On Saturday 9th May, I held the third tea tasting event – the first one to be held on the weekend. Because it was Saturday, Al`s Cafe was also open to regular customers at the same time. This meant we didn`t have so much room to spread out. I think other customers were curious about what was going on at our table and the different aromas that were floating around from our teas.
The first tea was a Kenya Kosabei tea. The colour was light and coppery. The taste was light and delicate. Quite different to darker blacker teas.
Kenya Kosebei Tea
There was a choice of three different desserts this time: April Crumble, Bread and Butter Pudding, and of course scones with jam and clotted cream. I chose the Bread and Butter Pudding. It is served warm, which makes it a really comforting dish. It was delicious and reminded me of home.
Bread & Butter Pudding at Al`s Cafe
I was joined by five ladies, all of them first time participants at this event.
The second tea was one I have served before in the club (see first tasting results), a Lapsang Souchong Crocodile tea from Taiwan. As you may recall, this tea has a strong distinctive smokey aroma. For some of the participants it was too strong and they needed to add milk in order to drink it. One participant was a great fan of Lapsang Souchong, and the final student seemed divided.
This is what makes tea tasting interesting I think. Teas don`t taste the same to everyone, and not all tea will be `your cup of tea`. Finding teas we don`t care for is part of the journey of tasting different teas from around the world.
Personally, I never liked this kind of tea the first time I smelled it and tried it many years ago. But over time I have come to appreciate its uniqueness, and now I truly enjoy drinking it 🙂
Lavender Tea in a Royal Doulton tea pot
The final tea was a herbal tisane – Lavender Tea. This tea was so fragrant and made the whole restaurant smell of lavender. I began to wonder if rather than being drinkable, it should have been used as a room fragrance? It took a long time to infuse, 8-10mins. In the end the tea was almost clear in colour and very soft. It was strange, because while it smelled so strong, the flavour was actually extremely weak.
I think in the future I will add this visually beautiful lavender to a black tea, to give a black tea a bit of an `accent`. Perhaps this will be the best way to use this tea, by blending it with other tea leaves.
Pluckley Tea – signature blend (finest quality teas from Assam and Kenya )of the Kent & Sussex Tea Company
At the end of the class I gave participants some samples of Pluckley Tea to try. This tea is the signature blend of the Kent & Sussex Tea Company. This was the brand which all of today`s blends had come from. I imported them all especailly for the Hudson Antiques Tea Club.
I look forward to tasting many more teas in June. Please join me !
hudson antiques tea club 