Rare Tea

Spent my last day with the growers on the tea garden. John, the photographer and an old friend who now teaches journalism at a university here, came to take some shots for the new packaging. But its impossible to capture everything about this wonderful place and this incredible tea.
Its so peaceful up here in the mountains. The pickers wade slowly through the bushes. The only movement you see is a butterfly flutter.

We have seen the fresh buds painstakingly picked from amongst the spring leaves. We have seen them laid out to wither in the sunshine. The roofs of the houses are covered in bamboo trays full of silver tips. We have seen the errent leaves meticulously removed from amongst the buds, everyone sitting together over their baskets and chatting. We have seen the tea dried through the night with the help of a wood fire. We have sat around drinking fresh, fragrant tea.

Before we left we ate with the tea pluckers: boiled eggs in a sugar soup.

As we head down the mountain it starts to rain. The air smells of tea

Today I was taken out for lunch by the local big man. He used to be a government official, made a fortune on real estate and has recently moved into tea. Not a man I should offend but I did change dinner for lunch.

Outside of large hotels there are no menus in restaurants. The fish swim in tanks and dishes are laid out so that you can chose your food visually. There is only what is fresh and local.

This particular restaurant had a chicken in a card board box. There was a hole cut out for his head and he was pecking at a bowl of grain. Shiny feathers and beady eyes. ‘Its organic’, said Mr David who was translating for me. “You can see what they feed it and that it lives clean here not dirty in a factory. ”

I spent all day in the sweet smelling mountains. I’ve seen the fresh buds of this year’s silver tip plucked and dried. All very zen.

After a long and bumpy trip down into the town I’m now tearing down a dirt track in a VW van. The driver, with boy-band hair, is cross with me because I asked him to turn off the tinny pop on the radio. He narrows his eyes at me in the mirror. I wish he’d keep them on the road and the wobbly bicycles. Dusk is falling, dust and chaos.

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I’m off to China today to visit my growers and select the new season’s teas.
It’s both exciting and daunting. Lots of long journeys high into the mountains to remote tea gardens where they have been growing tea for 5000 years.
Leaving the city and heading up into the hills it’s a bit like going from Blade Runner to Crouching Tiger.
Its beautiful in the mountains and the people are very gentle and kind.

This picture was taken last year. Hopefully I’ll be able to send some new ones from over there and get them up here while I’m away. But that rather depends on all the technology working and that I can work it.

Fingers crossed.

Don’t forget to watch me on UKTV Food tonight at 7pm. I’m having dinner with my mother to celebrate her birthday so I wont be able to watch. Tell me what you think…I’d like to hear- nice things.

I’m having a wee bit of work done at the moment. This is me making tea in what will soon be the kitchen. I’ve been making tea for the builders and at first they were dubious. The idea of teas so good they wouldn’t need milk or sugar took some getting used to. But the taste didn’t. I can happily say that now Rare Tea is the official drink of my builders.

Today has been quite odd. I was picked up this morning and taken to a TV studio in North London. I’ve never been to a TV studio before. I got taken into hair and makeup. Just the idea intimidates me. I was terrified I’d come out looking like an extra from Priscilla Queen of the Desert. It was actually quite nice to be pampered and the makeup-artist was very kind and subtle. Then I made tea for the presenters Matthew Fort and Tana Ramsey. It was a bit surreal. I blushed repeatedly and couldn’t stop looking into the camera like a rabbit into headlights. Not a very professional tea-lady.
You can see for yourselves on Market Kitchen, UKTV FOOD on 18th March.

I’m tempted not to watch in order to maintain my staggering vanity which might be diminished by hard evidence. But the nature of vanity, being as it is, I will be glued.

I don’t know if you saw the Guardian G2 section on Friday but they featured Rare Tea on their shopping pages:

It may be extravagant to spend this much on tea, but trust us, the difference in flavour will surprise you.

It’s true. You’ll fall off your chair when you taste how good tea can be. But is it really extravagant?

Rare Teas are lovingly hand-made not machine processed. Each pot of lovely leaves can be infused at least three times revealing different subtleties of flavour. A little of the good stuff goes a long way and is a real delight.

When I think of what people pay at coffee places for a nasty tea bag plonked in a paper cup of hot water I really wince.