12 May 2016

Time for Tea with Food Writer Hattie Ellis

Our monthly chat with someone who cares about tea

This month we chat to Hattie Ellis, food writer and prolific cookbook author about the delights of tea.

What is your favourite tea to set you up for the day first thing in the morning?

English Breakfast perked up with a spoonful of something fragrant put into the pot: sometimes Darjeeling, sometimes Lapsang

What is your favourite tea to relax you in the afternoon?

An oolong, without milk, drunk from a small-ish cup rather than a mug, which I replenish often from the pot. Something about pouring tea is relaxing.

What do you like best about Steenbergs teas?

High quality, an interesting variety and fairly priced. I also like the fact your flavoured teas are so natural e.g. the organic green tea with lemon verbena and ginger.

Which Steenbergs tea would you most like to try and why?

Any oolong eg the Milky Oolong and Baihao Oolong. I find their various fragrances bewitching and refreshing.

Who would you most like to have a cup of tea with and why?

If only I could bring back Tony Benn, inveterate tea drinker, to discuss Brexit, Trump and Corbyn.

About Hattie Ellis

Hattie is a food writer and author of eleven books on food and drink that focus on where food comes from and the people who grow, farm, collect and produce it.

Her books range from independent shops (Trading Places); English food and England (Eating England), the honeybee (Sweetness & Light), the chicken and the chicken industry (Planet Chicken) and fish around the coast of Britain (Best of British Fish).

A passionate exponent of tea, Hattie has also written a book called a-passion-for-tea-hattie-ellis