Maine Allen's Blog: BIRMINGHAM | Whittard & 100 different brews

I remember when I was working in the Birmingham information centre and tourists would come in asking where could they possibly buy some English tea. Erm, Selfridges or ya know, try Tesco’s maybe? It tends to get a little awkward when you can’t give them a name of an actual tea shop in the second city. Now times have changed and Whittard came to rescue! Yes, Grand Central now houses the second largest Whittard of Chelsea store in the UK! Hurray!

As a continental European I like my tea without milk (oh my gawd, whuut?!) - ideally with a strong scent of anything herbal or extravagantly unidentifiable. If you ask me to point out my favourite tea I’ll probably say, depending on my mood, a Moroccan mint or a nettle tea or even Puh Ehr. And not gonna lie, these are not on your regular supermarket shelf around here - yet in say the Czech Republic, you would search for PG Tips endlessly but a nettle tea would be in your eye level. Now Whittard (luckily for you and me) brings these two worlds together by offering a range of 100 different teas. I know, I know, that sounds bloody overwhelming, right? Don’t you worry - when you come to the shop you can spot their ’sniff wall’ - a wall which has samples of all 100 brews inviting you to give them a little sniff! The scents of different teas are amazing - my absolute favourite there must be the Russian Caravan. It smells exactly like that - a really thick bonfire smoke infused tea (with a tinge of old leather and a wet horse - you probably just vommed but it’s the homiest coziest of scents for me - ya know, I come from a village after all).

Next time you’re in Grand Central, please do pay Whittard’s a visit - your whole tea world will change, I promise ya! And you know what? Whenever you come in you can taste one of 4 brews which are pre-made in tea pots for customers to try! How clever is that!

What’s your favourite brew?

Are you adventurous or is a black tea your kind of thing?