It’s hailed as the champagne of teas, compared with the finest wines of Bordeaux and held up as one of India’s greatest exports, it’s the name that is synonymous with the very best of teas: Darjeeling.
I was reflecting the other day as I sat drinking a cup of traditional black loose leaf tea that we really have as a nation forgotten what great tea tastes like. The multi-national brands have been pumping out cheap tea for so long now that millions of us have long since given up on the stuff that once made Britain famous around the world.
Post the steroidal experience of the London Coffee Festival and all that is Brexit we took a few days out “up north”. This included a visit to probably the most famous tea room in England, Bettys of Harrogate. The contrast in style is so extreme that it’s hard to believe that Edwardian elegance still has any relevance in today’s market. However the permanent queue outside Bettys would make a hipster choke on their single estate flat white and proves that you can’t beat a well delivered authentic experience.
A question we get asked a lot at this time of year is; “which is the best way to make coffee?”, and like all questions of this nature is almost impossible to answer as it really does depend upon individual taste. In our cafés for instance we make cappuccinos with ½ a shot of coffee through to 2 shots. Milk can be either “dry” or “wet”, super hot or just warm, chocolate topping or none, and that is just one drink.
We’ve all read about the health benefits of Green tea. Its cleansing properties, full of anti-oxidants etc. etc. The only problem is its taste profile. Anything that tastes “grassy”, smells a bit like seaweed and if overly extracted could cut you in two with its astringency doesn’t potentially have much of a future with the mainstream consumer. It reminds me of “cod-liver oil” from my youth. Something to be endured rather than enjoyed!
Recently I've been cutting back on my sugar in-take. I've been a milk and two sugars person in both tea and coffee for ever. However following a trip to Sumatra in 2016 where no fresh milk was available I came back with a new determination to drink my coffee black without sugar at least once a day.