I Pity The Fool That Don't Drink Tea.

Finally someone has designed a mug that has a bit of class.
My good friend Claire from Tee and Toast hand paints every single one of these.
I had designed a Suki Tea mug and T Shirt for her to print but when I saw what she had come up with I couldn't say no.


Class! We're selling these on the continental market at the City Hall, Belfast.
(finishes 20th DEC)

As art market bottoms out, a painter gives his work away for nothing.

Adam Neate wants to 'put something back' by leaving his paintings in public places for anyone to take home.
If You're in london this friday you could quite literally stumble upon a free piece of art worth anything up to £43k.
MORE INFO. . .

Belfast Continental Market. City hall.

Starts 18th Nov. Suki tea will be there again this year. This year we went to town on the tea lovers gift packs. Also available online www.Suki-tea.com from 15th Nov.

Norpel in our tasting room yesterday.

An ex Buddhist monk and fellow tea lover, Norpel is off to china in the next couple of weeks to spend about 6 months living with the tea growers and pickers in the Yunnan province. He's been kind enough to offer to make up some Pu Erh Suki tea cakes using wild picked tea. They're blocks of compressed tea. Not available until next year but I tried this years yesterday and they are a delight that's worth the wait.

Samantha and I went to see this at the weekend Waterfront, Belfast.
If you get a chance. Go see!
I know it's nothing to do with tea but it was quite steamy.

“A Great Sexy Beast Of A Piece” The Sunday Times

“It Looks Like Nothing On Earth” The Independent ****

“Startling Clarity And Breathtaking Invention” The Telegraph ****

“This Is State Of The Art...Awe-Inspiring” The Observer

He’s been booked for the main stage of The Big Chill, Glastonbury, The Royal Opera House and La Scala and choreographed movement for Harry Potter.

Now you can get to see why Wayne McGregor is acclaimed as one of the world’s most exciting choreographers – and why the Royal Ballet has hired him as their first Resident Choreographer in 16 years - as he unleashes 10 dancers, beats and strings in his new show, Entity.

An hour-long breathtaking trip through a soundscape created by Coldplay and Massive Attack collaborator Jon Hopkins, and award-winning composer Joby Talbot (The Divine Comedy), Entity is a staggering blend of athletic bodies, lights, technology and film which confirms McGregor’s place at the cutting edge of contemporary culture. Technically astonishing, emotionally uncompromising and hard-hitting, McGregor’s work breaks boundaries and defies categorisation.

Great Taste Champions celebrate Chocolate Week 2008

Great Taste Champions celebrate Chocolate Week 2008

Celebrate Chocolate Week 2008 with the best of Belfast produce in ‘Made in Belfast’
Northern Ireland’s 2008 Great Taste champions Co Couture and Suki Tea are coming together for a Tea & Chocolate tasting master class as part of Chocolate Week 2008.
The unique event, the first of its kind to be held in Northern Ireland, will be hosted in the electric new restaurant ‘Made in Belfast’ on Thursday, 16th October starting at 5.45pm to 7.15pm.

Chocolate Week is the biggest, most indulgent, chocolate celebration enjoyed in the UK. It allows foodies to find out more about chocolate, it’s origins, cocoa beans, how it is made and also taste the finest chocolate in the world.
Northern Ireland has even more reason to celebrate chocolate Week as Sir Hans Sloane who first brought chocolate to the UK’s shores 350 years ago and reported to have invented milk chocolate was from Killyleagh.
The Suki Tea and Co Couture master class will cover what makes a good cuppa and great chocolate and how to tell the difference between the good, the bad & the ugly!
Participants will also get to enjoy limited edition Co Couture / Suki Tea truffles made exclusively for the event.
For more details or booking please visit Made in Belfast, Wellington St,
www.suki-tea.com or
www.cocouture.co.uk
or call 078 8889 9647

Suki gets a Facebook page

It's a baby girl.

