Summertime in Auld Reekie can feel a lot more hectic than The Big Smoke. So, instead of breaking to London for the hustle and bustle, I escaped for a tranquil weekend of sipping tea in the big city.
As the heat picked up this summer and many switched from hot to cold drinks, I was still sipping away on my steaming cups of single-origin tea. And what better way to celebrate this than travelling down to the London Tea Friends Summer Tea Festival.
Wanting to make the most of my two days in London, I got the 8:56am Lumo service from Edinburgh Waverley to London Kings Cross and mostly slept the whole train journey. With only two stops between Edinburgh and London (Newcastle & Morpeth), there were very few disruptions and despite being the ‘budget’ option for train travel, the seats are very clean and comfortable.
Lumo Edinburgh to London 8:56 AM service
Day One – The Hari, London
After a peaceful four-hour train journey, my first stop was The Hari in Belgravia. This chic five-star boutique hotel prides itself on its sustainability and luxurious creature comforts. However, we weren’t coming to stay this time, but to sample their gorgeous Italian-inspired Afternoon Tea (ÂŁ40 classic/ÂŁ55 with champagne).
One of my afternoon tea pet peeves is being served a generic tea bag – especially if you’re paying over ÂŁ20. Classic builders tea has a time and place, but when I want the full afternoon tea experience, I want the quality of tea to reflect the the dishes themselves. So, I was very excited to see Jing Tea on The Hari’s menu, as I have long been a fan of their quality and selection (try their Lala Shan or Dancong Pheonix Honey Orchid if you get the chance).
The selection of Jing Tea wasn’t large, but it covered a decent rage of teas across the spectrum of tea type. We ordered the Darjeeling 2nd Flush and Flowering Jasmine and Lily tea. They arrived in lovely porcelain pots, but the flowering tea would have better visual impact in a glass pot. It didn’t change the flavour profile however – glass and porcelain rarely does – so we sipped the quality leaves with pleasure.
Afternoon tea at the Hari
The Hari’s afternoon tea had an Italian fusion take thanks to Executive Chef Marco Quarta. Savoury dishes included focaccia with 24-month Parma ham, Stracciatella & balsamic, bruschetta with heritage tomato, toasted sourdough, basil & olive oil, Truffle arancini (my favourite), smoked salmon & cream cheese in wholemeal bread, and ciabatta with seared carpaccio, ricotta, aged Parmesan & rocket. My guest is Italian, and she gave them a non-committal “not bad” which I took to be a good thing.
I made sure to just nibble each of the savouries so to leave room for the sweets, which included a choux with mascarpone cream and espresso glaze, mini doughnut with pistachio cream, lemon torte caprese with lemon gel, a chocolate and orange cannoli and a plain and candied orange scone.
Afternoon tea at The Hari was an atmospheric experience with excellent tea and good food in a stylish yet comfortable environment.
Day 2 – London Tea Friends Festival
After a semi-comfortable sleep in a warm but central hotel, I headed out with a friend the next day to the London Tea Friends Summer Tea Festival located centrally in Lincoln’s Inn Fields. The London Tea Friends began as a friend group gathering over a shared love of tea before growing into a weekly community gathering in London. They meet every Sunday in different planned locations, to share different teas (sometimes with a theme), stories and their love for gongfu style tea.
This was their fourth annual festival and my first time attending, so I didn’t quite know what to expect when I walked across the field to find several picnic blankets laid out in a semi-circle with various set ups of teamaking and accessories. We had arrived a little late, so the blanket-stalls were already full of people in the middle of tea talks and tastings. A newsletter had gone out the week before, asking attendees to bring their own cups but there were small disposable ones on hand for those who forgot.
Our first stop was at Leaf & Buds who had a selection of Japanese teas to try, including a floral and sweet Sakura Sencha, and a wonderfully nutty rare Japanese black tea grown in the same way as the revered Gyokuro. Maren shared her experience working on a tea farm in Kyoto while others stopped by to sip and listen.
Lotus Realm, a new modern tea house bringing Chinese tea culture to London, was our second stop. We tried three different teas: shou Pu’er, Dancong and Long Jing. Before we were told what the teas were, however, we sampled them and pinned on a map of China where we thought they originated. I won second place, which included a Guozi tea pastry as a prize and will be available from their tea house in October.
Our third and forth stops were both Taiwanese. The first was Deerland Tea who specialise in small batch, high quality Taiwanese teas. We tried a few oolongs at different oxidation levels and a cold brewed Jin Xuan which inspired me to cold brew my own for the rest of the summer. The second was Herethe who create and/or curate seasonal boxes in support of underrepresented communities. They brought their Garden of Senses in support of neurodiverse voices to the festival and had thirsty tea lovers sip their teas before express how these tasted the tea through colour.
There were many other stops I wished I had time to visit before I got my train back, especially Curious Tea who are my go-to tea retailer in the UK, but I left with a happy heart.
What I adored about the London Tea Friends Festival is that despite the many businesses hosting workshops and tea tastings, the focus is not on commerce. Instead, it was a celebration of tea lovers to meet each other, drink, sip and be introduced to different styles of tea from all over the world. It’s a community-focused event, and one that should be celebrated.
I would love to see something similar brought to Scotland in the future.
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