Tea from Wallingford

I came to this realization recently: I think Wallingford might be the quintessential English town and the last one of its kind. Case in point: they have their own tea shop. Okay, so it is called The Wallingford Tea & Coffee Co, but it really is a tea shop. That rare thing usually owned by Chinese in London. Well, this is an English one. As much as tea can be English. And it is not really, as you can see from the picture accompanying this post: their English Breakfast blend is made from teas from Assam and Ceylon. Nevertheless, I love the shop. It is simple, sober, there are nothing fancy looking, merely lots and lots of different teas. It is all about the product. Even though I read that they rebranded it, I did not see any evidence of it in the shop. The boxes had that yellow colour and I did not mind the old fashioned look.

I bought some blends, among them this one, which is now my breakfast tea. It is very black, very strong and perfect in the morning to wake up. It apparently has other virtues, according to the writing on the side of the box: "Research has shown that a diet rich in antioxidants from sources such as fruits, vegetables and tea, can reduce the degenerative effects of lifestyle diseases". The degenerative effects of lifestyle diseases, that sounds like it applies to me. So I better drink plenty of tea.