Blends with benefits
Country Life UK|April 12, 2023
The British are very conservative when it comes to tea, but a gentle revolution is under way, spearheaded, in part, by a new breed of experts. Rob Crossan meets some of our best tea sommeliers to discuss the nation’s cuppa habits
Rob Crossan
Blends with benefits

A FRIEND of mine messaged me from Guatemala not long ago, having just arrived in Central America for the start of a random three-month ramble around the eastern coastline. Yet, his WhatsApp message didn’t contain pictures of Aztec ruins or sun-kissed beaches. Attached was a photo of a ruined pile of Yorkshire Tea bags, waterlogged and rendered beyond brewing by a leaking hotel ceiling that destroyed the supply he’d brought all the way from London. ‘Feel like coming home already,’ he moaned. He was joking—but only just. Such is the Englishman’s devotion to tea; a product that, like chicken korma, pizza and lukewarm Chardonnay, has almost nothing to do with the nation that has commandeered it as its own true love.

Tea is the great leveller. The vessel you drink it from, the time of day and environment in which you consume it and the posture you assume when imbibing it may vary. However, it’s still the greatest solution to the emotionally constipated, repressed English character we have: our words of comfort or our ability to discuss the mood and health of loved ones may struggle to eclipse the verbal dexterity of a Clinton’s greeting card—but we all know how to offer, make and present a cup of tea to the sad, the grieving, the tired and the hungover.

هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة April 12, 2023 من Country Life UK.

ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.

هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة April 12, 2023 من Country Life UK.

ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.

المزيد من القصص من COUNTRY LIFE UK مشاهدة الكل
Give it some stick
Country Life UK

Give it some stick

Galloping through the imagination, competitive hobby-horsing is a gymnastic sport on the rise in Britain, discovers Sybilla Hart

time-read
3 mins  |
December 25, 2024
Paper escapes
Country Life UK

Paper escapes

Steven King selects his best travel books of 2024

time-read
3 mins  |
December 25, 2024
For love, not money
Country Life UK

For love, not money

This year may have marked the end of brag-art’, bought merely to show off one’s wealth. It’s time for a return to looking for connoisseurship, beauty and taste

time-read
4 mins  |
December 25, 2024
Mary I: more bruised than bloody
Country Life UK

Mary I: more bruised than bloody

Cast as a sanguinary tyrant, our first Queen Regnant may not deserve her brutal reputation, believes Geoffrey Munn

time-read
2 mins  |
December 25, 2024
A love supreme
Country Life UK

A love supreme

Art brought together 19th-century Norwich couple Joseph and Emily Stannard, who shared a passion for painting, but their destiny would be dramatically different

time-read
5 mins  |
December 25, 2024
Private views
Country Life UK

Private views

One of the best ways-often the only way-to visit the finest privately owned gardens in the country is by joining an exclusive tour. Non Morris does exactly that

time-read
4 mins  |
December 25, 2024
Shhhhhh...
Country Life UK

Shhhhhh...

THERE is great delight to be had poring over the front pages of COUNTRY LIFE each week, dreaming of what life would be like in a Scottish castle (so reasonably priced, but do bear in mind the midges) or a townhouse in London’s Eaton Square (worth a king’s ransom, but, oh dear, the traffic) or perhaps that cottage in the Cotswolds (if you don’t mind standing next to Hollywood A-listers in the queue at Daylesford). The estate agent’s particulars will give you details of acreage, proximity to schools and railway stations, but never—no, never—an indication of noise levels.

time-read
2 mins  |
December 25, 2024
Mission impossible
Country Life UK

Mission impossible

Rubble and ruin were all that remained of the early-19th-century Villa Frere and its gardens, planted by the English diplomat John Hookham Frere, until a group of dedicated volunteers came to its rescue. Josephine Tyndale-Biscoe tells the story

time-read
4 mins  |
December 25, 2024
When a perfect storm hits
Country Life UK

When a perfect storm hits

Weather, wars, elections and financial uncertainty all conspired against high-end house sales this year, but there were still some spectacular deals

time-read
6 mins  |
December 25, 2024
Give the dog a bone
Country Life UK

Give the dog a bone

Man's best friend still needs to eat like its Lupus forebears, believes Jonathan Self, when it's not guarding food, greeting us or destroying our upholstery, of course

time-read
4 mins  |
December 25, 2024