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.

Thanks for the party...

Thanks to all who joined me on my birthday, I had a great night and really enjoyed the food at Drennans. That early bird menu is damn good value. Thanks for all my gifts.
Morcheeba we're great live in the spring and airbrake. Gave me a buzz for live music again, i'm really looking forward to the Exit festival in Serbia this summer.

Jon, I made the playdoh teapot. Thanks.A little bit hard to drink green tea or herbal tea out of though! Nice display case.

Maid Marians herbal tea masterclass.

For those of you who didn't know Annie is pregnant. Annie and her partner both over the moon and are moving out of Belfast to the country side to set up family. Lots of people have been asking Annie what teas to take when pregnant. Most of us know that avoiding caffeine and alcohol is recommended but what of teas? As a taster of heading out to live in the sticks and to buff up on our herbal tea blending skills Annie and I booked ourselves into a workshop and lecture with Marian Partridge, a medical herbalist from Downpatrick, Northern Ireland with over 13 years experience in herbal blending as well as other alternative therapies such as Reiki.

-Annie and Marian in the herbal clinic-
My day started very relaxed with a cup of sage tea and Annie was advised not to go near sage but to drink raspberry leaf tea instead. Even though many think of raspberry leaf tea for inducing labour it can help all the way through apparently. For a relaxing tea throughout Rooibos or Red Bush is also recommended.
Before I had realised I had a wealth of knowledge before I had even finished my cuppa. Marian had prepared the day in a way to suit all who attended of which there we're 5 of us altogether.

- Annie looking very calm and serene (and pregnant!) in the ash woods at the bottom of the garden.-
As well as keeping bees Marians garden is her source of ingredients for her tinctures, balms and herbal teas. We harvested some lemon balm and elderflower for a tincture. We drank elm, birch and hawthorn tea, Made a skin cream from Marigold flowers and amongst other things like discussing what tea herb does what for our bodies we all enjoyed a superb lunch in the baking sun of which most was fresh from the garden we we're sitting in. The day progressed at a calm pace and we managed to cram a lot in.
Marian had a patient in while we we're there and a boiled mixture of dock leaves (i think) was stuffed into tea pockets that we had provided earlier in the day to the ladies hip. The treatment room was very organised and to the standard of what you would imagine for any treatment room with the exception of her medicine cupboard. Instead of the standard cupboard full of white bottles of multicoloured pills there stood a wall of jars full of weird and wonderful plants, herbs, roots and flowers. Frankincense and Myrrh, bilberries, ginseng and fugain tea, green tea, rose petals, elder flowers, peppermint, nettle, purple sage and many more.
Most of these we're collected by Marian herself. Grown locally or requested by fellow herbalists across Europe.
The day was wonderfully relaxing and we finished by giving Marian some SUKI TEA Fair-trade Belfast Brew. We had learnt a lot about what herbs and their wonderful healing powers. Especially what to take and what not to take when you're pregnant. Raspberry leaves and Rooibos (red bush) apparently.

Okay, I have not sent this one from my phone but wanted to let you all know about Red Berry and how it makes a fantastic ICE TEA.
Using SUKI TEA RED BERRY. makes one pint.
Infuse 3 teaspoons with boiling water as making a regular cup of tea.
Add honey or 3 teapoons of sugar to taste.
Leave for 5 mins. Stir.
Pour over a pint glass full of ice.
Enjoy! Best with a straw.

Bank holiday events. . .

A scene from the continental market City Hall Belfast, last day Monday 26th. If you look closely you can see SUKI TEA's white tent. we're sampling tea all day so if you're about come and have a taste.
Last week was the Caffe Culture show, a two day event aimed at the cafe and hospitality business in the Olympia, London. It was very busy and we had a great response. It seems that loose leaf tea is definitely on the up. Many other tea companies are trying desperately to perfect the teabag but do we really need it? From the response we got last week it seems that more and more people are coming round to the idea that with the right equipment loose leaf tea is not a hassle and you can match the quality of a fine coffee with fine teas.
This week we're at Belfast City Hall Continental Market (ABOVE). Today is the last day unfortunately but after London I jumped straight into the market and have had barely a minute to update my activities here which reminds me. . . I have not published anything for a while as I’ve been flat out with SUKI TEA so I'll do a catch up on what’s been happening very soon. Lots of exciting news for tea lovers. . .

