I love a good cup of tea.  For us Brits its the answer to all problems.  Having a bad day, hairdresser cut all your hair off, cat ran away, TV blew up, your house flooded- it's OK just stick the kettle on, it will all be OK with a cup of tea!  Its not fancy tea either, none of that herbal nonsense and definitely not that green malarkey!  It has milk in it, usually sugar too and it must be the colour of a good fake tan.  It will leave rings on your mugs that must be soaked off- I find bicarbonate of soda works well for this job. 

Perhaps a good cup of tea is more important to me now than ever in Canada.  It's all about the coffee here and that's no bad thing, I am a serious coffee drinker too, its just that a good cup of tea says Britain like nothing else and so far from what I know its nice to reminisce a little. 

My husband is a fan of leaf tea- he makes a great cup of leaf tea to his credit.  We stumbled upon a little shop in the Mall the other day and discovered David's Tea (http://www.davidstea.com/).  What a fabulous shop.  The staff were enthusiastic and helpful with little samples of tea and an eagerness for you to sniff many a variety of leaf tea. 
We sniffed, tested and purchased some good old English Breakfast and a Creme Caramel, organic rooibos tea.  We left with our little tins of tea and a booklet listing their many varieties of tea. 

I have scanned through this booklet and have marked many I intend to try but I cannot help but feel a little amused by some of their claims:

• Wanna be happy, friendly, thin and gorgeous?  Here is your tea 
• You’ll have more energy. You’ll have more patience
• Said to stimulate passion and creativity

I love their optimism. As a British tea lover I can relate to their claims.  In the UK a cup of tea can fix household dilemma's, marriage crisis and family emergencies so can this humble drink also give me energy, make me happy, thin and gorgeous- lets hope that it can? 

I am off to put the kettle on.......

http://www.davidstea.com/