Leonardslee – Black Wellness Tea
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A few weeks ago I visited Leonardslee stately home and gardens in Horsham. I heartily recommend it as a place to while away a few pleasant hours on a sunny Sunday afternoon. It has a sculpture park! And a Doll’s House Museum! And wallabies! And a wallaby-shaped sculpture made entirely of doll’s houses. Okay, maybe not that last one.
And great as all those things were, I knew they were coming. Those things were in the brochure. What I wasn’t expecting when I entered the gift shop was the sight of a whole wall of tea. You see Leonardslee has its own loose-leaf mini Tea Emporium. Shelves of tea jars are all temptingly displayed like an old fashioned sweet shop. You can fill up one of the provided tea caddies with the tea of your choice.
There’s no smaller option than a 100g tin, which is a shame, because if they had sold 20g tins, they would have made a lot more money out of me. I would have bought one of every flavour I was tempted by. Even if it had cost more per gram.
As it was, I was tempted to treat the whole thing like the Pick ‘n’ Mix at Woolworths (or the Pick ‘n’ Mix at Wilco’s for our younger readers) and put a bit of everything into my tin. Luckily I realised this would be a daft idea.
So I limited myself to one tea selection. The tea blend I plumped for was their Black Wellness Tea. I’m not normally a big fan of teas with “wellness” in the name, but as this was a blend of Assam tea, rose petals and lemongrass (rather than some nonsense, aloe vera and turmeric herbal infusion), I figured it would be all right.
Sadly, after all my excitement, the tea itself – when I came to drink it – was rather disappointing. The flavour of the rose petals came through loud and clear. But the taste of Assam was noticeable by its absence. I couldn’t really taste the tea in this tea at all.
Thinking about it, I wonder if the tea was rather staler than it should have been. The tea at Leonardslee is stored in glass jars by a window. I presume that most teamongers’ admonishments on their packaging to store tea, away from sunlight isn’t just put there for a laugh.
Does tea lose its favour when it gets stale? It seems likely. That’s definitely what happens to dried herbs on the spice rack when they’ve languished unloved for a few years. I’m less sure about tea because it never lasts long enough at Tea Fancier Towers to get out of date.
Also, I don’t store my tea in glass jars by the window, because I do as I’m told, evidently.
It’s a shame that this tea didn’t taste as nice as I’d hoped. I’m all for encountering unexpected walls of tea when I go out somewhere. In fact, I think everywhere should do it. Just maybe a little more sympathetically stored. And available in smaller tins. And if you could get the wallabies to man the tea counter, that would be even better.
Today’s featured book is Lady Chatterley’s Lover by D H. Lawrence, because of the stately home and gardens theme, and not because I’m suggesting that the custodians of Leonardslee House are having it away with the gamekeeper.
