Teatime In Italy Tea is becoming incredibly popular in Italy today. Not least because you are almost always guaranteed somewhere to sit down and rest in a tea shop. Travel writer Kevin Pilley reports on Italy’s tea revolution
It was two colonial British ladies who decided that what Rome was missing was a tea shop and so introduced tea to the Italians. Isabel Cargill and Anna Maria Babington opened Babington’s Tea Rooms, Italy’s first tea shop, at the foot of the Spanish Steps in Piazza di Spagna, in 1893. Prior to its opening, tea in Italy could only be got from a chemist, as tea was only drunk as a cure for flu – raffreddore. The iconic orange-fronted tea rooms are close to the Casina Rossa, commonly referred to as Keats and Shelley House. The poets reportedly patronised the tea rooms. Although Italians haven’t reached the “Prendiamo un cuppa?” stage yet, coffee grinders, roasters and baristas are being pressurised by tea makers, tea tasters and artisan
tea masters. “Arabica” and “Robusta” coffee beans are facing stiff competition from locally sourced leaves, flowers and herbs. Florence-based La Via del Tè, founded in 1961 by Alfredo Carrai who studied tea rituals and production in China and India, is leading the new Italian tea revolution. Now in his 80s, Alfredo explains how his passion for tea began, “One day I tasted Chinese tea in a market in Livorno. My fascination began. I wanted to open up tea to Italians. Tea is the scent of ancient history. The voyage of Ulysses.” Carrai worked briefly for Lyons, the Irish tea production company. His “blends with a Mediterranean twist” are now exported to 30 countries. The “Via del Tè” range celebrates Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Russian, British and Italian tea drinking traditions.
La Via del Tè Il segreto dei Medici
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