The Friday Review - Grey's Teas Part 3 - The Assam edition

Hello there,

Welcome back to Tea With Me and Friends - we hope you're enjoying Afternoon Tea Week 2016!

Today we bring you our third and final look at Grey's Teas, this time focusing on a selection of Assam Teas.

Let's start by taking a look at Assam Dikom....

Grey's Teas - Assam Dikom

The Dikom tea garden is based in the south-east of the Assam region in India’s north east, Dikom is considered one of Assam’s best tea estates. The tea produced is a bold, no nonsense traditional tea.

When brewed for five minutes you have a beautiful rich coloured tea with a bright, slightly malty flavour. A well rounded cuppa.....

Grey's Teas- Assam Dikom

Next we have the Assam Harmutty Second Flush.....

Grey's Teas - Assam Harmutty Second Flush

The Harmutty garden was established in 1870 and located in the Brahmaputra valley. The tea is usually picked in May, and has a wonderfully inviting aromatic aroma. 

A nice tea fact for you - this is a clonal tea....which means that the tea bushes which these leaves are picked from are cloned from the root-stock of the original tea plants native to Assam! 

This tea should be brewed for about four minutes and can be drunk with or without milk....we opted for without milk....

Grey's Teas - Assam Harmutty Second Flush

This tea when brewed is a lovely dark amber colour.

This is a lovely bold and rich tea with a slightly malty flavour. 

Finally we have the Assam Tonganagaon 2nd Flush....which also happens to be my favourite of the three....

Grey's Teas - Assam Tonganagaon 2nd Flush

This tea is produced by a small garden, from the Tinsukia district of Assam, in limited quantities, 

The tea is a golden amber colour when brewed for four minutes....

Grey's Teas - Assam Tonganagaon 2nd Flush

This tea has a bold flavour, which is malty but also slightly spicy...and its this delicious warmth that I love about it. A great cup of tea to start the day off with!

We hope you've enjoyed our look at Grey's Teas -there are plenty more teas to see over on the Grey's Teas website. We'd like to thank Grey's Teas for sending us the tea samples to try - please remember this hasn't affected our taste buds and all opinions expressed here are our own.

Thank you for popping by today,

Rachel 

It's Afternoon Tea Week!

Hello there,

Welcome back to Tea With Me and Friends, we're a bit excited today because it's the beginning of Afternoon Tea Week 2016! 

Afternoon Tea Week runs from 8th - 14th August this year and is a celebration of one of the nation’s favourite traditions. Whether enjoyed in a 5-star hotel, in a local tearoom, or as a home baked treat we know how much everyone loves a spot of afternoon tea and this week is the perfect opportunity to indulge! Pop by the Afternoon Tea Week website to see all the special events, exclusive offers, and competitions.

Some of the offers you can enjoy this week include 2 for 1 Champagne Afternoon Tea at Amba Hotel Marble Arch, 25% off Afternoon Tea in Oblix Lounge at The Shard, 25% off Birdcage Afternoon Tea at The Park Lane Hotel and 25% Afternoon Tea in Mirror Room at Rosewood London to name just a few!

In addition to celebrate Afternoon Tea Week Buyagift.com are offering Tea With Me and Friends readers an exclusive discount of 20% off all afternoon teas on the Buyagift.com website from 8th- 14th August, off some already discounted prices, simply enter AFTERNOONTEAPR at the checkout!

If you enjoy an afternoon tea adventure this week we'd love to hear all about it - leave us a comment or send us a Tweet!

Thanks for popping by today,

Rachel & Lorna

The Friday Review -Grey's Teas -Part 2

Hello there,

Welcome back to Tea With Me and Friends, we hope you're feeling tea-riffic today!

Last week we took at first look at Grey's Teas and the range they have on offer for tea lovers, today we're going to take a look at another selection of their teas.

First off let's take a look at "Good Afternoon" a Chinese and Indian tea blend......

This tea can be enjoyed with or without milk - as you'd expect, I enjoyed it without. Once brewed the tea is a pretty light amber colour - very welcoming....

The tea has a really light smokey aroma and flavour - not at all overpowering, but you can definitely pick up a slight smokey hint. Its a light and refreshing tea, which I thoroughly enjoyed with a piece of cake one afternoon!

Next lets take a look at Tian Mu Qing Ding a Chinese green tea.....

This is a green tea from China’s Zhejiang Province, which is grown high in the mists of the picturesque sub-tropical Tian Mu mountain. The tea is picked for only two weeks each spring.

To brew this tea, use one teaspoon per cup with freshly boiled water that has cooled to around 80 C. and infuse for three minutes......