It's a baby girl. Welcome to the wonderful world baby Mary!
Annie has just given birth to a healthy baby girl. 5am on Saturday morning. We're all delighted for her here at Suki Tea and wish the new family all the best.

A lot of you have requested that I pass on a message.

Just click here. . . and I'll make sure Annie recieves all messages.
MESSAGE FOR ANNIE & family.
I was over seeing her last night and all is picture postcard!
In the mean time I'll be running the show along with Michael, Julie, Emma and Margaret in the 'tea factory' and Jenny on the markets.

For those of you wanting to send flowers/gifts please send to:
ANNIE & FAMILY
C/O Oscar - Suki Tea
6 Twin Spires,
155 Northumberland St,
Belfast,
BT13 2JF.

Suki Tea wins 'Go for it' Award.

Wow, not only was Suki Tea shortlisted for the 'Go For It' awards last night we actually won! We we're told about a week ago that we we're one of the Belfast Top 50 companies 2008. Of those 50 a handful of 5 companies received a special recognition award - Suki was one of those 5.

Wow, not only was Suki Tea short listed for the 'Go For It' awards last night we actually won! We we're told about a week ago that we we're one of the Belfast Top 50 companies 2008. Of those 50 a handful of 5 companies received a special recognition award - Suki was one of those 5. Fifty businesses which fly the flag for the new Belfast we're honoured in a special Stormont celebration last night, The event was organised by the Belfast Media Group in association with BT. The Belfast Business Top 50 will paid tribute to entrepreneurs and business leaders who are role models within their communities, creating wealth and jobs in challenging economic times.” The fourth annual Belfast Business Top 50 will not only acknowledge the contribution of our business titans but also those small business champions who are making a difference in underserved areas of Belfast and whose innovation and grit is worthy of recognition,” said Máirtín Ó Muilleoir, MD of Belfast Media Group.

When the announcement was made I eventually managed to compose myself and get to the mic to let the crowd know how happy I was to accept the award on behalf of the company. So . . . thanks to the fantastic team of dedicated tea lovers working for Suki Tea, thanks to Invest Northern Ireland for their support. I had really wished my business partner, Annie was there to make a speech as she has a great way with words but as she's just about to give birth it was probably a bit inconvenient. It was only a couple of weeks ago I was heading to London to collect our guild of Fine Foods Great Taste Regional reserve award. We had better stop winning awards and start selling some tea!

Photo's to follow. . .

Botanic Garden Gourmet.

Magael will be sampling the great taste award winning Suki Tea from 12.30 to 6pm sat and sun.

Healthy Suki Tea Matcha

The health benefits of matcha tea exceed those of green tea because when you drink matcha you ingest the whole leaf, not just the brewed water.
Matcha Tea is a very healthy tea as it is sugar free, high in fiber and it's rich in antioxidants(Exponentially Higher in Antioxidants than Blueberries and Spinach) Green teas contain a high amount of antioxidants, chemical compounds known to forestall the aging process by destroying free radicals in the body.

Green teas contain a high amount of antioxidants, chemical compounds known to forestall the aging process by destrotying free radicals in the body. Antioxidants are found in many fruits and vegetables – even chocolate.

One glass of matcha is the equivalent of 10 glasses of green tea in terms of its nutritional value and antioxidant content.

Tea & Coffee Asia news story.

I found this article in TEA AND COFFEE ASIA magazine. . .

Mourners empty reservoir. July 08
In a scenario any Irish novelist might have dreamt up, tea-drinking mourners at three separate wake houses in a Donegal town recently drained the local reservoir dry.According to Donegal County Councilor, Tony McDaid, council staff couldn't work out how the reservoir serving the St. Johnston area had suddenly run out of supply. He said it later emerged the three wakes in the locality had caused the problems."There were three large wakes at the same time," he said. "With people making so much tea over the weekend, they actually emptied the reservoir."

