English tea is back. But it’s not a paper doilies and finger-sandwiches affair

Coffee not your cup of tea? Try a cup of Peanut Butter & Jam! Independent tea company Yumchaa have opened a new café & tea shop in Putney this week (2 May).

The café at 116 Putney High Street serves up the humble tea leaf in over 50 different ways. You’ll find classic English Breakfast tea on the menu, alongside more adventurous blends. Look out for ‘Peanut Butter & Jam’, a green tea blend with peanut brittle and strawberry pieces and ‘Chilli Chilli Bang Bang’, a herbal infusion with chilli, ginger, peppercorns and red thistles.


A brew inspired by the classic PB & J combo, ‘Peanut Butter & Jam’ tea blend contains Sencha green tea, peanut brittle and dried strawberry pieces

Also on the menu are real chai lattes, matcha (powdered green tea) lattes, iced teas, tea smoothies and there’s even a range of tea flavoured ice creams planned for the Summer.

Yumchaa teas (that’s ‘yum’ and ‘chaa’, as in slang for ‘yummy tea’ ) are sourced from tea gardens around the world and hand packed in England. They say all teas are brewed using a temperature sensitive filtration system (so as not to burn more delicate tea leaves). The teas are steeped for optimum brewing times and served loose leaf tea in china tea pots with tea strainers. ‘Tea is the most widely consumed beverage in the world after water. It’s time we did it justice!’ says Managing Director Josh Mordecai.

Don’t expect a formal tea house, the Yumchaa want the café to be ‘…a very relaxed environment. We wanted tea drinkers to have the same choice, quality and relaxed experience that coffee drinkers are getting’ says Mordecai. It’s a modern take on a tea room, with exposed brick walls, ‘shabby chic’ furniture sourced from vintage markets and ‘make tea not war’ emblazoned across the wall. There’s a touch of whimsy about the place with little Alice in Wonderland style glass bottles set up for you to smell the different blends, which have names like ‘Adventure’, ‘Spiced Apple & Pear Pie’ and ‘Wanderlust'.

While specialty coffee shops have dominated the market in recent years, Yumchaa believe tea is making a comeback, ‘the tea market is expanding worldwide at the expense of coffee, partly because people are becoming more aware of the health benefits of tea’, explains Mordecai. And if it’s health benefits you’re after Yumchaa won’t disappoint. Gym-goers can pick up their fix of antioxidant and energy boosting matcha (a powdered green tea), cholesterol reducing ‘pu-erh’ (a traditional aged tea) and tea free lattes with anti-inflammatory spices like turmeric, ginger & coconut milk.

May 5, 2017