Tregothnan Tea – Black Tea Selection
I’m not sure that today’s post counts as a proper tea review. It’s definitely not going to be completely unbiased and fair-minded tea review.
I am reviewing Tregothnan tea and I am doing so while on holiday at the Tregothnan tea estate in Cornwall. Later today. I am going to spend the day at their Tea School Masterclass doing – oh, I’m not sure actually. Whatever one does on a tea-focused masterclass. This is entirely new territory for me. I am entirely in holiday mode and what is more, I am in a Tregothnan-tea-focused holiday mode.
So I want to love this tea. I want to love it because it is tea which is grown in the UK, a country more associated with its tea-drinking than its tea-growing. I want to love it because I have travelled 250 miles in order to drink it. (You don’t have to travel to the tea estate in person to drink it obviously, like any normal teamonger, Tregothnan sell their teas online. It would be a terrible business model, if you had to book a three-night stay in a shepherd’s hut just to get hold of their teabags.) Mostly, I want to love it because I am on holiday and being on holiday is just great.
So don’t expect any objectivity here is what I’m saying.
This isn’t some kind of official promotional shenanigans with Tregothnan, by the way. Maybe, one day, when I’m a world-famous tea fancier, teamongers will be paying me to shill their teas and you’ll be looking askance at me claiming that some tea is the BEST TEA EVAH from the comfy pockets of Big Tea.
But this is not that. I’m just a regular tea fancier, choosing to spend my time off work and my money on a tea-plantation focused holiday. In fact, if you factor in the cost of travel, accommodation and £145 a head tea-fancying masterclasses, then the complimentary box of eight teabags that I’m working my way through this morning is, without a doubt, the most expensive tea I’ve ever drunk.
The complimentary box of teabags consists of four Tregothnan blends: Earl Grey, Classic, Afternoon and Great British Tea. (A box of herbal nonsenses is also provided but I haven’t even looked at that one yet.)
And it’s nice. I’m not overwhelmed by the taste but I’m not underwhelmed either. Just comfortably whelmed. Their Afternoon blend is my favourite of the bunch. Would it hold its own against the best of Indian and Sri Lankan teas? At this stage, I would say probably not, but I may well revise my opinion after I’ve tried Tregothnan’s loose leaf blends. (Edit: Since writing this, I have discovered that Tregothnan make their Classic, Afternoon and Earl Grey teas by blending Cornish tea leaves with teas from Assam and Darjeeling which puts a whole different spin on things, to be honest.)
It’s an ambitious undertaking, tea-growing in England. Cornwall is the warmest bit of the UK so that probably helps, but it is still a damn sight colder than other places in the world. Also, tea likes to grow in high places and Cornwall hasn’t got the elevation of other famous tea-growing regions. The elevation at Darjeeling is 2,000 meters above sea level. The highest point in Cornwall is 400 meters (a hill called ‘Brown Willy’ which if, like me, you have the sense of humour of an eight year old, is the best name ever.)
I am not going to get into the technicalities of tea production at this point though. After today’s Tea School Masterclass, I am confident that I am going to know everything there is know on the matter (I have high expectations).
But right here, right now, I am drinking a cup of tea made from leaves grown a stone’s throw from where I am currently sitting. This makes me very, very happy.