Ireland does drink more tea per capita than any other country in the world so I really want to believe it.

Breakfast in the willow tea rooms, Glasgow. Not a bad way to start the day.

Today i had the pleasure of meeting the team who run the Willow tea rooms. A delightful team of ladies with a real passion for the history of the tea rooms and the tea itself. I love meeting people who have such knowledge for the product. One of the UK's most famous tea rooms designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh in 1904 The Willow remains open today to welcome visitors keen to experience the splendour of a bygone era and take tea just as they did in the same rooms and interiors 100 years ago.

http://www.crmsociety.com/ The Charles Rennie Mackintosh Society Site.

http://www.willowtearooms.co.uk/ The Tea Rooms Site.

Do not miss this if you're in Glasgow & appreciate a bit of Mackintosh design.

The Tea Hat. copyright SUKI TEA 2008.

The Tea Hat. In its full glory!

Samantha put my cup of tea into a hat for me this morning. Dont ask why as I never got an answer from her but it reminded me of the tea cosies once adorned by every households teapot back in the days when loose leaf tea was the norm. I thought it looked cute so snapped it.

What ever happened to the tea cosy?

GROUND CAFE- WATERSTONES, BELFAST- Now Open.

Darren & the crew - opening day. Waterstones, Belfast.

I was gutted when the cafe in Waterstones Belfast closed down but I can now delightfully announce that Ground have stepped in and completely remodelled the area. The cafe is bigger, has more on offer and coming from a design background I take my hat off to Karen and Darren, the owners, as they designed the whole place.

If you want to get Internet access, a read of the days papers or get stuck into your new book with a delicious cup of organic camomile Ground offers all and more.

46 Fountain StBelfast, BT1 5EE, United Kingdom+44 28 90240159

The best pudding in the world, SUKI TEA deliveries and a visit to Salisbury Cathedral.

Samantha and I visited James St South restaurant for our anniversary dinner before heading out to see the Flaming Lips in Belfast. A desert worthy of a photo. I'll be saving up and heading back there as soon as possible. Delish! (nice ring Samantha!)

Another delivery of tea leaves the warehouse heading for Scotland.

Holy Tea.

Just back from a visit to Salisbury Cathedral cafe who have just made the upgrade to SUKI TEA. A mighty building if ever I've seen one. They are serving up our great taste award winner Belfast Brew

DUBROVNIK - Final Destination

Sarajevo- DUBROVNIK, Croatia.

Our Final desination. First night we caught the sunset of the old town by taking a hike round the city walls.


















The light was actually this colour. We we're lucky to get this shot as the same view the next day was littered with cruise ships.
















I took a decent supply of Suki Tea with me on my hols but ran out of Belfast Brew so had to resort to 'ground pleasure'. A substitute that sufficed but wasn't like the real thing.

















Our appartment, 80 steps up behind the old church. the old, very small church.

NOVI SAD- Serbia to SARAJEVO - Bosnia.


An 8 hour coach ride accross the border through the mountains to Sarajevo. A town we soon noticed had many bars and trendy hangouts. We soon felt at home.

Samantha in Nivia Bar.











The Holiday Inn where all the journalists documented the troubles from. Sniper alley infront.

















As you can see the scars of the conflict are still visible.




















Leaving Sarajevo on our way to Dubrovnic we stopped in MOSTAR. the ancient bridge was blown up and the locals rebuilt it brick by brick.















For about £190.00 you can see one of the locals dive off. Danger money! We decided not to bother.

FROM Hungary to NOVI SAD- Serbia.

After Budapest we jumped on a bus to NOVI SAD in Serbia for a music festival called EXIT.





















Spent our days on the CITY BEACH alongside the Danube.












Met some of the locals at the festival.

Also got to see Paul Weller, Primal Scream, Juliette & the Licks, The Sex Pistols, 2 many Dj's and tons more bands but Samantha and I are unified in saying that our highlight was definitely Manu Chao. They rocked!








