London Tea Shops #BriFri #FantasyTravel
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Last week, I reviewed the third season of Bridgerton. Tina shared her thoughts when rereading September by Rosamunde Pilcher.
Kateri is the woman who runs my local tea shop (Traveling Tea). She recently returned from a trip to London. She wrote a series of blog posts on her trip about the tea shops she visited and that inspired me to see if I could devise a trip around visiting those shops.
I started by putting the tea shops on a Google map.
Three of them are in locations near central London where I was at during my trip in 2014. Let’s make a plan to visit them in one day.
I’ll start at (1) Fortnum & Mason, at their original store at 181 Piccadilly. They sell Nine Ladies Dancing tea, which is grown in Scotland. Did you know that tea was grown there? Kateri’s blog post tells the fascinating story of the women tea farmers.
By Matt Brown – https://www.flickr.com/photos/londonmatt/30030211018/, CC BY 2.0, Link
Mariage Frère was established in Paris in 1854, but now has a (2) location in Covent Garden. Kateri suggested visiting Mariage Frère when the Restaurant and Tea Room are open. Their hours are noon to 7pm. I remember that Londoners tend to eat at 1pm. Let’s book our lunch for noon (which is when Midwesterners eat) and plan to visit the shop when we’re done. There’s also a tea museum on the top floor that has antique items related to making and consuming tea.
We walked around Covent Garden, but never managed to go in Covent Garden Market, so I’ll take a bit of time to window shop there.
For our third tea stop of the day, we’ll head to Mayfair for (3) Postcard Teas, off of Oxford Street near Hanover Square. They specialize in selling tiny packets of tea grown on tiny farms. The packets are suitable to be mailed to a friend. Their store is open from noon until 6:30pm. After my visit to this store, I’ll wander along Oxford Street to Selfridges, since I missed seeing that in 2014 (I went to Harrods instead).
Given that I will have encountered a number of Chinese teas during the day, I think finishing the night off at Ping Pong, a dim sum restaurant, would be perfect. The St. Christopher’s Place location is just around the block from Selfridges.
The other two tea shops are in locations that I didn’t manage to visit during my 2014 trip.
(4) Mei Leaf Tea is on Camden High Street, about half-way between the Mornington Crescent and Camden Town Tube stops on the Northern Line. Check out Kateri’s post for information about their post-fermented teas. They serve tea as well as sell it, so I’ll want to show up at 10am when they open for a shot of caffeine before exploring their teas, followed by the rest of what Camden Town has to offer. I’ll check out Camden Market and then, backtrack to Regent’s Canal. By then, I’ll be happy to take a somewhat quieter walk along the Towpath.
For a final day centered on a tea shop, I would visit the (5) Chinese Tea Company on Portobello Road in Notting Hill. As the name implies, this is the place to go to learn from a woman who was born and raised in China and now, imports tea from small farms that she visits each spring.
The shop is only a couple of blocks from Portobello Road Market. Does anyone else sing the song from Bedknobs and Broomsticks every time they hear mention of Portobello Road?
Just around the corner from the Market is the famous blue door — the one that led to William Thacker’s flat in the movie Notting Hill. Movie-locations.com lists other nearby filming spots for that movie.
Does that sound like a fun three days in London?