About a year ago I was avoiding tea and coffee like the plague. I couldn’t for the life of me think why people would drink the stuff… But that all changed when I found an amazing little tea shop close to my uni in Preston… and I was converted.
Ever since moving to London I had been looking for a similar experience – a fully dedicated tea café with knowledgeable waitresses. Don’t get me wrong, London has some amazing places that serve afternoon tea, but I hadn’t been anywhere that was purely dedicated to the perfect cuppa… Until now.
TeaSmith (cute name right?) sits inside Spitalfields and is one of those places that is quite easy to miss if your not looking out for it. It’s a small tea café/shop with a long tea bar you can sit at. The tea bar makes it perfect to talk to the waitresses and soak up all of their tea expertise while watching them make all the weird and wonderful teas they serve.
We chatted to the waitress about what we liked and she suggested some different teas we should try. I had Lily flowering tea, meanwhile my tea-drinking partner went for Darjeeling. Both were amazing, having been made right in front of us with water from a pre-boiled tap. The people sitting next to use were having the Afternoon Tea Ceremony tasting menu, which included a number of different teas and lots of cakes and chocolates.
The tea keeps flowing until the leaves are spent or the customer is full. We drank as much as we could before picking up some tea and a contraption for brewing to take home.
I can’t wait to make up my tea from the comfort of my kitchen, and whenever I’m in the area and looking for a new flavor to try I will most definitely be popping back to TeaSmith.
Stop by and see for yourself – which tea was your favourite?
Contributed to Spitalfields Market Blog
