The Tea Experience: A Tea Tour of Edinburgh
Erica Moore opened her tearoom in 2008, 18 months after she realised that her career as a litigation lawyer was not what she really wanted to be doing with her life. So, when quite by chance one day, she came across a number of websites and blogs about quality leaf tea, she found herself completely drawn in and eagerly wanting more. The more she read, the more determined she became to make tea the centre of the next stage of her life. So, she researched and planned, visited Sri Lanka, tasted teas every day, and scribbled down ideas at every opportunity until her plan for a tea business fell into place. Today, her wonderfully friendly, welcoming tearoom is known throughout the city, attracts a steady flow of visitors and regular customers, and sells wholesale teas into an extensive list of hotels, restaurants, and international companies.
But there is more to this lovely venue than meets the eye, for Erica knows the power of tea, not simply to rehydrate and revitalise us but also to calm and rebalance us, to create quiet moments in our frantic, troubled world. Her beautiful website explains how, “Our 3-step ‘tea in mind’ process fuses our knowledge of tea with our love for self-care and philosophy by suggesting a series of tea routines.” Each of her new wellbeing blends comes with a suggestion to create a simple personal 3-minute ritual on which to focus while the tea brews. The blends are designed for various states of mind (Balanced, Energised, Focused, Contented, and Sleepy), and the tearoom hosts in-person “tea in mind” workshops and virtual Tea Tasting for Mindfulness Workshops online. This kindly and thoughtful approach to tea is so very relevant to our busy daily lives and reminds tea lovers that their chosen brew is so much more than just a hot beverage. There is no end to Erica’s creativity, and she is brilliant at constantly devising new ways of encouraging people to drink tea by connecting their favourite brew to other elements of everyday life. As well as supporting Health in Mind, a Scottish charity that promotes positive mental health and wellbeing, she has worked with Scottish Ballet and Edinburgh libraries, created a gorgeous Advent calendar with teas hidden behind each window, packed Christmas crackers with tea inside, blended a special whisky tea for Aberfeldy Distillery to mark Edinburgh’s Hot Toddy Day, and launched an “Around the World in 7 Teas” tasting box. If eteaket were just around the corner from my home, I would be there every day!