This tea is a lovely pale golden colour when brewed, and has a light, smooth taste to it. Anyone who believes green tea is bitter should try this tea! There is even a hint of sweetness to the tea - again not overpowering in any way but definitely noticeable.

We hope you've enjoyed part two of our review of Grey's Teas - pop back next week to see the trio of Assam teas that we've sampled! Once again we'd like to thank Grey's Teas for sending us these teas to sample, but please remember that this has not effected our taste buds and all opinions expressed here are our own.

If you'd like to find out more about Grey's Teas please pop by their website.

Thank you for popping by today,

Rachel

Time....to get a little crafty!

Hello there,

Welcome back to Tea With Me and Friends....sorry we've been missing for the last week, time has escaped us recently! But don't fear.....we're back today with another scrummy post!

Recently, Sheree and I visited The Handmade Fair at Hampton Court, for a spot of crafts....and of course some afternoon tea! We booked our tickets really late this year, but managed to take advantage of a great offer which upgraded our tickets to VIP giving us access to the VIP lounge and an afternoon tea.

Both of us visited the fair last year and left feeling really inspired by the craft activities and stalls, so we felt another visit was in order. The location of the fair had changed ever so slightly this year.....crossing the road from the grounds of Hampton Court palace to the green opposite, but everything else looked vaguely familiar. Think lots of bunting and pretty tents full of crafts and you'll get the picture......

The Handmade Fair - Hampton Court

Our ticket this year gave us access to a talk in the Super Theatre, a craft activity from the Grand Makes selection and also a mini skills workshop. For our Super Theatre we watched the Mollie Makes mash-up featuring Mr X Stitch vs Lisa Comfort.

The mash-up saw these two very different sewists taking a tote bag and making it into an apron and our VIP tickets gave us great seats in the front row....

I'm a big fan of Lisa Comfort and so it was great to see her in action! We enjoyed listening to the banter and watched in awe as Lisa sewed perfected straight lines in a flash (I'm still a novice with the sewing machine).

After this we made our way over to The Grand Makes tent where we enjoyed learning the basics of cross stitch with Mr X Stitch (we weren't stalking him - honest!)....

Mr X Stitch taught us how to start a new cross stitch pattern so you have a perfect back and front, and gave us some tips as we started our first couple of rows. After the session finished we got to take out cactus projects home, so we can finish them off.....mine is...well...lets say still work in progress!

After a morning of craft just one thing was required....a good cup of tea...and of course some cake!

Now, in the VIP tent there was no shortage of teacup....

Decisions, decisions....which teacup will I choose today?

But I have to say that we were ever so slightly disappointed with the afternoon tea offering, which was exactly the same as last year...even the cakes were the same!

Another afternoon tea adventure!

There was nothing wrong with the food exactly (apart from it being rather limited - eight scones were given to a table of nine guests!), but it wasn't particularly inspiring and I was disappointed to see the same sweet treats and savouries.

The finger sandwiches were crustless and fresh....

but the fillings were a rather standard affair, including salmon and cream cheese, ham salad and cucumber. However, it was nice to have a mixture of brown and white bread to choose from.

The scones were a good size and were served with clotted cream and strawberry jam....

Scones enjoyed the Tea With Me and Friends way!

The cakes included small squares of lemon drizzle cake and mini macaroons, both of which unfortunately tasted rather like they had come straight from a packet. A disappointing end to this afternoon tea adventure.

Afternoon tea - The Handmade Fair

After we had recharged our batteries it was time for a mooch around the shopping tents, although they were so packed full of people it was hard to actually mooch....or see anything! There were plenty of stalls, offering a wide choice of craft retail therapy, but the tents were really full and we didn't feel like we could linger and look at things. 

Our day ended with our skills workshop, where we were taught how to make simple ric rac roses.....

All in all this was a bit of a mixed experience, we enjoyed the talks and learning new skills but it was a shame that the afternoon tea was a carbon copy of the previous year. It's always inspiring being surrounded by creative ideas, and the next day I got my sewing machine out and made myself a new simple dress.

Did you visit The Handmade Fair this year? If so we'd love to hear about your experience.

Thank you for popping by today,

Rachel

Time for a....Mad Hatter's Tea Party!

Hello there,

Welcome back to Tea With Me and Friends....sorry we haven't posted much in the last week...it was the excitment of Afternoon Tea Week! That and we've been busy preparing for a rather special tea party...a Mad Hatter's Tea Party in Lorna's garden!

For those of you who have visited our blog for a while now you'll know that we enjoy hosting afternoon teas as much as we enjoy going to fancy ones in hotels or tearooms. This particular tea party was Lorna's idea, we've had it booked in our diairies for a while and wanted to enjoy it in the garden ....thank goodness the weather was kind to us!

