Meet Kate – the lady behind Lahloo!

Lahloo Tea in the Black Mountains

EAT DRINK SLEEP…

… the simple things in life done well! What better way could there possibly be to spend a weekend away (or longer if you’re lucky)! The company behind this brilliant mantra has two fabulous places we’d thoroughly recommend.

I first experienced EAT DRINK SLEEP at their dining pub with rooms, The Gurnards Head, in deepest Cornwall in January. We got snowed in but it didn’t matter one bit as this place is a home from home! Cosy rooms, open fires, quaffable wines and amazingly rustic and delicious food. Our favourite meal everyday had to be the fantastic breakfast! We walked, ate, drank and slept like babies and came home feeling ready to take Lahloo Tea onwards and upwards in 2010.

More recently I have yet again been bowled over by the EAT DRINK SLEEP team at their other dining pub with rooms, The Felin Fach Griffin in the stunning Black Mountains near Hay-on -Wye (the little place famous for its fantastic Hay Festival of Literature and Arts) and Brecon. Again this place oozes with the founders’ mantra of doing simple things very very well.

The team are lovely and really good at what they do (Jay Rayner thinks so too, read his review) This place is a must visit. While you’re there fill up on their wonderful breakfasts in the Aga Room (I can thoroughly recommend the smoked kippers and the home-made soda bread) and of course sip a cup or 3 of delicious Lahloo Tea. Or maybe sip a cup of Earl Grey in their gorgeous garden.

Have you been? I’d love to know what you thought…

Lahloo Tea in the Cotswolds: Urban Chic Rural Idyll

A Place Where Luxury and Sustainability Meet

I was introduced to Chris, the wonderful lady behind 2 gorgeous and outstanding, traditional, yet chic, Cotswold cottages, last year by SallyAnne Bliss and I’m so glad I was! SallyAnne makes the most fantastic organic and natural spa and skin care treats in her lovely barn-come-spa in the Cotswolds. She started working with Chris to provide visitors to Chris’ eco-luxe cottages with an indulgent bathtime experience and thought our fabulous tea would be perfect for guests to enjoy while they were away from home.

Members of the Green Tourism Business Scheme and proud to hold their Silver Award, they are making a contribution to preserving the environment. They also run the business as a Carbon Neutral Enterprise and offset any carbon emissions that we can not eliminate with the company co2balance, who audit us annually and put a portion of our contribution to the planting of trees on land adjacent to Summercombe wood in Somerset.

So now, if you stay at The Chestnuts in the beautiful Cotswold village of Shilton or Culls Cottage in the gorgeous village of Southrop (a brilliant cookery school here too), then you’ll not only enjoy outstanding surroundings, luxe furnishings, decadent bathtime treats and sumptuous sofas but you’ll also be able to make a gorgeous pot of Lahloo Tea to enjoy an indulgent champagne afternoon tea and cake in the garden!

Watch this space for my own (yes I was lucky enough to stay) review of this amazing place…

Should we ditch the latte in favour of tea rooms?

I found this article really interesting and thought I’d see if you agreed. Please comment, I’d love to hear your thoughts!

Ditch the latte, bring back tea rooms

A majority of people would prefer to ditch their morning latte and muffin in favour of an old-fashioned cuppa in a tea room, according to a survey conducted by Country Living magazine.

“Though American-style coffee shops, such as Starbucks, have survived the recession well, 79 per cent of adults questioned said they would prefer tea and cake in a tea room to coffee and a muffin in a coffee house.

Though people in the survey said they would like to spend more time in a tea room, trading figures from Starbucks, Costa and other outlets suggest that a frothy coffee on the go continues to be the drink of choice for millions in Britain. At its latest quarterly results, Starbucks indicated that sales in Britain had increased by 5 per cent on an annual basis in Britain.

An overwhelming 96 per cent of consumers surveyed by the magazine Country Living lamented the loss of a proper British teatime, saying that they felt the tradition has fallen by the wayside because of busy lives.

Susy Smith, the editor of Country Living, said: “We’re asking people to think a little harder where they spend their money. Teatime is such a hugely British tradition. And one of the easiest ways to support the rural economy is going to have a cup of tea with friends in a tea room.

“We’ve developed a real café culture in the last decade or so, but it would be a shame if we stopped sitting down to chat to our friends over a cup of tea.”

According to the survey, tea drinkers consume on average 3.45 cups of tea a day, but only four in ten people stop and take a break while doing so – the rest are grabbed while on the move or at their desk.”

(By Harry Wallop, Consumer Affairs Editor, The Telegraph, 12 May 2010)

Beans and buds!

Although it’s really a celebration of really good beans (with the likes of illycaffe, Bristol coffee roasters Extract, Bath boutique coffee roasters Lazy Jose and Cornwall’s Origin coffee) at the UK’s first coffee festival in Bath on Saturday 15th and Sunday 16th May, we are going to be there to celebrate the true taste of tea buds!

You see, there is so much to discover and the tea that is generally on offer is really disappointing. So we’ll not only show you that you can love really good beans as well as really good buds (we do!) but we’ll also show you with our unique Forlife infuser teapots and tea infusers just how easy it can be to enjoy delicious leaf tea from fabulous producers.

It’s free to come along and there’s also ice cream, chocolate and gorgeous kitchen textiles to keep you busy. So head to stand B37 and open you eyes to the epicurean delights of tea with Lahloo Tea. We look forward to seeing you there.

PS mention the words beans and buds and a gorgeous Lahloo cotton shopping bag is all yours!

We love real food so much we’re ranting about it!

Whether it’s a mug of really good tea with a piece of real crusty bread and jam, a bowl of cereal, artisan cheese, wine, chocolate or vegetables only real food with nothing nasty lurking will do for us. So, we are joining over 400 fabulous producers and taking Lahloo Tea to the Real Food Festival this weekend, 7th-10th May 2010 at Earl’s Court, London.

Not only can you come and say hello over a cup of tea at stand P152 but come and hear us rant! Last year we ranted with Rude Health, our favourite breakfast cereal people, at Abergavenny Food Festival. Listen here.

We’re off again so head to the Rude Health stage at the Real Food Festival on Friday 7th at 14:40h and see what gets us going!