English Scene: Beautiful inside and out
Among the many tea collections offered by Ahmad Tea, I am familiar with the English Scene collection of loose black and green teas. There are seven varieties of which I have tried five: English Breakfast, Earl Grey, Ceylon, Darjeeling and Jasmine Green - each variety most commendably named for what it is, without fuss or pretence.
On the outside, the English Scene collection come in graceful caddies for which refill packets are available. These stackable caddies are a fine example of simple elegance and practicality. The 100-gramme caddies are made of good-quality tinplate and are shaped into a gently-curved oval barrel with flat sides not unlike an upturned oval wine cask. Each caddy is a plug-lid tea tin as it has a plug lid with a recessed lip which makes the outside lid flush with the tin body. The plug-lid design gives fairly tight sealing but without the fuss of double lids of the tight cylindrical tins.
The tinplate is gold-lacquered on the inside and gloss-painted on the outside. The front, the back and the lid are embossed with a golden crest of a teapot with more than a passing resemblance to Aladdin’s lamp but spelling "Ahmad Tea London". The collection-defining English scenes, identical on the front and back (useful symmetry!), are genteel paintings of London landmarks (Hyde Park, Houses of Parliament, Horse Guards Parade, St Paul's Cathedral, Westminster Bridge), mercifully free of the saccharine excess of many a chocolate box.
On the inside, loose-leaf tea is of good or very good quality and comes in impressively hermetic foil bags. It is quite an experience to break open such a bag, especially for scented varieties like Earl Grey or Jasmine Green - the outburst of aroma is unforgettable. I have tasted all five tea varieties by using water purified with a high-quality ZeroWater filtration system and by brewing in fine-bone china mugs with stainless-steel, fine-mesh infusers. Pristine water, immaculate china and long-handle infusers allow controlled and unhurried release of colour and aroma so that the right balance of strength and flavour is achieved. All loose leaves are cut and dried in such a way that no tea dust escapes through the infuser mesh.
English Breakfast is a solid middle-of-the-road blend and it deserves its "Good Taste" star, awarded in 2020. Earl Grey is sensational and it is a shame that it has not got any stars; having drunk many a version of the bergamot tea, I would happily give Ahmad's Earl Grey three stars. Ceylon does live up to its "premium Ceylon leaf" by-line: it is delicate but expressive, with a lingering lemon aftertaste. Darjeeling has always been my personal favourite and I have tried many a version (including first flush, second flush, single estate etc) and each quality Darjeeling tea has to be brewed to perfection by trial and error. In my opinion, Darjeeling is the champagne of the teas and Ahmad's Darjeeling does not disappoint by offering the expected subtlety, remarkably achieved at first brewing. Finally, Jasmine Green is a worthy sister of Earl Grey with beautifully fragrant jasmine; I am, however, more partial to black rather than green tea.
Last, but not least, Ahmad UK's customer service is prompt, courteous and attentive - even the packing person was identified by a handwritten label I found when my box of caddies and packets came.
You can't go wrong with Ahmad's English Scene collection and the caddies are a delight. It also is a good value for money, especially when compared with other vendors who claim special quality but - more often than not - offer inflated prices and brand names instead.
14 May 2021
Unprompted review
