Must-Go Tea Places in London :)
Hey fellow Steepsters! I’ll be on holidays in London (from Australia) during the first two weeks of July and am very keen to check out anything tea related while I’m there – any suggestions? Thanks in advance guys!
I’ve only visited London a few times so I don’t know what the locals do but I was pointed in the direction of a place called Yumchaa while I was there (serve loose leaf tea and cookies and such) and you can buy loose leaf in 100g bags there as well if you taste something you really like!
I really liked it there at least! :) Hope you have a great trip – I LOVE London!!
I am SO glad you started this thread. I’ll be in London in mid-August and was going to ask the same thing. C’mon Londoners, this is your chance to tell an ignorant Yank where to go. (Advice about Dublin and environs also welcome. )
When I was at the London Heathrow airport, there was a great Fortnum and Mason tea shop and tea room! I really loved it. There were no teas to taste though but we could taste several of their jams. Anyway, there’s probably a F&M store in the city centre as well… And check out the Mariage & Frères store at Selfridges*!
My husband and I went to Fortnum and Mason during our honeymoon. It was one of the highlights of our trip! We thoroughly enjoyed everything about it from the tea to the scones to the service. It’s ritzy and expensive but completely worth it!
You can make a reservation in advance here: https://www.fortnumandmason.com/restaurants/diamond-jubilee-tea-salon
Also, I know you’re asking about tea, but this bus tour was the best thing we did in London. We did the Bath, Stonehenge, and Secret Places tour. I highly highly recommend this company! https://www.theenglishbus.com
I visited Marriage Freres at Selfridges. The gentleman behind the counter was very helpful and they had a great selection of tea not readily available in the U.S.
LONDON
SELFRIDGES
400 Oxford Street
monday to saturday
sunday09:30am – 9pm
11:30am – 6pm
Hope this helps!
How are the MF prices compared to online?
I am curious to know this as well. The prices from MF Japan is often times over 2 times the amount that the tea can be purchased online. MF online also declines any order where the destination address is somewhere in Japan.
I was talking to the Mariage Freres Manager of their main retail store in Japan about this. He replied they could lower their prices in Japan yet it would have detrimental consequences.
1. It would lower the brand image of Mariage Freres.
2. Sales would not increase so they would lose a higher profit margin without any gains in sales.
Many Japanese consumers buy the tea because it is Mariage Freres. They will buy the tea as a gift because the tea can be packaged in a special box and wrapped in a black matte monogrammed Mariage Freres wrapping paper.
http://steepster.com/greenteafairy/posts/254192
I’ve asked greenteafairy how much it was when she went there and she said roughly 9£ for 100g so slightly more expensive than in France
I don’t know why I didn’t mention this with my prior post, but we also went to the original Twinings shop. It was fun from a historical perspective. But since Twinings teas are so ubiquitous, I didn’t feel inclined to buy any tea there. They had a tasting room in the back, but they use harsh tap water to brew the teas. I was so surprised they didn’t use filtered or bottled water! The tap water is very hard is London and all I could taste were the minerals. So weird. You’d think they’d know better. So although I didn’t get to enjoy the tea (I couldn’t even taste it honestly in that hard water), it was fun to see the flagship store.
Thanks for all the suggestions guys! Will be sure to check as many of them out as I can :)
Postcard Teas (http://www.postcardteas.com/site/) is supposed to be pretty awesome although I’ve not been there myself…
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