Afternoon Tea with London Tea Club
I drink a lot of tea everyday (I don’t like drinking plain water), so I was excited to get an invitation to learn about tea with Cecelia Lau, founder of London Tea Club. She has traveled to places like Japan, China, and Taiwan to hone her own knowledge of tea growing and production; we were lucky to have an opportunity to learn a bit from her during our afternoon together.
The first thing we learned was a bit about tea ware. I’ve never made tea the way that Cecilia made our teas. I’m either using pre-packaged tea bags or brewing loose leaf teas in a mug with a metal infuser. When you’re using quality loose leaf tea, you can brew it in a smaller pot for a shorter amount of time (a minute or less), and you’ll taste a progression in the tea as you brew each cup. The small pot next to the tea pot was used to pour out the freshly brewed tea if we weren’t drinking it right away so it wasn’t continuing to steep in the teapot.
One of my favorite teas of the afternoon was a Yunnan purple tea; it was floral and well balanced (not too bold). The Yunnan province of China is home to some of the oldest tea trees in the world. It was pretty neat seeing a tinge of purple in the tea!
Pu-erh teas, a staple at dim sum meals to help settle the stomach after a greasy meal, are perfect for those who enjoy a bolder, bigger-bodied tea. One of the teas we tried was a shou pu-erh, which is a pu-erh tea that is artificially fermented; it speeds up the fermenting process (in contrast to a raw pu-erh tea). It came in the form of a little dried mandarin stuffed with the tea leaves, a novelty item but makes for a fun brewing experience. Centuries ago, pu-erh tea leaves used to be pressed into cakes, wrapped, and transported to be traded for other goods.
Heidi tried her hand at brewing our last hot tea and killed it like she did with putting together this small tea workshop with Cecilia!
The very last tea of the afternoon was a cold-brewed honey oolong — so perfect for summer! Cecilia sent us home with one of her teas, but once I finish it off, I’m going to try a subscription with London Tea Club. I love that she cares so much about sustainable and organic teas and has gained so much knowledge from her travels. I can’t wait to try new teas I would have never thought to try before. I really hope that honey oolong is going to be in a future box so I can cold brew it during the summer!
Thank you to The Assembly, a women’s clubhouse and co-working space, for having our group for a fun afternoon. This was my second time attending an event here, and I love the space, it’s just so cozy and gorgeous. You don’t have to be a member to attend fitness classes and workshops here; they have a schedule of events you can attend on a drop-in basis, just create an account to sign up. You can also purchase a day pass for $70 that also gives you access to a fitness class that day.
