Yumchaa tea shop is a great place to get a half
hour timeout from work. It’s all very calming, open, spacious and relaxed.
Yumchaa has a couple of branches in London and they also run tea stalls in six
different markets. Their whole ethos is about great quality tea (something a
hardened PG tips drinker like me probably needs a lesson in). Their shops are
geared towards opening your mind up to the variety of teas on offer, and most
importantly enjoying them loose leafed instead of in a bag (woops).
Their website is pretty cool. The design is loose,
informal and full of character. You can get a history lesson in tea, discover
the route of their brand name and purchase different leaf blends according to
what particular mood you are in. Now, I consider myself a massive tea drinker
(easily consuming at least five cups per day) and yet when I erm, leafed
through their menu I found myself stumped and hurriedly ordered a safe
breakfast tea. Perhaps they need to work on tea-ing (sorry) people up to make a
more adventurous decision.
They also sell cake. There were a couple of out-of-place-looking wraps and baguettes, but I felt it would have been wrong to go savoury. A shop devoted entirely to tea (hot and iced) and cake is clearly the novelty here, so I went along with it.
I selected myself the largest slice of chocolate velvet cake
to go with my brew and found an extremely comfy seat to sink into with my
Kindle. My cake was delicious, moist and just the right side of bitter from the
dark cocoa. The ritual of using the tea strainer and pot is one I love and the
tea was clean, crisp and refreshing.
It felt a bit wrong being there at lunch time
though, because it’s just not a lunch menu. With so many cafés, restaurants and other coffee shops nearby
offering more, having a couple of paninis as the lunch option just isn’t enough
to bring me back again. I suspect this place will remain a favourite for quick
and informal afternoon meetings, a spot of high tea for tourists, or confused
locals like me looking for a spot to grab lunch.