Absolute tea heaven under a fig tree.
I love tea.
I love the taste the process and the ritual of it all. I use it in my artwork all the time so it really is a big part of my life.
My friends in Blandford had told me about a specialist tea shop in Sturminster Newton which just happened to be where we had to go for the extra bit we needed for our sewing project. So we popped into Comins Tea House and stayed for some time. What a fabulous little place. A warm welcoming small and perfectly formed space inside and out. It was a scorching day so we moved a table and sat in the shade of a fig tree, it felt like we were on holiday.
The menu is very comprehensive with hand chosen single estate green, white, oolong and black teas. The biggest problem was choosing one! Michelle one half of the Comins team came to help us out and recommended a green tea (I wish I had written down which one it was!) and Anne had a hand pressed green leaf tea. My tea was sublime. Pale soft and gentle with a slightly fragrant and milky taste and look. Delightful on a sunny afternoon sitting under a fig tree.
Michelle says ‘We respect the origins of the tea, preparing our single estate teas in a way that makes the most of their fantastic natural flavours; aiming to keep it simple and not make it stuffy.’ I would say job well done on that front!
Anne and I were a little peckish so wondered about a spot of lunch. As I have to be gluten free I wasn’t sure what would be available for me to have, I really needn’t have worried. Michelle very kindly offered to hand make me some gluten free stuffed dumplings specially, adding that if they were not nice she’d sort me something else out instead. Well what can I say the dumplings were delicious! The dough was a little crumbly as gluten free flour tends to be but the taste was amazing. As often happens when I go out for lunch, it was agreed that we were full after the dumplings and really weren’t going to have any cake until Michelle came over to tell me there was a special gluten free lemon, coconut and polenta cake and I immediately found room for some of that. I am very glad I did. Gluten free cake can often be very sweet and very dry this was neither of those things. It was beautifully moist and full of flavour melting in the mouth scrumptious.
An all round delightful experience and I applaud Michelle and Rob for creating a sensitive and aesthetically wonderful project. They state that their business aim and direction ‘was to make it simple for customers to find and enjoy good value, quality, single estate loose leaf teas. We believed then, as we do now, that the preparation and enjoyment of loose leaf tea can be an every day activity which can fit in with and indeed enhance our increasingly busy lives.’
I wholeheartedly agree!
I bought some Genmaicha tea to take home with me (a particular favourite of mine) and the following day I enjoyed it immensely whilst sitting on the beach. The only thing that would have made it even better would have been to drink it out of the travel tea set that I saw in the shop the day before but I need to save my pennies for that!