Most stayed in the city camp site but 4 days of festival takes it's toll so we stayed in an apartment.
We had a stove so making tea was a luxury for us. We popped to the supermarket to see what was on offer teawise and the big drink seemed to be pure hibiscus. I have always liked pure hibiscus but you cant beat hibiscus added to fruit blends. It's more of a support flavour for me.


Nice view eh!
The festival went on to the early hours every night and the builders next door started at 6am! Our saving grace was Sunday when they started at 8am.

Eastern Europe trip 2008

My partner, Samantha and I have been back home for a week now after our trip abroad to Hungary, Serbia, Bosnia and Croatia. We took over 1200 photos & it's taken a few days to filter through them. Forgive me for indulging as I waffle on a bit about my trip. . .

6th July BELFAST - LONDON (7 hour wait for connecting flight in Heathrow Terminal 5 was made a lot more pleasurable as got chatting to Venus, the manager of EAT cafe. Damn good flowering tea and chili crayfish sandwiches)

First Stop BUDAPEST - HUNGARY
Samantha had been in Budapest for a week prior to me arriving out and knew all the hot spots so I had my own tour guide. Budapest was very romantic and although Samantha had seen a fair bit of the city we still ended up getting lost on an adventure along the riverside in Pest and across the river to Buda where we found a lookout tower which seemed to be a local make out point. I'd definitely started to get into my holiday by this point. We finished our first day off with a tour of the Danube by boat.




HOUSE OF 1000 TEAS- 1056 Budapest.
Finally, after about 8 Years of hearing stories about this place I get there. The suspense killing me I feel like a kid just about to go into Alton Towers for the first time. The House of 1000 teas is run by Szepesi Zsuzsa pictured here. Although once in you would not realise it, it's situated off a main tourist stretch down a tunnel like alley lit by lanterns and images of tea gardens throughout the world. The first thing you see is a small courtyard, more lanterns, tea chests for tables and small groups of people sharing tea and chatting like old friends who had not seen each other for time. We had a very warm welcome and Szepesi gave me a grand tour. The tea house was very cosy, lit with candles and soft furnishings from around the world. Lots of couples sharing tea and I was told that the special that day was a First flush Darjeeling just arrived in from Ayra. I tried this later to my delight. There we're a maze of rooms all as pretty as the rest which even continued down a spiral staircase into a cave like area with a separate service area.

My plan was to set out and sample 1000 teas. Samantha had a slight problem with that grand plan though as it would have taken up most of our time in Budapest and she had other ideas.
We did manage a few though, including a great Assam but this was by far the best. . .

GINGER COLD TEA

I tried my hardest to get the recipe for this iced delight of a drink. I can only guess at it though and wrote my tasting notes in my sketchbook.

Ice cold fiery ginger. Hibiscus and cranberry. Hint of lime.

This was definitely a very refreshing drink as I ordered two and we had them drunk in minutes.
The combination of pulped & juiced ginger with citrus and berry flavours worked in the heat of Budapest at twilight.


We spent a few days in Budapest exploring the Naturally hot baths, we dod the history bit and visited the HOUSE OF TERROR which was definately an eye opener to the history of the country. Plenty of good food, wine and relaxing. We made a point to visit this.......

Shoes on the Danube.

Looking like birds feeding from a distance on closer inspection these are iron casts of shoes.
Shoes on the Danube is a memorial to the Budapest Jews who fell victim to the Arrow cross malitiamen in Budapest and depicts their shoes left behind on the bank when they fell into the river after having been shot during World War II.






Very moving.



.After a visit to Monument Park and another conflict based history lesson we needed some refreshment. MY OWN BRAND ICE LOLLYI worked fast and along with Helen and Pandora I launched my own Lemon Ice Lolly while in Hungary. Not happy with the manufaturers though, a spelling mistake on my name and anyone heard of portion control!Lovely, took a day to eat.