The Tea Emporium

The Tea Emporium at Ironbridge – a ‘Proper’ Cup of Tea



Do you find it difficult to find a cafe that makes a good cup of tea? I like a fully flavoured cup of tea and I always find most cafes produce rather weak wishy-washy tea. Either they don’t use a good quality tea bag or they don’t allow the tea to infuse or they make it in your tea cup – which never tastes as nice as a cup of tea that has been brewed in the teapot.

We recently had a trip to Ironbridge, Telford, visiting all of the museums in the local area. There are ten award-winning Museums spread along the valley beside the wild River Severn - still spanned by the world's first Iron Bridge. At lunchtime we found a small cafe in the heart of Ironbridge called ‘The Tea Emporium’. The cafe is in The Square, a stone’s throw from the actual iron bridge itself. The cafe was small with an oldie world charm befitting to the setting of this historic town. The cafe had a limited number of tables inside but also had a few tables outside, ideal on hot summer days.

I was pleasantly surprised when I read the menu to find that they offered a selections of teas which they not only served in the cafe, but which they also sold for you to take home. Incidentally, they also take orders for their tealeaves over the phone. The teas were listed with their brewing time and a description of their flavour. I instantly knew that I was going to be served a very good cup of tea that I would enjoy.

I selected the Grandma’s Household Tea that was described as being suitable for drinking at any time of the day, the brewing time of which was 4 minutes.

The tea was served in a small individual glass tea pot which has a small fix basket like compartment wherein the tea leaves were. Because the teapot was glass you could see the tea inside and I could see the dark richness of the colour as I waited patiently for four minutes.

This cup of tea was really fantastic. Both my grandmother’s enjoyed a quite strong cup of tea, fairy dark in colour with a distinct taste, and Grandma’s household tea really did capture how I remember a cup of tea at Grandmas to taste. It made my visit to the cafe rather nostalgic.

It seems fitting that in such a historic place where the Victorians were blasting Iron in huge furnaces, and mining coal, producing fine pottery and wall tiles to embellish buildings that I should find a good old fashioned cup of tea, after all it was the Victorians that made tea drinking so popular in Britain.

I have an interest in Good tea because I myself hand knit tea cosy to sell, to keep everybody’s teapot piping hot. You can see my tea cosies on my website www.TeaCosyFolk.co.uk