Now, Lorna's styling was pretty amazing for this afternoon tea....so I might have taken the odd photo or two....but I thought you wouldn't mind drooling over some extra photos in this post! So, grab a cup of tea and a piece of cake and sit back....presenting our Mad Hatter's Tea Party....

Mad Hatter's Tea Party
Tea with Me and Friends

In the centre of the Lorna's garden we had several tables, all piled high with iced tea and bubbles (we were a little too hot for traditional tea) sweet and savoury homemade goodies. Lorna also added beautiful flowers in various bottles and jars, along with all kinds of weird and wonderful items.

We followed a traditional afternoon tea menu, starting with savoury items....

Afternoon tea savouries
Tea With Me and Friends

Afternoon tea cheese scones

We had egg mayonaise finger sandwiches, Queen of Hearts savoury tarts and cheese scones smoothered in cream cheese. Plus these was a large tomato and cheese tart. Lorna opted for just one sandwich filling as we had quite a few savoury options to pick from.

We then had blueberry and lemon curd scones with clotted cream....

Afternoon tea scones and cakes
Tea With Me and Friends

We really had to pace ourselves with this afternoon tea as we went a little crazy with the baking! 

The sweet treats included vanilla biscuits, starwberry shortbreads, merguine mushrooms, gin and tonic cake and passionfruit and coconut rum cupcakes with lime icing.

There really was something for everyone....

Afternoon tea biscuits

Passionfruit and coconut rum cakes with lime icing

Strawberry shortbreads

Afternoon tea cakes
Tea With Me and Friends

I told you there would be lots of photos!

Now obviously we enjoyed our afternoon tea served on Lorna's vintage china collection...but we also got to use some lovely glasswear for our bubbles and even the cutlery looked pretty....

They gave me that teeny tiny glass!

A spot of Lorna's handy craft
made the cutlery pretty!

Now with such a wonderful setting for the tea party it would have been rude if the guests didn't look the part too....so here we are...before we got too hot in the sun and changed back out of the fancy dress.....

Mad Hatter's Tea Party
Tea With Me and Friends

We had a tea-riffic time....with great company and scrummy food! We'll be sharing some of the recipes on the blog soon, just in case you fancy creating your own Mad Hatter's Tea Party at home!

A big thank you to Lorna for hosting such a fab tea party!

Thank you for popping by today,

we hope you've enjoyed all the photos!

Rachel & Lorna

Time for.....Afternoon Tea Week 2015

Hello there,

Happy Monday! So, today marks the beginning of Afternoon Tea Week 2015 - a week dedicated to the wonderful pastime of afternoon tea.

Afternoon Tea Week 2015

Afternoon Tea Week runs from Monday 10th until Sunday 16th August 2015 and celebrates everything to do with afternoon tea with a range of activities, themed menus, exclusive offers and competitions. More about this week can be found on the official Afternoon Tea Week website, including all the fab offers that are running this week.

We will also be celebrating Afternoon Tea Week at Tea With Me and Friends towers with a week of special blog posts, including an interview with Chef Lewis Wilson from The Ritz, afternoon tea recipes and of course lots of scrummy photos!

Afternoon Tea Week with
Tea With Me and Friends

If you enjoy a spot of afternoon tea this week, or have a scrummy afternoon tea recipe that you would like to share with us, please get in touch - we'd love to hear from you.

Thanks for popping by today and keep your eyes peeled for all our other Afternoon Tea Week blog posts!

Rachel & Lorna

The Friday Review....Jenier tea

Hello there,

Welcome back to Tea With Me and Friends....it's Friday....let's get the kettle on!

If you popped by earlier this week, you'll have seen our post about Claude the pop up tearoom from the ladies at the Vintage Cake House in Farnham. When I popped by to see them on Gostrey Meadows last weekend, they told me about the loose leaf teabags they are using to serve their takeaway tea. As a popup tearoom Claude has no teapots....but they didn't want to scrimp on the quality of the tea they served and discovered Jenier tea.

Very kindly they gave me some teabags to try at home.....so I got my pretty teacups out and let the tea tasting commence....

Jenier World of Teas operates from Scotland, and source high quality teas from around the world. They currently have a variety of black, green, white and flowering teas on their website.

I had the Cream Earl Grey, the Egyptian Chamomile and a green tea to sample.

I started with the Egyptian Chamomile which comes from the Nile River Delta, Egypt. 

The 1st Grade chamomile flowers are field grown and sundried. I thought the yellow teacup was the perfect choice for this cup of tea....

