The perfect cuppa

Tea may be our national drink—and the remedy for all bad situations and nasty surprises—but it seems we Brits haven’t got a clue about tea. Despite consuming a staggering 196 million cups of the stuff every day, it is what goes in those cups that is the problem. Husband and wife team John Kennedy and Tomoko Kawase hope to get people to banish the teabag with TeaSmith, a newly opened tea house in London’s Spitalfields market.

Kennedy, a self-confessed “tea geek”, aims to teach customers the art of making the perfect cuppa, while at the same time allow them to sample the huge range of teas on offer in the bar. TeaSmith stocks thirty-five variations of tea, carefully selected from artisanal growers in a range of locations, including the Phoenix Mountains in south east China and Kyoto in Japan. Much like fine wine, tea requires intense nurturing, including cycles of hand massaging and wok firing to achieve the right oxidation and seal the taste.

Masterclasses are available for those who don’t know their Jasmine Pearls from their Sparrow’s Tongue—in which a qualified tea ceremony instructor will teach groups of up to eight people how to appreciate a proper brew using sight, smell and taste.

But TeaSmith is not just about the drink. Keen to promote the tea/chocolate partnership, Kennedy even got on board award-winning chocolatier, William Curley, to design a selection of chocolates and cakes made with ganache infused with TeaSmith’s own teas. For those who want to stock up on tea ware, the shop offers a selection of clay pots and infuser mugs.