Hidden History of Afternoon Tea in London: A Storm in a Teacup

A Storm in a Teacup at COMO The Halkin overview

Over Afternoon Tea at London’s COMO The Halkin, former diplomat Lisa Honan shares the hidden history behind Britain’s favourite brew, from empire to espionage.

Important details from the source

• Over Afternoon Tea at London's COMO The Halkin, former diplomat Lisa Honan shares the hidden history behind Britain's favourite brew, from empire to espionage.
• Lisa Honan is a certified City of London guide specialising in the history of tea in London.
• She is also the Tea History Tutor at the UK Tea Academy.
• Lisa spent over 40 years as a global diplomat and development leader for the UK Foreign Office, including in Kenya, Nepal, and St Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha.
• “I wasn't always interested in tea,' says Lisa Honan, ‘that came later, after I left my ‘proper' job.” It's a sunny afternoon in London and Lisa is carefully perusing the Afternoon Tea menu at COMO The Halkin - a multi-course feast of treats with a healthy twist.
• It was while Lisa was Governor of St Helena, Ascension, and Tristan da Cunha that she became fascinated in the history of the British East India Company, a powerful trading corporation that controlled large parts of India and Asia from the 1600s to 1800s, shaping global trade.
• “St Helena was actually one of the East India Company's strategic stopovers for ships travelling between Britain and its trading posts and territories.
• I guess that's where my fascination with the British East India Company - and through that, tea - began.
• It's extraordinary the depth behind a simple drink.
• The light is streaming in through arched windows, falling across COMO The Halkin's Afternoon Tea menu.

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