in China by Sarah Rose

For all the tea in China: espionage, empire and the secret formula for the world’s favourite drink by Sarah Rose. Published by Hutchinson, 2009, ISBN 978-0091797065

The cover of 'For all the tea in China'This is a departure from my normal postings as it’s a book but I just found it so interesting that I thought I’d stick it on here. And it’s about tea, after all. I did most of the reading whilst drinking tea, if that helps.

This book tells the story of a botanist fortune hunter who was sent to China by the East India Company to find the secret of tea and take it to India where the tea could be grown by the Company and sold for more profit. This in itself was an interesting story, but what I found most interesting was the explanation for why we drink tea differently here to those in China. The addition of milk, sugar and a cup with a handle are all British inventions. Sarah Rose concludes that tea helped industrialize Britain.

She adds that drinking tea helped prevent cholera as it is made with boiling water. Sugar was a large commodity at that time and the empire was generating huge amounts of it; adding it to tea gave them a market for the excess sugar. It also added calories to the poor diet of the working class who had previously got calories from ale and beer. This was fine for manual labour but being under the influence was not a good plan in the mills where the shuttle looms could kill if you weren’t careful. Fermented drinks killed bugs but they also took up half of the British grain production, grain that was badly needed to feed a growing nation. Making tea the national drink gave health benefits (no more pregnant women drinking alcohol), saved grain and adding milk also gave them protein.

High quality fresh tea should not be made with boiling water as it ruins the flavour of the leaf, however the tea that came out of China to begin with was low quality and old as it took so long to get here, so boiling water was fine. And when you make tea with boiling water you can’t hold the cup and so you need a handle.

This is just a highlight of some of the nuggets of info that come out of this book. If you like tea (and presumably you do, or why would you be reading this blog?) go get it from your local library or bookshop or friend and read it. Perhaps even read it with a cup of tea.


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Amphitheatre Bar

The Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London, WC2E 9DD

ROH view

View from our table

Theatres and concert halls tend to have bars where you can buy tea. It’s a useful tip if you want to go somewhere quiet and a bit different. The Royal Opera House Amphitheatre Bar is open during the day for food and drinks and we headed inside to see if they had tea.

They had a range of cake, including macaroons and strange white bricks. We guessed cheesecake but when we asked the barstaff it turned out to be a giant marshmallow. Well, we thought, this doesn’t happen every day, we’ll share one.

It was minty. A big fat peppermint marshmallow. We tried to cut it in half but it sprang back at us and wouldn’t be cut. So I ate half and then my Mum ate the rest. Very strange and didn’t go well with tea. Worth trying, anyway.

ROH tea

Giant marshmallow and teabag tea.

The tea was a teabag in a cup job, even though it said a pot on the menu. I was disappointed. Nice view of the bar below though.

Teapot? No.
Leaf tea? No.
Milk jug? Yes.
Price? £2 I think.
Cake? Yes.
Go again? No.



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Lazy Daisy’s Lakeland Kitchen

I got so confused I made my teabag pouch into a hat.

I got so confused I made my teabag pouch into a hat.

31-33 Crescent Road, Windermere, Cumbria, LA23 1BL.

From the outside this place looked like just our cup of tea (sorry, I can’t help it). Inside it also looked good, but then the tea came and all was lost. We got a tea pot, excellent! But we got tea bags on the side. Why? Why give us a pot of hot water and not put the tea bags in? What’s the point? Perhaps if you like your tea not very strong that makes sense, but surely they could ask you if you wanted them on the side? And it wasn’t a very big pot for two people.

They mentioned chocolate soup on the menu though and the cakes looked good. Someone go and try the soup and let me know if it’s better than the tea.

Teapot? Technically….
Leaf tea? No.
Milk jug? Yes.
Price? £2.20 each.
Cake? Yes.
Go again? No.


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The First Floor Cafe

Lakeland Windermere, Alexandra Buildings, LA23 1BQ

Tea, scone and soup in Lakeland Windermere

Tea, scone and soup in Lakeland Windermere

I am a recovering Lakeland mail order addict. When things weren’t going well I would flick through the catalogue, then order online and be happy. The big cardboard box would arrive with all my treats and usually the free gift for spending over a certain amount. In my mail order catalogues there would normally be something at the back about their flagship store in Windermere that stocked everything and had a cafe. When we were in Windermere and I realised how near the fabled flagship store was I got very excited.

I had to stop the mail order habit as it was costing too much and the stuff I bought was taking up too much room. I moved house and never told them where I moved to so the catalogues wouldn’t follow me. I severed my ties with Lakeland. We went to the Lakeland store and it was big and shiny and marvellous. Fountains outside, free internet inside, TVs advertising Lakeland and the Lake District not only in the toilets but also in the toilet cubicles, I was impressed. I decided that the only way to avoid spending all my money was to not look round the shop at all. I walked through it all and up the stairs to the First Floor Cafe. I held firm. I was strong.

The cafe was waitress service which is a nice unusual touch in a store cafe and had a full menu. I had tea and a scone and R had tea and soup. It was a nice setting and the food and tea was okay. If you’ve never been to a Lakeland shop then go here and experience it at it’s best, with the added bonus of tea.

Teapot? Yes.
Leaf tea? No, but jug of hot water came without asking.
Milk jug? Yes.
Price? £9.25 for scone, tea for two and soup. Bog standard tea was £1.45 and special (Earl Grey) was £1.55.
Cake? Yes, some. My scone came with tiddly pot of jam.
Go again? No, it was too hard to walk through the shop and not look.