Lakes Single Mum: Tuesday Tea with Birchall Tea

I was invited by Birchall Tea to join them at the Inn on the Lake on the shores of Ullswater for a tea tasting afternoon. Now I am not a normal tea fan but when they said there would be infusions and herbal type teas to try I accepted their offer.

As it was the school holidays I had to take my children with me and we took the only current route from Kendal to Ullswater which doesn't take you on the M6! This took us up and over Kirkstone Pass and I can't remember the last time I went this way and the children had no memory of its curves and steep slopes. We paused part way down for a windy photo stop:

We arrived at Glenridding with plenty of time to explore the grounds. Unfortunately due to it being out of season the pitch and putt was closed.. Instead my daughter and I had a photo walk around the garden - she somehow got custody of my new camera:

We weren't the only people braving the wind as there was a TV crew from Good Morning Britain down at the lake shore:

I am surprised that she lasted outside as long as she did without a coat on:

The hotel is really in a magnificent setting and I am so glad that only the grounds were flooded during Storm Desmond:

Then it was time to go in and meet the team from Birchall Tea and to taste their range of teas:

The company was founded by Captain Birchall George Graham in 1872 and is still run by his descendants today. They started growing tea in Darjeeling and now have extensive estates in Rwanda for their black leaf tea:

They use see-through prism tea bags so that you can see the ingredients and they brew faster:

We were able to taste each of the range whilst their expert explained what was special about each one. Even my 12 year old joined in although her little brother wasn't interested!

To soak up the tea the hotel had laid on an afternoon tea with sandwiches (apparently a local company provide special loaves that are the right size for these!):