Tea

Some addresses where you can buy great tea.

I developed a passion for tea when, many years ago, a friend of mine took me to the Mariage Frères shop and tea salon at 30-32 Rue du Bourg-Tilbourg in Paris. It has since become a standard stop for me whenever I'm in Paris. I always like to buy some personal favourites as well as some teas that I haven't tasted before. But that is becoming increasingly difficult with every visit.

When I'm travelling to China, Japan or India I like to buy some of the best local tea I can find.

If you're travelling to Hong Kong or are making a stop over at Hong Kong airport, I can highly recommend the tea shop in the tax-free zone. They sell some exquisite green teas as well as a great, strong, aged Yunnan.

Nowadays I mostly buy my tea at Betjeman and Barton because they've got a shop near where I live. They also do some nice blends. So does Kusmi.

If you're puzzled by those funny tea acronyms like TGFOP, FP, FOP and BOP, this Wikipedia entry explains it all.

These gradings are not necessarily indicative of quality though. Like wine the quality and flavour of tea is determined by the estate where the tea is grown, the season it is harvested, the year and so on. Again like wine Chinese pur-erh teas are classified by year of production. In the same way the Darjeeling First Flush, from the Darjeeling region in West Bengal, India, can be compared with Beaujolais Primeur. The "first flush" refers to the Spring harvest of the first delicate new shoots, which usually takes place around February-March and arrives in shops by the end of April.