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General, News

London 2024 – 3rd Installment – Tea Stop #2

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Mariage Frère [If you go, time your visit to be there after Noon so you get to try their fancy tea-based drinks and/or food, that I missed out on]

This tea shop has been a Paris institution since 1854 and I know that several of our customers have purchased tea from them – either in person or online. When I discovered they had opened a shop in London’s Covent Garden area I knew I had to add it to my visiting list.

It did not occur to me to take photos inside the shop until too late – this installment documentary was an idea that arose after I started to put my thoughts and tea experience in writing

The shop is huge, and opulent and everything is very accessible. Every tea has a 100gm tin that can be opened and sniffed. They have looseleaf and teabag versions of nearly every tea, though some newer or special flavors seem to only be in teabag format. Where to start? We have a fraction of their volume and new customers can be overwhelmed coming into our shop!

I explained to the gentleman who greeted me that I have a tea shop in America and I wanted to bring back something special for my customers. He steered me directly to Marco Polo as a blend that is popular with Americans. I had certainly heard of it before.

Described on their website as:

Wonderfully fruity & flowery fragrant black tea

And: Our overwhelming success is a mysterious blend that will take you to distant lands and unforeseen territories.

Fragrances evoking Chinese and Tibetan flowers lend it a uniquely velvety taste.

Its extraordinary bouquet makes Marco Polo the most legendary of flavoured teas. 

And that is It.

No ingredient list – I had asked him about ingredients before I left and he assured me I could find them on the website. If you have more experience with this please let me know, but I looked high and low and with every search term I could think of, with no success. Are allergies not a big deal in Paris?

The best I could find, on every tea item I viewed:

For better or worse, this is the only tea I purchased. I did bring back about 20 ounces of both the black and green tea versions of the blend and they are Now available for purchase in shop & on the website in 1oz and 2oz packages only, plus a handful of trial sizes. The only decaf version they had was rooibos based. They had no other decaf blends that were not rooibos based. [To my dedicated decaf customers, I’m sorry, I tried]. I haven’t yet tried the green tea version but both are quite fragrant, and the black version is quite tasty!

Next installment – Tea Stop #3

General, News, Tea Info

London 2024 – 2nd Installment – Tea Stop #1 and Jessica’s Wedding

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Tea Stop #1 – Scottish Grown Tea “Nine Ladies Dancing”

For nearly 2000 years tea was primarily known to be grown only in China (and Japan circa CE 804). In the 1800s adventurous explorers and botanists began to bring seeds and plants to other countries so China would no longer have a monopoly. Now, in the 21st century tea is grown on nearly every continent of the world.

The United Kingdom boasts tea gardens in Cornwall and Wales and then, around 2016, nine Scottish women got together and began the process of growing tea on their estates.

It is my understanding that each of their tea gardens produces a limited amount of hand-crafted teas; and a few years ago they made tea news by getting their “Nine Ladies Dancing” tea blend (with leaf from all 9 farms) picked up by Fortum & Mason (UK provisioner-grocer-department store in operation since 1707). These limited edition teas sell out quickly and are impossible to get outside the UK (as far as I can tell). Visiting F&M to procure some of this tea was my #1 goal for this trip.

 Oh my, it is expensive – 60 grams (slightly more than 2 ounces) is all they had available at the time I was there; with the exchange rate (at F&M prices) it cost over $3 per GRAM. 3-4 grams are used to make a cup of most black teas (!).

Fortnum & Mason Premium Tea Counter

I look forward to exploring this tea with you – and to get feedback – IS There sufficient interest in this super premium exclusive tea that I should invest in 8-16oz, to sell in more affordable small trial and gift size portions? …. I Could do this – maybe not this year anymore, if they don’t have any left, but in the future???

We will be scheduling 1 or 2 sampling sessions soon. Guests will get an opportunity to taste this Scottish grown tea, as well as a number of other teas from this trip, as will be described in the next several installments. Invitation/Announcement will go out via email to our existing local customer list.

JESSICA’s Wedding – on the Isle of Portland, at the very southern end of England.

I hauled my luggage down this hill, and down these steps!
Old church remodeled into a B & B rental
Side view – This building housed all of Jessica’s friends and family + Adrian’s best friends for the wedding weekend.
Mr and Mrs Adrian & Jessica Wilkie

THOUGHTS? COMMENTS? Messages for Jessica you would like me to pass on? Add your messages on this post.

Next installment – Tea Stop #2

General, News

London 2024 – Jessica’s “Wedding” and my Tea Trip – 1st Installment

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When I first visited London and the UK a year or two before starting Traveling Tea, the only tea I could find was teabag tea and mostly it was Nothing to “write home about”, and that is all I am saying on the subject. I never visited an actual “tea room” back then, and I was not really looking for tea shops at the time.

Sixteen years later, I found tea service in restaurants and hotels*P still pretty much the same, sadly. However, …. Two of the looseleaf tea shops I visited opened up roughly around the time I started TT (isn’t That Interesting!?). French tea house Mariage Frère (a Paris institution since 1854) also opened a location near Covent Garden in 2018.

This is all strong evidence that proper tea enjoyment is definitely on the rise, Thank the Tea Spirits!

Petersham Hotel Dining Room view of Thames River with public commons walking area

*P A partial exception was found at my holiday splurge at The Petersham Hotel in Richmond (not far from Kew Gardens). The tea was no better, but the presentation was lovely. Pot of tea (with teabag inside) a pitcher of milk and a dish of several sugar/sweetener offerings (I’m sure I could have had lemon slices if I wanted). They served coffee the exact same way! Why cannot our quality restaurants figure this out? [caveat: by the time I added milk to my tea it was not very hot – but neither was the coffee I tried the following morning].

If you enjoy a bit of light hiking, The Petersham is a lovely hotel with several areas of public walking paths, including right along the River Thames. There is a bus stop right at the bottom of the hill in front of the hotel – so you don’t have to rent a car.

I did visit an actual tea room this time, also near Kew Gardens – Maids of Honor (established in 1850). They offered a proper tea service and a wide variety of teas. The décor was a bit run-down, but the service was good and I had a very tasty slice of quiche.

Next installment [presented in chronological order] – Tea Stop #1, and Jessica