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It's the drink that unites Britain - but divides us fiercely. Once upon a time it was very simple: "Would you like a cup of tea?" meant PG Tips or, if you were lucky, Earl Grey. Now, tea is treated with the reverence attached to wine. There are hundreds of blends of the evergreen Camellia sinensis plant ("tea" to you and me) to choose from at London hotels and tea salons.
The discerning snob can choose between hand-tied Chinese green or organic bohea lapsang; jasmine pearls and Indian masala chai. Timothy D'Offay of Postcard Teas on New Bond Street offers coffee blossom tea, made from the white flowers of the Sri Lankan coffee plant. Perfumer Lyn Harris sells three fragrant teas at her Bruton Street shop. There's a mini tearoom where you can sample rose tea with a delicate madeleine. "People thought I was barking but now they love it," she says.
Brown's Hotel, which today won the Tea Guild's Top London Afternoon Tea award (the coveted "Michelin star" of the tea world), has its own sommelier to guide you through 17 fine teas. Yesterday, for £35, I was served with delicate finger sandwiches, pastries, scones with clotted cream, the cake trolley, plus a tea sample to take home.
Hélène Darroze at the Connaught offers a "Chic and Shock" high tea (smoked salmon with wasabi cream; cucumber, lime and mint jelly shot in a tiny glass). The menu at Prêt-à-Portea at The Berkeley is changed every six months to follow the changing seasons in fashion. Currently on the cake stand are a Smythson "Maze Bag" Madeira cake, a Christian Louboutin "Pigalle" green stiletto biscuit and Prada dark lace Valrhona chocolate crème. While The Lanesborough (also graced with one of the Tea Guild's awards of excellence) offers a gluten and dairy-free tea, as well as the normal full-fat variety.
Although tea is enjoying a new ubiquity, it is still the great class indicator. Aristos and the working class are happy with mugs. The nouveau riche insist on cup and saucer and etiquette. Americans can be rich, but they'll never be truly posh because they can't make tea - they just don't understand it. And the humble builders' brew is back in vogue thanks to the reverse snobbery of the fashion pack.
Whatever your background, however you choose to drink it, there is always ritual involved with tea. Old-style socialists are very hot on how it should be drunk. Tony Benn drinks tea several times a day. In 1946, George Orwell outlined the recipe for the perfect cup in this very paper. His rules: always use a china or earthenware teapot. Put the tea straight into the pot. No strainers or muslin bags. The water should be boiling at the moment of impact. And always pour tea into the empty cup. "The milk-first school can bring forward some fairly strong arguments, but I maintain that my own argument is unanswerable," he insisted. And absolutely no sugar.
London's tearooms are abuzz: on any weekday afternoon you'll see a democratic mix of tourists, business people, families and romantic couples. As someone who once pushed the tolerance of Brown's discreet staff to breaking point (with an unseemly display of fortysomething snogging), I know just how "live" the atmosphere can be. And what a potent brew tea can be.
Reader views (5)
I have always enjoyed the builder's brew. That's the way my Granny made tea for us when we were little and living in England, and it's still my favorite way to drink my daily cuppa. The best brand for a good strong mug of builder's tea is Make Mine a Builder's. It brews fast and perfect every time.
- Renae, Alaska, U.S.A., 22/03/2010 14:52
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Great article. Rightly or wrongly I've been drinking black tea since my preadolescence. (Maybe not surprising as Canadians may very well be the largest per capita consumers of tea.) British people are so lucky--you have the best tea available around the clock everywhere. I had a darn nice cuppa at a London Burger King as a matter of fact. The best tea? By far I'd have to say it is Sainsbury's Kenyan tea. What's also very nice is your Lifeboat brand tea, which is also mostly Kenyan, I believe. Otherwise, I have to ask family in Canada to send Canadian Tetley's.
- Fred, Los Angeles USA, 22/03/2010 13:52
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I'm an American and I'm admittedly not posh but I do know how to make and enjoy a cip of tea! But I will agree not all Americans are like me.
- Phyllis, Brooklyn, New York USA, 22/03/2010 13:52
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Isn't it great. I use to hate tea, PG and that stuff - and then we started getting loads of fine tea flooding into the capital
You forgot to mention Yautcha - fantastic for tea and in my view the best tea from shops is teapigs.
- Simon, london, 22/03/2010 13:52
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PG Tips hot and strong...you can't beat it...
- Shelly, London, 22/03/2010 13:52
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