One silver lining of Covid-19 is that it has brought some tranquillity to beautiful places that are often overrun by...
18 June 2021
I long for life to return, in all its glory, in every aspect. I long for our senses to be restored and for us to rediscover, when we walk, the…
11 June 2021
It takes a lot of attention to detail to produce fine tea, harvested from this beautiful emerald expanse. Only the bud and the first two youngest leaves at the tip…
4 June 2021
More than ten years ago, I met someone (very) famous and something he said to me changed my life. That person was Richard Gere, a man who loves Darjeeling and…
28 May 2021
By the time you read this, I’ll be with my friend Alex, tasting each of his teas. His Satemwa plantation in Malawi is one of the best in Africa. Not…
21 May 2021
International Tea Day was pronounced by the United Nations to fall on 21 May each year, while other people celebrate it on 15 December. So we have a choice. As…
14 August 2020
In normal times, the summer is a wonderful time to head out to sea and get away from it all. This year, though, I doubt you’ll have an opportunity to…
10 July 2020
In Nepal, among people who are finding lockdown challenging are those who still have no roof over their head. In remote villages of this ancient Himalayan kingdom, I still come…
22 June 2018
I’m concerned about the state of the planet, and the proliferation of plastic is one example of this. We might think of tea plantations as idyllic places high in the…
31 July 2015
While you’re brewing your tea, you can’t always imagine how much work has gone into it already, with the harvesting and processing of each little leaf. The manual sorting, done…
