Tea Tasting in the Leicestershire Countryside

I was recently invited to a ‘tea tasting’ evening at The Old Brickyard Tea Garden, just outside Scalford (near Melton Mowbray). As I’d never been to such an event before, I was curious to see how it worked.

The first thing I discovered was that there are around 1500 varieties of tea, all of which come from the same tea plant known as Camellia Sinensis. Where the plant is grown, in what type of soil and climatic conditions, and when the leaves are picked, are all factors contributing to each variety’s unique flavour.

I then learned that the amount of time the tea is infused is critical to its taste. It’s precision stuff and Anna, our hostess, and owner of the tea room used a timer to get the infusion of each tea just right.

When ready, the tea was poured into a cup for us to taste. We each took a spoonful directly from the cup and were encouraged to slurp it noisily, swirling it around our mouths to ensure that the tea and plenty of oxygen reached all the taste receptors on our tongues for an even taste. Normally, you would then spit the tea out but, thankfully, we swallowed then moved on to the next!

There were nine different types of green and black tea to try, no two even remotely similar, and virtually each a favourite with somebody! I particularly liked the Darjeeling First Flush (made from very young shoots).

It was a very pleasant evening and an experience I would recommend.

The next tea tasting session will be on Monday 10 December from 6.30 to 8pm and is FREE! (A great stress-buster in this busy period running up to Christmas!) Click here for more information

For more information about The Old Brickyard Tea Garden, click here.

This post is adapted from an article which appears in the December/January 13 issue of Village Connect.