Not counting the obvious friends and family, the one thing I miss most when away from Liverpool is a little taste of home. Specifically, a ‘proper’ cup of tea as served in one of my favourite cafes, LEAF on Bold Street. The many hours I have whiled away there – perhaps with a book picked up from News From Nowhere – never failed to bring cheer to even the busiest or greyest of days. But relocating 6,000 miles away from Bold Street meant that visits to LEAF had to be fitted in to occasional trips home, until the happy day when I discovered LEAF Tea Club.
LEAF Tea Club is
a year-long tea adventure.
Each month a parcel drops through your door, containing a selection of their delicious loose leaf teas to try, including black, oolong, green and white teas, as well as fruit infusions. There are information sheets with details of where each tea has come from, a little bit of history and, of course, the steps to follow to ensure your cuppa tastes as good as it would if served by the tea geniuses back in Liverpool. They are passionate about tea and it shows in every delivery from the Tea Club as you discover more about the teas they have sourced and brought to your cup.
LEAF Tea Club is available in the UK and internationally and would make the perfect Christmas gift for any tea-lovers you are particularly fond of. Since joining LEAF Tea Club I have been reintroduced to old favourites, tried varieties that I might not have chosen for myself and – perhaps most importantly – learned a lot more about what goes into growing and brewing the perfect cup of tea. What more could any tea devotee ask for? And as well as the Tea Club, LEAF also offer any number of small gifts and stocking fillers for the tea-mad person in your life.  You can choose from teapots and tea towels or sample sets. It is even possible to personalise the message on one of their distinctive tea tins, which will look lovely by the kettle.
George Orwell wrote that a tea was inferior if it did not make the drinker feel
wiser, braver or more optimistic
after drinking. LEAF’s motto is in a similar vein as they promise that
Where There’s Tea There’s Hope
If 2017 is to be the same kind of year as its predecessor, these are qualities we will all be in need of. LEAF tea makes the perfect Christmas present for the tea-lovers in your life, or alternatively the perfect restorative gift-to-yourself.
Now can someone pop the kettle on? All this talk of tea means it must be time for a cuppa!
Pictures by John-Mark Kuznietsov (teacups) and Oleg Guijinsky (tea leaves), via Unsplash
