Tea for you and me

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

Tag Archives: pub


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The Hatchet Inn

12 Market Place, Newbury, Berkshire, RG14 5BD.   (View on map)

Leather armchair, tea and a log fire at The Hatchet Inn.

A Wetherspoon pub is not somewhere to go for a great cup of tea, but it will do a passable cup of tea and it will do it cheaply. Every Wetherspoon’s I’ve ever been in will serve a cup of tea in the same way: the teabag in the mug, a saucer on top of the mug and a milk jug on top of the saucer. This does allow you to carry it all with one hand (handy) but does mean that drinking the tea leaves you with a dilemma. Is the saucer for the teabag? For the mug? For the mug and the teabag? I tend to use the saucer for the teabag and milk jug and let the mug sit straight on the table as it’s quite a small saucer and things don’t balance properly if you try to put the teabag and the mug on the saucer.

Anyway, the tea at The Hatchet Inn was hot and strong and only cost 79p, but the best thing about this place is the log fire. The pub opens at 7am and though I’ve never made it there quite that early, I have made it in before 8am and the log fire is lit if it’s cold outside. A leather armchair, a book, a cup of tea and a log fire. Lovely.

Teapot? No.
Leaf tea? No, a Tetley drawstring teabag.
Milk jug? Yes, a tiny one.
Price? 79p for tea, though the menu says it’s £1.19 I have never been charged that much. Sometimes I am charged 99p though, must remember to ask why the price changes when that next happens. They also do a loyalty card with a free tea after five hot drinks are purchased. Bargin.
Cake? No, but muffins, biscuits, breakfasts (including hot drink and a breakfast item – such as a a bacon roll – for £1.89).
Go again? Yes, there’s a log fire!

 


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The Spirit of Endeavour

Mayflower Park, Marsh Lane, Boston, Lincolnshire, PE21 7QS   01205 356678   (View on map)

Lamb tagine, tea and burger at The Spirit of Endeavour.

It’s a very grand name for a chain pub near a car showroom but those in the know apparently shorten it to ‘The Spirit’, which fits in with a licensed premises nicely. We went for lunch on New Year’s Eve and the tea was surprisingly good for a pub. R and AM both had a large burger that was made with the small thin patties  and they had both been hoping for a big burger patty rather than many little ones. I had a lamb tagine that tasted like it was made in the microwave, but both the tea and the chocolate pudding I had were good.

Teapot? Yes.
Leaf tea? No.
Milk jug? Yes.
Price? Good question. As we were paying for other drinks and other food and bought in rounds it all got very confusing, but I think it was around £2 to £2.50.
Cake? Only the normal desert type cake.
Go again? I probably would, but wouldn’t go again for the tea, just for somewhere easy to go for lunch.


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The Chandos

29 St Martins Lane, London, WC2N 4ER   (View on map) 020 7836 1401

Tea with a doily at The Chandos.

The Chandos is a pub in Covent Garden that we went to when it was bitterly cold and a there was a tube strike on. We’d walked from St Pancras and were in need of some hot tea. Pubs can be tricky little things when it comes to tea, sometimes they’re great and sometimes they are rubbish. We went to the upstairs bar as there were no seats downstairs, lots of wood panelling and striped furniture. A good rule of thumb regarding the quality of pub tea is whether or not they serve food. The Chandos does serve food but had stopped serving by the time we got there, so we were taking a risk, but decided it was a risk worth taking.

The risk paid off. Tea for two came on a tray with a doily, milk jug, teapot, cups and saucers, teaspoons and all.

Teapot? Yes.
Leaf tea? No, but nice teabags.
Milk jug? Yes.
Price? £2.50 for tea for two.
Cake? No.
Go again? Yes.


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The Rowbarge

Station Road, Woolhampton, Berkshire, RG7 5SH

Brioche bread and butter pudding with custard, a pot of Earl Grey tea and a hot chocolate at The Rowbarge

Somewhere in West Berkshire is a pub I occasionally used to drive past. I seem to remember it was by a level crossing and that it looked lovely. I described this to J and she said she thought she knew the one I meant so we arranged to meet up at The Rowbarge. It turned out not to be the one I was thinking of, but it was very lovely. It’s on the banks of the Kennet and Avon canal and has a gorgeous outside seating area, bit cold for us at the time but I imagine in the summer it’s heaven.

