Who: Brits

What: TEA

Where: Teashops & the Orangery at Kensington Palace

When: Established 1704

Why: Authentic tea prepared by the “tea capital” of the world

Delectable.

Pre-trip: When we think of tea, we often think of fancy British gentlemen with funny accents in powdered wigs sipping the stuff out of a cup gingerly placed on a delicate little saucer. I mean at least I do. This cliché and insulting thought aside, I was intrigued to see what role tea played in the daily lives of average Englishmen and women in the present day. Tea has, after all, been culturally associated with the British since the early days of colonialism. Our split from the Crown in the eighteenth century was exacerbated thanks to a taxation on the stuff. And in recent years, tea has started to make a more pronounced appearance in American coffee shops and supermarkets. From America, to the Middle East, and over to the Far East, tea has become a staple drink of the local populations. It seems that Britain is the tea drinking capital of the world, and its impacts on the beverage, and those that have chosen to adopt it, radiates out further and further with the passage of time.

Post-trip: I was taken aback by how much Earl Grey tea they drink! I am by no means a tea connoisseur, but personally, I prefer Red Label tea, an Indian variant of tea which is produced by what is actually a British company by the name of Brooke Bond. Nevertheless, I did not mind drinking Earl Grey tea. I certainly preferred it to coffee, which Americans consume by the gallon. There were also many wonderful little tea shops right along High Street Kensington that I would visit during some of the evenings. I also made liberal use of the kettle in my hotel room. Truth is, one of my favorite moments of the trip was when we went to the Orangery at Kensington Palace for tea time. Growing up, my family would always have tea and biscuits at around 5 PM, and we would sit around in our living room and talk as we sipped it. But I had never attended a proper tea “party,” where I was served tea and had to dress up formally. It was memorable and enjoyable, and something tells me that similar variants of it will begin to catch on here in the US in a few short years.

I await that glorious day.

Citation:

• “Food and Drink.” Elegant Breakfasts, Lunches & Teas At Kensington Palace’s Orangery. Web. 23 Jan. 2016. <http://www.hrp.org.uk/kensington-palace/visit-us/food-and-drink/>.