Rosie & Java – Richmond Royal Blend
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I was going to start off this review by asserting that the word “Royal” in the name of this tea comes not from some Twinings-style royal appointment to the Queen, but from the Royal Borough of Richmond upon Thames. Except that now I’ve looked into it, I don’t think that Richmond is a royal borough after all.
You’ll find plenty of instances of it being described as such, but in fact there are only four official royal boroughs in London: Greenwich, Kensington & Chelsea, Kingston-upon-Thames and Windsor & Maidenhead. So bad luck, Richmond.
Richmond is not without its royal connections, though. Richmond Palace was built by Henry VII and was a favourite residence of Elizabeth I who died there in 1603. Richmond Park – a Royal Park no less – was a favourite hunting ground of Charles I in the 17th century. So I guess the place can be forgiven for giving itself airs and graces.
It is within this borough, that you will find the Rosie and Java Tea & Coffee shop and it is they who are the masterminds behind Richmond Royal Blend, a fusion of orange pekoe teas from Assam and Sri Lanka. It’s a smashing tea whose long, furled, unbroken leaves demand that you take it seriously. It is a traditional-tasting black blend and as such, a trickier prospect to review than extravagant doughnut-and-quince-jelly type shenanigans. It looks, smells and tastes like an excellent quality Breakfast tea which is, I imagine, exactly what it sets out to do.
Certainly the royal moniker it gives itself doesn’t seem too much of a stretch. If the Queen turned up in the comments section, asking if I recommend it as a change to her usual Twinings English Breakfast, I would give her Maj a thumbs up, and offer to post her some.
Rosie and Java is a delightful little teamongering establishment that I plan to visit again soon. According to their newsletter, Mr and Mrs Rosieandjava have just had a new baby. (An actual human baby, not a cheesy way of referring to a new tea blend.) They solicited name suggestions for their new family member in their email. Surely they have all the name ideas they could possibly want, just sitting on their tea shelves? How about Lavandula or Pepper or Peony? Or, of course, Richmond which is a damn fine noble name, whose history stretches from Edmund Tudor, 1st Earl of Richmond to Noel Fielding’s character in The IT Crowd.
Congratulations to the Rosie and Java family and welcome to the world, new little person! You might be too young to enjoy your parents’ tea and coffee products just yet, but growing up in a Teamongery sounds, to me, like the perfect start in life.
Today’s featured book is Divorced, Beheaded, Died: The History of Britain’s Kings and Queens in Bite-Sized Chunks by Kevin Flude in keeping with the Royal theme of this post.
