Tea for you and me

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

Category Archives: Pondering


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Another reason to drink loose leaf

We recently got ourselves a garden (we didn’t steal it or anything, just moved somewhere with one) and I’ve been looking into what you can compost and what you can’t compost. I’d like to compost my used tea and teabags (there’s quite a lot in our household, so I feel it’s worth composting them all) but came across the rather startling revelation that not all tea bags are 100% compostable. Most contain a percentage of plastic called polypropylene and this will be left behind if you pop them on your compost.

Loose leaf tea wins again!


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Case Histories

No, they haven’t opened a tea room in honour of the Kate Atkinson novel, this is just a post about tea and the series of Kate Atkinson novels featuring Jackson Brodie. Ever since reading the latest in the series Started Early, Took My Dog and reading that Jackson Brodie was taking tea in Bettys, I’ve meant to put something on here about the tea in the novels. A sort of celeb spotting for fans of places to drink tea.

The nudge that I needed to post this was watching the first episode in the BBC adaptation of the novels last night. During the episode Jackson did indeed have some tea in a plant filled tea room with columns that looked like somewhere I need to go. If I remember rightly, the novel is set in Cambridge and the BBC drama last night was in Edinburgh, so no chance in finding the location in the book. Did anyone recognise it?

The second episode is on tonight, so I’ll keep my eyes peeled for any future tea venues.


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Cupcake rage?

Cupcakes are all the rage at the moment but what would you do if your favourite flavour had all been sold? A shop in Cardiff recently experienced an incident of ‘cake-rage’.

Any cupcake that can generate that much passion needs to be tasted. ‘Sugarswirlz’ is going on the list.

This is a cupcake from Sweet Tooth Cupcakery in Chorlton, Manchester and so has nothing to do with the 'cake-rage' story, other than the fact it is a photo of a cupcake. But hey, that's enough of a connection for me.


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Shiny new stuff

There’s some lovely new stuff on the blog!

Firstly, each review should now have a little link next to the address saying (View on map) and when you click on this magical link it will open a new window showing where the new tea temple is on the tea-tastic map page. I know it’s important to you all to find tea, so I hope this helps.

The second shiny new thing is a whole new page (I know, I know, I spoil you all rotten) called ‘Wish list’. Lots of people recommend places to me and I can’t get to them all fast enough to put a review on the blog in a timely fashion. This will have all the places that I want to investigate, along with a note about where I found them. There’s only two at the moment but I’ve got a backlog so there will be more soon.

Anything else you’d like to see? Let me know.


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All I want for Christmas is…

There are some tea places that I hear about and mentally add to my wishlist of places to visit. Here are some of the tea places that I’d like to be able to get to soon (in addition to the lovely reader recommendations):

  • The Hummingbird Bakery – all American cupcakes and stuff with frosting, credited with bringing the cupcake obsession to the UK.
  • Bill’s Produce Store -we had some issues with scones when we first went; I’m hoping to do a re-visit soon.
  • TEA at Liberty’s – I attempted to get here ages ago and it was closed for a refurb.
  • Claridge’s – for afternoon tea, of course.
  • The Savoy – again, for afternoon tea.

Now I’m thinking about scones. And cream. And big pots of tea and tiers of good things. Ahh.

 


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More recommendations, hurrah!

I am shamefully behind with my posting on here, but there are such treats as an afternoon tea for £15 waiting to be posted about and I’ll get to them as soon as I can. (Update: this review is now done, read all about it here.)

I’ve had three (yes, count them again: one, two, three) recommendations since I lasted posted! This is an excellent new record for me.

Firstly, a recommendation for Stop the World in Leigh-on-Sea: ‘I thought you might be interested to know about my favourite cafe here in Leigh-on-Sea.  It’s called Stop The World and has an excellent selection of leaf tea – even a delicious decaf!!!, gorgeous food/brunch and a HUGE selection of homemade cakes and biscuits.  If you like your tea shops, this is a must try!’ I am definitely visiting this place when I can next get over that way, really looking forward to that one.

Secondly, one of you got in touch to say ‘I was watching Masterchef the professionals tonight and they did a dessert challenge in a hotel in London which apparently serves the best afternoon tea anywhere’. This was the Palm Court at the Langham, which won the Tea Guild’s ‘Top London Afternoon Tea 2010’ award. I have been before, with regular afternoon tea goers N, H and E, but that was almost four years ago now so the time probably has come to go again.

And last but not least, the final recommendation was for Sally Lunn’s in Bath. The comment was ‘Tea and a Sally Lunn’s bun with cream and jam. Amazing. Addictive.’ The 100th review on this site was for Sally Lunn’s but I had my bun with soup and this is obviously where my mistake was made. I’ll try to head back soon for the cream and jam version.

I hope to head to the recommendation from the previous post, The Chocolate Teapot, next weekend and will keep you updated.

If you want to recommend somewhere, please stick some info down on the form here.


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Happy Birthday Tea for you and me!

The range of cakes at Angel food bakery

Ah, it was two years ago that I sat in Cafe Nero and thought, ‘This is rubbish, something must be done’ and the idea for this blog was born.

In that time I’ve clocked up over 100 reviews and sampled tea in five different countries. It’s had over 4,000 visits and the most read review has been Angel food bakery.

I’d love to mark the occasion by finding some new gem of a tea provider, anyone got any suggestions?

Happy Birthday Tea for you and me!


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All hail Mary Berry

Mary Berry is one of the best cookery writers and I’ve been using her recipes to make cakes for years. Her Baking Bible is definitely one to buy if you like baking and includes instructions for making scones and sandwiches in bulk for when you’re serving afternoon tea. I’ve never served afternoon tea, but it’s reassuring to know that when I need to I can follow the recipes she has laid down for me. I find that not many people have heard of her but this could all be about to change as she will be on BBC2 at 8pm tonight!

The Great British Bake Off is like the X-factor for baking, with home bakers competing to impress the judges. The judges are Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood. Last week the contestants made biscuits and treats suitable for afternoon tea. Here‘s an interview with Mary Berry about being a judge.

She also has a range of dressings and just to celebrate the Mary Berry-ness of the day, R will be cooking chicken with her All Seasons Sauce this evening. All hail Mary Berry!


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Delicious… wins ‘My favourite coffee shop’

I’m a bit late in reporting on this, but the excellent Delicious… has won the Reading Retail Awards 2010 ‘My favourite coffee shop’ award, as voted for by customers.

Picnic, which I’m ashamed to say I still haven’t stuck on here though I go all the time, won ‘Independent Store of the Year’.

Congratulations to both!

[Picnic now has it’s very own review! Take a look at it here.]