After our few days in Clanwilliam learning about the cultivation of rooibos, Arend Redelinghuys of Rooibos Ltd drove Pearl Dexter and myself right across the southern tip of the country to the Cape Mountains that stretch across the border between the Western Cape and the Eastern Cape province. 

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 I mentioned in my last blog that I had recently been in the Nilgiri Hills in Southern India at the invitation of the family who owns two stunningly beautiful plantations there - Thiashola and Daverashola.  (The photo shows us being welcomed at… read more...

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Today is tasting day!  I was recently sent some samples of teas made at Okayti Tea Estate in Darjeeling and at Thiashola Tea Estate in the Nilgiris and I’ve had fun brewing and tasting them.

When I visited Okayti a few years ago, I was impressed by the range of speciality teas that Antriksh Kumbat makes there - as well as the First Flush teas… read more...

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 Just over two weeks ago, I wrote that I was enjoying the cool, calm  interior of Babington’s tearoom in Rome.  I first visited this peaceful, very English tearoom (here it is on the left) some 7 or 8 years ago and fell… read more...

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 As I write, I am sitting in the cool and calm of Babington’s Tea Room in Rome.  Outside in the Piazza di Spagna, the temperature has soared to well over 30° C but inside I am quenching my thirst with a glass of refreshing iced peach tea.  I am here… read more...

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May has been a whirlwind month for me this year - two days after returning home from Las Vegas and San Diego, I flew out to Japan for a week of events in Tokyo and had a wonderful few days in some of the city’s best-known tea locations

After 20 years of interest, Japanese women are still fascinated by British… read more...

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I am just back home after a week of travelling - five days at this year’s buzzy, exciting World Tea Expo in Las Vegas and 2 days in San Diego where I had a wonderful day at Tea Upon Chatsworth, one of the prettiest tearooms I have ever visited.Expo this year was smaller… read more...

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As I write, I am enjoying a morning cup of smooth, strong Guatemalan tea that I brought back from Los Andes tea estate where I was two weeks ago. The Hazard family, owners of the estate, had invited me to… read more...

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As I leave home today to travel to Chicago for the House Wares show there, I am sad that I shall not be in London for the memorial service on Monday next week for my lovely friend Amber McCarroll who so sadly died from cancer at the end of last year. Amber and I did so much together… read more...

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My travels to promote the FINE T machine with Meyer Group took me two weeks ago to the ‘Ambiente’ International Home & Housewares Show in Frankfurt. The skies were leaden, the town white with snow as our coach pulled into the vast car park on my first morning there, and as our group made its way through miles… read more...

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