There are 2 things I love more than anything in this world- Travelling and Tea. When starting a blog, I was tied between writing about these two subjects, but eventually decided tea, mainly because I drink substantially more tea than I get to travel (although I wish I could do each in equal measure but hey that’s another story altogether)!
But I will, whenever possible, try to tie both my loves together and blog about drinking tea around the world!
You will note that I have previously blogged of my tea experience in Barcelona. Today I will regale of a recent trip to Singapore.
This was my second trip to this beautiful city state, if you haven’t visited before I highly recommend it. Singapore has a great contrast between its colonial past and its modern high tech present day.
With the likes of Raffles Hotel and The Fullerton (two ornate, luxurious hotels, built during the British Colonisation of the island) finding a lovely cup of tea in Singapore is not overly difficult.
However, my tea tale from Singapore was found within the world famous, and most iconic location, the Marina Bay Sands Hotel. Marina Bay Sands is a must visit hotel, shopping centre, conference centre- all under 1 roof- a unique boat shaped roof containing a viewing gallery and swimming pool. Upon entering the hotel/ shopping centre the opulence is apparent with the most notable, well known and lavish shops and boutiques- including Louis Vuitton, Dolce & Gabbana, Gucci, Ralph Lauren etc. I almost forgot to mention the small matter of a ‘canal’ running through the heart of the shopping centre.
After strolling through the opulence, you will find on the ground floor, the equally lavish TWG tea shop. For those who don’t know TWG is a well renowned Singapore tea house and tea shop. The shop oozes with opulence, there are gold tea canisters stacked from floor to ceiling containing teas of all variety’s, whites, greens, Oolongs and black teas. The centre of the store is filled with display shelving exhibiting pre-packaged teas in colourful, inviting packages. They don’t just stock one variety of a tea type or tea infusion, but numerous alternatives- for example as you have probably gathered I am an Earl Grey fan, and they stock English Earl Grey, French Earl Grey, Earl Grey d’Amour, Golden Earl Grey- and this is just a sample of the range (it is one of my aims to sample all of these Earl Grey offerings- I’m probably 40% through so far).
You can either purchase the pre prepared, boxed variety from the display shelves or alternatively at the counter area, which somewhat resembles a 1950’s British green grocers, you can ask for a specific tea type and the cashier will fetch the associated tea canister from the display and ask what weight you would like- the tea will either be poured into a foil bag or (for an additional charge) it will be provided in a small tea tin. They also stock all the expected tea accessories- tea pots, teacups, spoons as well as biscuits and sweets.
Upon leaving the shop and on your left hand side there is a majestic TWG Tea Room situated in the centre of ‘avenue’ . The tearoom is as you would imagine a colonial 1800’s tearoom to look- with silver cutlery on white tablecloth clad tables. After a short wait we are shown to our table where we were presented with a menu (well more like a short book) of all the teas they serve. As you can imagine I was fascinated by this, reading each and every blend in detail. My partner was less enamoured, but I was in my element! Despite studying the menu from front to back and back to front, it was inevitable that I was going to order an Earl Grey of some kind- but which, that was the question. After some umming and ahhing I eventually elected on the Earl Grey d’Armour- A light and aromatic blend, this black tea has been lovingly infused with delicate TWG Tea bergamot, wild flowers and luscious white tea blossoms (as the description from the website). My partner had the Darjeeling Princess- Fine, first flush Darjeeling black teas are delightfully blended with ripe orchard fruits to evoke a moment of beauty and sweetness. Not only do TWG sell delicious tea but they also sell food of all manner; caviar, sandwiches, cakes, chips, ice cream. Seeing the other patrons having food delivered to them it did look lovely, however, we had not long eaten lunch so elected for some of their fantastic range of tea inspired macaroons.
The tea arrived in a decorative golden, single pour tea pot- having subsequently reviewed these they retail for a whooping £100 a pop! The tea is steeped to the ideal level and the leaves are removed before being brought to the table.
Now for the pour, a crisp, golden liquor- delicious.
The tea was served with a pot of milk so was for the drinker’s choice as to whether to take it black or not- personally I take Earl Grey with a very small splash of milk, I accept this is unheard of for some tea drinkers, but that’s how I roll!
The Darleeing was a subtle and refreshing tea, with hints of fruit- we firstly tried this without milk and then added varying degrees to taste the difference in the tasting notes. I normally wouldn’t add milk to Darjeeling but was interesting to try it with differing degrees of milk. We cut each of the macaroons in half so we could enjoy each of the flavours, these really complimented our teas and provided some differing tastes to the palette.
I enjoyed my Earl Grey so much upon leaving the tea room, we ventured back into the shop to buy a pack of it- I went the extra yard and opted for a decorative tea tin.
If you are in Singapore, I would highly recommend a visit to TWG- that being said they are in locations worldwide so I am now looking to tick off as many of these as I can.
I must caveat that this is not a sponsored post. I have now affiliation to TWG professionally or otherwise. This is purely the writer’s opinion of their visit to this establishment.
