The Tea Terrace, House of Fraser (Guildford or London) is a pretty and perfect afternoon tea for mother's day, hen parties or baby showers. Gorgeous Royal Albert teacups and Novus Tea . . .

Tuesday Tea Tasting My first cold brew! Well it is summer isn't it? Kind of - the English weather needs to sort itself out - but while the sun has briefly decided to pop out then it's about time I gave cold brewing a go. Flavoured teas are supposed to be a good shout for cold brewing so I used London Tea Club's Apricot Peach (Ceylon black with dried peach, apricot and papaya pieces). After following their instructions (like below) I had to wait overnight to taste my brew but, after loading it...

Tuesday Tea Tasting Strawberry season!! I love it when British strawberries are finally ripe and we get to enjoy them topped on a cream-laden scone or floating in a jug of Pimms on a sunny day. Well Tea Blossoms have taken it one step further and added the juicy British fruit to your English tea cup with their Aussie Green Strawberry tea. Their bright, colourful packaging tells me that it's a green tea blended with rose, sunflower and orange blossoms, combined with the fruity aroma of...

Tuesday Tea Tasting With Game of Thrones Season 6 starting last night I couldn't resist doing a blog on Dragon Well tea from Jing. (I could have tried their Jade Sword or Jasmine Silver Needle tea too but I'll save them for season 7 and 8!) It's a green tea from Mei Jia Wu village in China, one of only five designated and protected centres for Dragon Well production. It's spear-like leaves give a deep, nutty taste but its light floral flavours and smooth texture make it a perfect cuppa to sip...

Tuesday Tea Tasting As the famous Grand National horse race took place on Sunday, I thought an appropriate tea to try this week was Speedy Breakfast from Rare Tea Company. It's quick and strong (the attributes of any winning racehorse) and comes packaged in colourful stripes that would look great as jockey's silks. The tea leaves are cut a bit finer to infuse faster, so if you want to make a quick cuppa, but still avoid teabags then this is perfect, and great with a dash of milk. There are no...

With only 48 hours in Amsterdam, here are a couple of places I stopped for a cuppa - and a couple of places I wish I'd had time to pause in.

Tuesday Tea Tasting Tea Studio is a fusion of passions: tea and art. What that means you get is a tasty tea represented by an original artwork, which reflects elements of the tea itself. So my Studio Chai had a lovely swirly painting on the packaging - with colours that indicated the spices and assam contained within. I first tasted chai in India - and so I like it sweet and milky like it's served on Delhi's streets. So Tea Studio's recommendation of adding honey went down well with me and the...

Tuesday Tea Tasting I do love a builders brew. Don't get me wrong, loose leaf is best, but when my Dad makes me a cuppa it's PG Tips Pyramids or nothing. So I was interested to try PG Tips new tea capsules - for use in a coffee machine, which as a tea drinker I don't own! And that wasn't the only reason these pods got the thumbs down...I'm going to be blunt, they did not taste good. The Caramel and Vanilla was way too sweet and did not taste of tea at all. The Green Tea was too bitter. The...

“Come on, vogue Let your body move to the music." Well I did do a little dance on my visit to the National Portrait Gallery. Why the boogie? Because the gift shop is now stocking Cuppa Coasters!! Well chuffed to be part of their tea theme at the same time the Vogue exhibition is on. (You can also buy them here!)

I'm not green-fingered and I don't have a balcony, let alone a garden, but when a garden centre has a teahouse - well I'm sold. Petersham Nurseries is the great way to end a walk along the Thames and across Petersham Meadows. Its large greenhouse is full of wobbly rusty tables and weather-beaten chairs. Oh and quite a few prams but luckily there is plenty of space in-between the tables for these. The space is enchantingly beautiful. With plants covering the sides and ceiling and pretty pots of...