The food was gastro pub style and tasty, with a range of prices so we managed to have main courses around £8, though the prices headed up to £15. Naturally I ordered tea after our main meal and we also shared a brioche bread and butter pudding with custard that was a good hearty pudding. The tea came in a pot with a Twinings tea bag and was a good cup of tea, though there was only Breakfast or Earl Grey to choose from (I’m sorry but fruit teas are not teas, they’re infusions, unless they are actually tea with fruit but they weren’t in this case). J’s hot chocolate was also approved of.

Teapot? Yes.
Leaf tea? Twinings tea bag.
Milk jug? Yes.
Price? £1.75 for a pot of tea, £2 for hot chocolate, £4.25 for bread and butter pudding.
Cake? No, just puddings and main meals, starters etc.
Go again? Yes, they were advertising a two course Sunday lunch for £14.95 and that seems like a good plan to me.


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Bordeaux Quay

V-Shed Canons Way, Bristol, BS1 5UH.

Tea at Bordeaux Quay

Tea at Bordeaux Quay

Bordeaux Quay was a pub we picked at random because it looked nice. We were after tea and cake and it was a bit late on a Sunday to go to a cafe. The outside of the pub said it had a restaurant, brasserie, bar, deli, bakery and a cookery school so we figured it would have cake.

They had run out of all the interesting cake so we just had tea. They also had a good range of non-hot non-alcoholic drinks too, which is often hard to find in a pub. Sounds silly but once you’ve gone through all the combinations of lemonade and cola you sometimes get bored. They had a range of presse drinks and even non-alcoholic Erdinger.

They also gave us free bread as it had been a slow day and they hadn’t sold it. I had it with bread and honey for my dinner when we got home and it was dreamy.

Teapot? Yes.
Leaf tea? Teabag.
Milk jug? Yes but one between three and it wasn’t enough.
Price? £1.85.
Cake? Nothing left but biscuits or dry brownies.
Go again? No.


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The Griffin

10-12 Church Road, Caversham, Reading, Berkshire, RG4 7AD.

Tea-total tea at the Griffin

Tea-total tea at the Griffin

We had been wandering along the river Thames and thought a trip to the pub would be very good. So we headed over the bridge and went to The Griffin. The Griffin is an old fashioned looking pub with beams and nooks, comfy seats and hops pinned to the ceiling. It’s also got an outside seating area but the weather was so good we couldn’t get a seat. Inside I decided what I really fancied was a pot of tea. I’m fine with ordering tea in pubs and bars, most places that serve food will serve you tea and the worst that can happen is that they say no.

Years ago, before every pub was open in the morning and had a coffee machine next to the spirits, a friend and I were at a gig in a pub in Kingston. We really wanted some tea, so we thought we’d take a chance and ask at the bar. They didn’t serve it, but we must have looked disappointed as the barman went upstairs to his flat, made us some tea in two of his mugs, and charged us 50p each. Standing at the back of the crowd watching the gig with a mug of tea is one of my fondest gig memories. Ah.

Anyway, R took some persuading that asking for tea at the bar wasn’t going to be frowned upon, but he did and I was very pleased with the result. The best bit, in my opinion, was that the teapot had a picture of a tea pot on the side and ‘ttotal’ underneath. Excellent.

Teapot? Yes.
Leaf tea? No.
Milk jug? Yes.
Price? Not sure, but less than £2.
Cake? No, but pudding and food etc.
Go again? Yes.


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Le Hocq Inn

Grande Route de la Cote, St Clement, Jersey

If this wasn't so blurry, you could see the tea and the cute seashell used for spooning out the salt.

If this wasn't so blurry, you could see the tea and the cute seashell used for spooning out the salt.

I don’t have a phone number or postcode for this pub, but go find Le Hocq and then turn round and the pub is behind you. The beaches on Jersey are amazing and I would recommend going to Jersey to anyone. The milk is divine too. The Le Hocq Inn serves gastro pub style food with lovely seafood. I’d recommend the big bowl of moules.

Teapot? Yes.
Leaf tea? Teabag.
Milk jug? Yes, with the divine Jersey milk in.
Price? Not sure, about £1.50 I think.
Cake? Pudding instead.
Go again? Yes.