Suki Tea.

The caffe culture show.

The golden boys.

Caffe culture. 2008

Robs catch. Two fresh rainbow trout caught in eyebrook today. Great to 'catch' up with old mates.

Mint Sourcing.

All photos taken are from my phone camera.
I'm back from a mint tasting and sourcing trip to Morocco, I was kind of on holiday but with running a business that you love you just can't say no to this kind of opportunity.

I managed to bargain a taxi to take me to Lhagmbark which is 20k south of Marrakech, an area that is renowned for its spearmint growing. It's the region where the majority of our Nana Mint comes from. With a 40 minute discussion in broken French and Arabic the 20 guys who took charge of organising my trip decided that Sadek was the best man for the job. He only spoke Arabic and I only speak a bit of French so the chat on the way there was non existent. Not that I had time to chat between holding on for my life and praying for a safe arrival, safety on the roads was of no concept to this man, as lovely as he seemed his driving was insane! He once overtook a lorry that was overtaking a bus and if that wasn't bad enough there was oncoming traffic too. I managed to make it there in one piece, slightly shook up from the experience I was immediately re focused on the reason I put myself through that. The smell hit me before we even got out of the car, I stepped out and took a good look around, the vast Atlas Mountains spread along the horizon and sat as a backdrop to the endless fields of fresh vibrant green mint. Overwhelmed by the minty smell I was ushered to the owner of the fields by my taxi driver/guide (if we can call him that). Luckily a passer by who spoke French decided to join us, mainly out of interest, and he acted as my translator.
Abdulkalif was the owner of the place, he had about 10 men and women working for him and they all seemed very happy to stop picking to come and say hello. We weren’t getting very far with the conversation and to be honest I think they thought I was a bit mad but with the help of the translator they understood why I was there and once the tea was brewed all had something uniting us. One of the younger guys who must have been about 25 stood up and ran into the fields to pick some mint, ran back and stuffed it into our glasses, the green tea was poured over and a bucket of sugar was dropped in. I felt a strong sense of camaraderie between the pickers and realised I had become welcomed into their gang temporarily. The mint was eye wateringly fresh and after about 15 minutes of sipping it the pickers stood up, all gave me a hug and we're on their way. The younger man who fetched the mint gave me a huge bunch of fresh mint, a sample of dried mint and rather theatrically said something that I hope was 'nice to meet you' but it could have been absolutely anything. The owner and I exchanged business details, parted with a smile and the customary hug and I was on my way back to Marrakech with mad max at the wheel.

I can happily say that the trip was a success and has given me a new view on the ceremony of tea drinking, I have known for years that tea brings people together. The first thing you ask if a friend comes to visit is ‘shall I put the kettle on?’. If someone feels down a common response is 'Go on, I’ll make a cuppa?'.

Sharing that mint tea with the pickers last week didn’t need conversation, we couldn’t converse anyway. It didn’t need comfy surroundings, although the view was stunning. It was purely and quite simply about sharing some tea and it will be hard to drink a cup of mint tea again without grinning from ear to ear.

BUY MOROCCAN MINT - CLICK HERE: buy mint

Abdekalef in his nana mint field. 20k south of Marrakech.

THE MINT MAN HIMSELF

Mint tea. Morrocan style.

Green tea with a fresh bunch of spearmint (Nana Mint) added.

Sam in the Jardin majorelle, Marrakech.

next stop mint tea.

Suki tea. Covent Garden market.

Come along and get your free taster of hand blended Fairtrade, organic loose leaf tea. Saturday and sunday.

If you're in covent garden. . .

Check this place out. Patissesie valerie on bedford st. It out tarts any other. Serves wonderful tea too.