This weekend the Rare Tea ladies, Katherine and I were at Churchill’s old home Chartwell for the Battle of Britain 70th Anniversary concert. On a lovely afternoon we made RAF tea for pilots and picnickers.
Spitfires flew overhead and tea was downed like enemy aircraft.
Calming in times of national peril. Fortifying when courage is required.
Last November I made a little film about tea and the RAF. I had the great honour and privilege to meet Terry Clark, a veteran of the Battle of Britain. I wanted to take him something special so I made a bespoke blend - a really old school British tea. He rather liked it. I’ve been making it for him ever since. And then I got a call from the RAF. Can you imagine the excitement of jumping in a cab and asking the driver to take you to the Ministry of Defence on Whitehall?
This year is the 70th Anniversary of the Battle of Britain and to help celebrate the RAF asked me to make this bespoke blend on a bit of a larger scale. I don’t just make it for Terry anymore. From today it is available to everyone.
10% of the price you pay goes to the RAF Association Wings Appeal repaying just a little of what so many of us owe to so few; and to support the RAF museum.
Inside your tin you might find a golden ticket. Prizes include a year’s worth of free tea; dinner with Terry Clark and a FLIGHT IN A SPITFIRE.
Best of all the tea is utterly delicious- a blend of wonderful hand-crafted teas from two wonderful tea-gardens in Darjeeling and Malawi. It’s the good stuff.
Here it is and you can also get it in Sainsbury from Saturday 28th. Can you believe it?
I hope you like it. It’s a tea I’m really proud of.
I have to confess that I love pubs. I love tea shops and hotel bars and grand restaurants and dingy cellar bars too, but I have a profound fondness for proper pubs.
The Coach and Horses on Ray Street in Clerkenwell is a proper pub. It’s a lovely old Victorian building that hasn’t been gussied up. Inside it looks exactly like the Coach and Horses on Ray Street and not like every other gastro pub.
Collette, Giles and new chef Harry serve extremely good food and drink. The atmosphere is warm, friendly and genuinely welcoming. The wine list and the menu have been put together with real love and a desire to share the good stuff. What more could you want from a pub?
Yes, yes, of course they have my tea.
Celebrated and award winning Chocolatier Paul A young and I have been collaborating for some time now. We’ve spent hours and weeks and months of wonderful, revelatory and utterly delicious exploration pairing tea and chocolates. The chocolates he has created use tea as a subtle and delicious ingredient rather than trying to make a tea taste. Paul understands flavour like few people on the planet and to eat one of his chocolates is an intense joy.
Finally we are offering tea and chocolate hampers on the website and you can also pick them up at one of Paul’s shops.
Camden Passage, Islington
33 Camden Passage, Islington
London N1 8EA
Tel: +44 (0)20 7424 5750
The Royal Exchange, Bank
20 Royal Exchange, Threadneedle
Street, London EC3V 3LP
Tel: +44 (0)20 7929 7007
If you catch a boat from London Bridge you can cruise along the Thames to Greenwich Pier. For one of the loveliest spots in the world for a cup of tea the garden of the Old Brewery is full of roses and looks out over the river.
The brewery was first established in 1717 to aid the ailing pensioners at the Royal Naval Hospital. It was piped straight from the brewery into the wards. You can still get a pint of aged hospital porter to see you right.
here’s a little film I made about it for the Guardian
The Meantime Brewing company have sought to restore the brewery to its former glory. Today they brew wonderful ales in full view of the restaurant that serves extremely good food.
As well as beer they also serve Rare Tea by the boat load.
I may not be a Sir but this letter is really something.
It is a proud day at Rare Tea HQ.
I’m sure you’ve already seen it but just in case here is the little film I made about the farm where Lost Malawi comes from.
This gray Monday morning I was feeling a bit grumpy which is most ill-befitting a tea-lady.
Reading through the tide of emails that had come in over the weekend everything changed when I opened this picture and the email below.
You lovely people make my job so bloody brilliant.
Dear Henrietta
Here on a small island in the Atlantic (Canary Island called La Gomera) there aren’t many ‘fine foods’.
So when I get something delicious it stands out. It is cherished for weeks.
A few days ago I was given one of your teas. The Green Whole Leaf one.
The delicate taste is outstanding. It’s giving me such joy.This tea stands on its own. So gentle and subtle. A pearl.
Thanks for all your efforts in bringing about blissful ‘tea moments’.
With kind regards,
Stephanie
Maylis Briand runs Elysse, a small Epicerie in the heart of beautiful Bordeaux in South West France. Maylis works with small companies, like us, who take great pride in what they do so she can deliver the best products available to her customers.
If you look at the top row of shelves on the left you can see Rare Tea tins in the middle.
Knowing that in exquisite little shops around the world you can find my tea is one of the best feelings in the world.
Yes, yes I know what your thinking. Everyone here at Rare Tea HQ tells me I’m a mad obsessive and its true. I have the shallow heart of a grocer but it is full to bursting.
This is the lovely Sophie Rushton-Smith, PhD. She ran the 2010 Asics British 10K London run on Sunday 11 July (one of the hottest days of the year) raising money for the Alzheimers’ Society.
Instead of simply asking for sponsorship money, Sophie hosted an afternoon tea event for her friends, neighbours and parents from the local school, with home-made cakes, scones and Rare Teas.
We were incredibly proud that Sophie ran with Rare Tea’s logo.
This morning I got this lovely message from Kate Mayglothling of Wigmore High School.
I remember when I started Rare Tea back in 2004 it was so hard to get people to look beyond the the cheap supermarket teabag. It’s amazing how things have changed and how concerned the new generations are with the provenance and ethical implications of their consumer choices. It makes me feel incredibly hopeful.
Of course you might think I was being altruistic giving school children some of my tea but really I was just trying to get them hooked on the good stuff early. It was all just a shallow marketing plan!
Dear Henrietta
Thank you for all your help, articles and the wonderful tea! My workshop with the pupils was the talk of the school.
We looked at several of your videos from YouTube via your website and we looked at Fair Trade and focused on several products from Africa but primarily your tea. We all sampled your Malawi and Oolong teas together with some xxx teas and some xxx bags. You will not be surprised to know the pupils’ favourite was your Lost Malawi! A few discerning tea drinkers loved your Oolong.It was so useful to be able to watch you at the tea plantation and then taste the tea. We succeeded in challenging stereotypes and making the link between our shopping trolleys and the farmers at the other end. It was so successful so thank you very much indeed!