London Tea Shops

I love tea. A friend of mine in Paris served me a mind-blowing cup of jasmine tea pearls recently. It's basically whole long strands of tea, rolled into little balls. She told me it came from a tea market in Delhi (Sunder Nagar, I think). That made me rather angry. Why did no one tell me about this place while I still lived there? So far the most exciting tea-trip I made was to the Bharat Tea Estates in Cameron Highlands, Malaysia. If you've never been to a tea plantation, you should go. The scenery is mind-blowing and it's nice to drink tea and see exactly where it's grown. They even kept some very old English traditions there - scones with strawberry jam and cream for breakfast, for example!

Determined to find some specialty teas in London, I set out on little shopping trip.

First, there is the high-street chain, Whittard of Chelsea, which can me found in a number of locations around the city. The picture here is of the Chiswick branch, where you thankfully don't have to elbow your way around in a crowd of tourists. They have a decent selection of loose leaf teas and sometimes they even stock flowering teas, but no jasmine tea pearls.

Next up, the Twinings Shop on The Strand, opposite the Royal Court of Justice, near Temple Station. The shop has been here since 1717. They didn't have the jasmine tea pearls but stocked other interesting teas - tea pressed into the shape of a heart, tea wrapped into the shape of butterflies and tea rolled up into little squiggles, which I really wanted but it cost £25 for 125 grams! Way above my budget. Most of these interesting teas were from China, but they also stock the usual suspects from the Indian subcontinent - Darjeeling, Assam and Ceylon.



Saving the best for last, The Tea House in Covent Garden. I've been to this place before but did not pay much attention to the tea after discovering a pretty incense stick holder that I fell in love with.

So, finally(!), I found the jasmine tea pearls, but for around £11 for a tiny little bag, I thought the price was a tad bit too much. In the end, I bought some rather interesting Silvery Strawberry tea balls. It's white tea sewn into the shape of a strawberry. The shop also stocks flowering teas, black tea compressed into little nests, plus all types of black, green, white, mint, jasmine and fruit tea. There's also a huge selection of teapots, cups, strainers and all kinds of other tea paraphernalia.

As far as I know, these are all the tea shops that can be found in London. If you come across any more, do let me know. And if you fancy ordering online, here are some places I found, though I haven't tested them, so no endorsements.
http://www.leafshop.co.uk/
http://www.teapigs.co.uk/
http://www.giftsoftheorient.co.uk/