Jane Pettigrew gave the lecture. She's written seven books on tea! Seven! I had no idea there was so much to say about tea.

Due to the company's heritage it takes it's tea seriously. They have their own master tea blender that can help you chose any tea you could possibly need and he makes the blends they sell in store.

We tasted six different kinds of tea ranging from a delicate white tea to a black early gray tea. White tea has the most antioxidants and is great for having after lunch. It was interesting tasting each tea and then trying to guess the tones (a lot like a wine tasting). Tea comes from a variety of different tea plants and herbal teas such as chamomile aren't actually tea at all!

These were the varieties we had

Hopefully I've got all my facts right (I didn't take any notes). For white tea the leaves are not oxidized at all, slightly oxidized for green tea and completely oxidized in black tea. Certain kinds of tea are also protected. Dragonwell tea can only come from a special town in China. I really liked all of the blends we tasted. I am partial to a good earl gray though!

The Dragonwell tea is also know as eyebrow tea as the leaves are all twisted.

The store is pretty posh! This is the perfect place to get, as the store manager put it, the person that has everything. Also beware, it is all delicious and a tad pricey. They sell gold leaf orange marmalade, sea salt chocolate and chocolate cherry  and chili biscuits (I bought these along with some tea and they are hot!). They served some snacks after, and as usual I ate till I felt stuffed.

Chocolate covered coffee beans were amazing! I really liked the shop as the products have interesting flavor combinations. Not just plain marmelade and plain black tea. I think they'll give Fortnum & Mason a bit of competition.

Thanks to the East India Company for inviting me! I was a guest for the lecture and purchased some goodies from the shop after.