Concerning Tea

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Man, I do love me some tea. Being a Joko girl at heart has made living in Paris a bit of a nightmare (can you say First World Problems?), what with only Lame Lipton on the shelves. Thank goodness for England! Firstly, we were able to visit a South African store (the existence of which we owe our lovely defective comrades who think SA is less-than-awesome), where we bought some Joko at a fiendishly ridiculous price. Secondly, my dad bought Tash and I a satisfactory equivalent at Mr Ghandi's store near his home in Headington, Oxford. Thanks Dad.

So considering our wonderful excess of that delicious nectar, we were thrilled to be invited by the magnifique Anna Marina and her lovely Alex to The Tea Caddy yesterday - the most English tea room in all of Paris. Little wooden chairs around cramped tables, old maps of England on the walls, flowery wallpaper - it even smelled British. Of all the wondrous teas on offer (including SA rooiboos and Darjeeling, to all sorts of Asian teas, to orange cinnamon and lemon honey ginger), I went with the yummy-sounding Christmas tea (Thé de Noël), mostly because it reminded me of Dave.

Yum! Tea is always a ceremony. What with that, and Devon scones, our day was complete. A visit to the famed "Shakespeare & Company" bookshop around the corner was the finishing touch on a perfectly English experience :)

Note: Although we had a lovely time, the service at The Tea Caddy is less-than-wonderful. To be honest, expect to wait for a table in the afternoon - if not for the crowds, because of the incredibly lame staff. We had a good time making fun of our inept waiter, but I think Alex may have passed out if his lemonade had taken any longer to get to the table.