It's finally time for the tea post. I have been spoiled with tea since I arrived here. There's usually a choice of at least four teas at any café, often even more. And in specialty places like Biddy's in Norwich, Farrer's in Kendal, and Stokes in Lincoln you can choose from over fifty different teas! Since it's easier to get hot water here than anything decently cold, I drink tea not just at tea time, but also at meals. While at tea time I prefer a type of black tea, darjeeling, I drink green tea or herbal teas at other times of day (and sometimes even at tea time).
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| "A Hungry Bunch" by Harry Whittier Frees |
I soon found out when I came to England that there is something called a cream tea, which is a pot of tea served with a scone. For topping, the scone comes with butter and clotted cream and either jam or lemon curd. This is my favourite kind of afternoon tea snack! The best cream tea I have had is at Biddy's in Norwich. It's always classier when the cream and jam come in little dishes rather than a plastic container.
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| My first cream tea at Biddy's |
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Cream tea at Fitzbillies in Cambridge
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| Cream tea at Parlormade Scone House in York |
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| History of Afternoon Tea |
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| Cream tea at the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh |
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| Cream tea at Mr H's Tearoom in Ambleside |
There's no shortage of places to buy tea in Norwich. In the US, I always had to search at T.J. Maxx or order online for anything other than Twinings. But here there are nationwide chains of dedicated tea shops as well as independent ones.
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| Whittard's of Chelsea in Norwich |
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| Bird & Blend in Norwich |
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| The Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster from Bird & Blend (currently unavailable) |
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| Søstrene Grene in Norwich |
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| The Green Grocers in Norwich |
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| Birchley's in Norwich Market (photo from Birchley's website) |
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| Biddy's in Norwich (new location!) |
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| The Tea Junction in Norwich |
Really nice independent bookshops, like Topping & Company in Bath and the Norfolk Children's Book Centre in Alby, will give you free tea while you browse. Many cafés or tearooms I have visited give you an entire pot of tea along with extra hot water when you order tea. Yes, they know I will drink that much tea. But going out for tea gets expensive, so most often I make my own. I'm still getting used to an electric kettle rather than a stovetop kettle. In my opinion, they make the water too hot—or, it's just hard to gauge how hot the water is. I haven't been able to find one of the temperature control kind. However, they are very fast! I'm always looking for funky teapots. So far I've been using a vintage metal one I found while thrifting (along with a creamer and tray).
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| Elevensies at Norfolk Children's Book Centre |
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| Peppermint tea at the Victoria & Albert Museum, London |
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| Darjeeling tea with a Chelsea Bun from Fitzbillies |
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Breakfast tea with pancakes on Pancake Day
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| Cardamom tea with seasonal hot cross bun |
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| Golden tea with chocolate chip honey cookies |
Now a bit about teas in Sweden. When I visited last June it was so hard to choose which teas to bring back. I know that I can get many similar kinds in the UK, but there is no place that does blackcurrant tea (svarta vinbär) like Sweden. Rhubarb and cream is another flavour more common there. Sweden, like the US, is unfortunately plagued with Lipton teas, but if you know where to look you can find better ones.
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| Teas at Coop in Sweden |
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| I tried the rhubarb mint and the lemongrass, peppermint, & tulsi tea |
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| Blackcurrant black tea in Sweden |
Most people in England drink black tea, and the preferred kind is Yorkshire Tea from Taylor's of Harrogate. The smallest size is 80 teabags at a time (compared to the US, where the largest size I have seen is 40 bags). I have even seen quantities of over 1,000 teabags in one package! I wondered about this, until I noticed that my host family brewed a regular sized pot of tea with 5 or 6 bags in it! I like Yorkshire tea, but not as much as a lighter darjeeling. One brand I do not recommend, though, is called Tetley. It's like the Lipton of Britain—pretty awful. A plain cup of strong black tea is also called builder's or rail tea.
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| Yorkshire Tea |
Now onto some 'best of' categories. Here's the classiest china I have seen for afternoon tea.
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| Afternoon tea at the British Museum |
The best place for outdoor tea is at Waxham on the Norfolk coast (provided you can't smell the seals—and I can't).
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| Outdoor tea |
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| Waxham |
The best black tea is darjeeling and the best lunch tea is fennel and peppermint.
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| A couple blends available from Hampstead |
The best green tea is jasmine pearls.
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| Jasmine pearls (image from Google) |
The best tea for evening is lavender tea. Plain lavender is really nice, and there is also a blend from Pukka with chamomile and lavender called Peace.
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| Peace tea with lavender |
The best peppermint tea is a tie between Joe's Proper Peppermint and Peppy Mint from Bird & Blend. Both are good either hot or chilled and you can dip the bags multiple times. The best chilled teas are peppermint and nettle.
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| Peppy Mint and Joe's Proper Peppermint |
The best lemongrass and ginger tea is from Cardew's of Oxford (they deliver!).
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| Lemongrass & Ginger tea |
The best picnic tea is universal urte from Fredsted. It literally has 25 different herbs! I'll have to look it up when I'm next in Sweden. It used to be available at Søstrene Grene, but they're not currently selling it.
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| Picnic tea |
The best new discovery (for me) is thyme tea. Just take the dried thyme out of your spice cupboard, add a sprinkle of cinnamon if you wish, and steep! Plus it's cool to say that you can brew a cup of thyme. Or, thyme for tea. Or, make thyme. Or... you get the idea.
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| Thyme tea |
Finally, my current tea stash. It's not as bad as it looks. Probably only 12–13 kinds. You should see the yarn stash!
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| Tea Stash |
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| Growing fresh chamomile |
Thanks for reading! What tea will you try today?
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| The Beatles having tea |