The tea had a beautiful yellow colour, with a pleasant and fruity aroma. The taste was crisp and fresh, with a warming, fruity taste. It was a very relaxing cup of tea and is obviously caffeine free.

Something full of caffeine was the Cream Earl Grey tea....

This is a traditional Earl Grey with a hint of vanilla which gives it a creamy flavour.

This tea has a lovely copper colour (the photo doesn't do it justice) and a lovely creamy vanilla aroma. The black tea is softened by the vanilla, creating a lovely sweet tea that is not artificial nor overpowering. It's a very mellow brew!

Finally we have the green tea....now this is where I have a confession to make...I'm not entirely sure which green tea this was....

I know it was a pale amber colour once brewed. It was a punchy green tea, Strong in flavour without being bitter. This tea (whichever it is) will not disappoint anyone looking for a decent cup of green tea!

To find out more about Jenier teas pop by their website. If you live in or near Farnham, Surrey, you can try these teas at Claude the popup tearoom! Read more about Claude here.

I'd like to thank the lovely ladies at the Vintage Cake House for giving me these teabags to try!

Thank you for popping by today,

Rachel

It's time to talk about teacups!

Hello there, welcome back to Tea With Me and Friends.....

Well, more accurately I am making time to talk about teacups as my lovely husband has just returned from a cycling trip to South Africa.  Without me.  Yes, you do sense an edge to my punctuation.  On the one hand, it is a cycling holiday and you could not pay me enough money to compensate for the torture of going on a "so called" cycling holiday.  On the other hand, well, just look at the photos!  It was beautiful! And hot!

However, I digress.  My husband knows that when he goes away on his cycling trips that I will never stop him.  I will not complain about the bike parts strewn over my dining table, bar tape stuck to the back of chairs and grease on my laminate floors.  Too much.  Until 48 hours prior to departure when all hell breaks loose.  He also knows on pain of death not to return unless he has a gift for me.

I am pleased to report that my lovely husband is still alive and he outdid himself this time!  He found me a beautiful, vibrant cup and saucer which was handmade and decorated locally in Franschhoek.  It is bright blue with a dainty little floral pattern and will fit right in with my collection.

The newest addition to my collection

I am sure you will not be surprised to discover that I do indeed have a collection of china.  Some of it chintzy, some elegant, some modern and some not.  I am proud to say that I can host a tea for ten people and serve them all a different trio of plate, cup and saucer.  I can probably host more guests than that but would never admit to it in such a public setting for fear of my husband finding out just how many teacups I hide in my kitchen cupboards!

My first tea set was a charity shop find, many moons ago.  I had no china or silverware to my name, this blog was not even a twinkle in Rachel's eye and I may have only been to a handful of afternoon teas.  However the pretty yellow flowers and gold trim called out to me from the dusty shelves.  I was drawn to it.  I did not know why but I did know that at £10 for the complete set of four trios, milk jug, sugar bowl and serving plate, I simply could not leave it behind.

The pretty pattern that started my collection

Another favourite of mine was found in a dark corner of my Mum's garage.  As my Mum brought boxes out into the garden she stopped to peruse the contents and decide on its fate.  I was delighted when a box of my Nan's nicknacks made its way out.  I had always enjoyed staring through the glass of my Nan's cabinets at all of the wonderful little trinkets, each with a story to accompany it.  I was even more thrilled to see this little trio appear, with its large pink flowers and slightly squared plate.  I did not remember it from my childhood - that probably being the main reason it had survived said period, as it had most likely been kept away from my clumsy little fingers!  I loved discovering this new side to my Nan and I think this is what makes this pretty set so dear to me.

The trio that had once belonged to my Nan

Now, you will have noticed that I am not at all concerned about the quality of my china, its age, number of chips or indeed the value.  I choose my pieces based on what speaks to me, what makes me feel special when I use it and what makes my heart sing.  Well, this last trio which I am sharing with you does all of the above!  This is my only teacup with any age, purportedly being nearly 100 years old.  It has a beautiful green edge and such variety of exquisite little flowers of purple, pink, yellow and blue.  It is so delicate that my husband refuses to even look at it, for fear of it cracking beneath the weight of his gaze.  It lives in its own special place in a cupboard away from the rest of my china.  I do use it, as I believe an unused teacup is an unfulfilled teacup, but I use it rarely.  On days when I need a little lift.  On days when I need to feel special.

So now I have told you (in length, I know, and for which I can only apologise!) about some of my favourite teacups I would love to hear about some of yours.  Or better yet, see some photos!  So please do get in touch and tell us your stories about your most beloved teacups!

So over to you....do you have a favourite teacup? Leave us a comment here or Tweet us a photo on Twitter!

Thank you for popping by today,

Lorna