Tea has always been ubiquitous in my life. I remember we had Yellow Lipton Tea as a kid, and I sometimes drank it in the evening with my sandwich. In the Netherlands, tea is more popular than in Aruba. I mean tea is not very popular on an island where every day it’s hot. Over the more than 20 years here I started drinking more and more tea. I didn’t start drinking coffee until my early 30s so tea was always my go-to hot beverage, it still is unless they serve third-wave decaf coffee.

For most of my life, I only drank cheap tea, tea bags you can buy at the grocery store or the more “fancier” ones you can buy at the homeopathic store, and those aren’t real tea. It’s herbs in hot water.

Day to day I only drink water and tea. No sugar or milk, thank you. Once or twice a week I venture to my current go-to coffee bar for a cup or two of third-wave decaf coffee.

The Netherlands has one coffee and tea franchise named Simon Levelt. Where you can buy loose-leaf teas and coffee beans. That’s one of the few stores where I can walk in and smell tea before buying a bag of 100 grams. But the tea they sell is pretty much common. You have your two choices of breakfast teas (Irish or English), common Earl Grey teas, green teas, oolongs and so forth. But nothing that makes you go wow.

TWG Tea

In 2019 when I went to London for the first time I came across a TWG Tea retail store, a world of teas opened up for me. I was bowled over by the sheer amount of teas ranging from all prices. I was so overwhelmed by the amount of tea that I only bought their best-selling one the 1837 Black Tea and Silver Moon Tea.

Trust me when I say, you can’t find anything near that quality here in the Netherlands. Not that the tea is bad, but it is not as elevated. When a friend went to London I asked them to bring me back tea from TWG Tea. Because apparently their online store ships from Singapore? That’s some shipping costs compared to just from over the canal.

In any case, every time I go to Simon Levelt I feel a bit disappointed about the lack of exciting tea. Last week I was in Paris for a few days and the first thing I had on my list was to buy tea.

Mariage Frères

Before travelling to Paris I looked up which tea shops and the one that stood out most was Mariage Frères. My tea adventure started well, as they were serving Palais des Thés on the train to Paris. So much more subtle than let’s say Lipton or Pickwick tea.

I’m not a complete tea snob, I have my PG Tips and Barry’s Tea Gold that I pour when I want a strong bitter tea. But all around I prefer the good teas and can taste the difference now in tea quality.

As I was saying, on my ride from Rotterdam to Paris, I drank Palais des Thés, Big Ben black tea. Hours later I came across a Palais des Thés shop in Le Marais and I took my chance and bought a can of lose leaf Big Ben tea. The next day I went to Mariage Frères where I was helped by a friendly shopkeeper. I got to smell several teas before making a selection. I would have probably bought more. But I had to be mindful of space in my carry-on and I also still had hours of walking around and taking photos. Can’t do that loaded with a bag full of teas.

My hotel also happened to stock Palais des Thés tea. Guests are free to make themselves a tea in the lobby and take it with them to their room.

I joke that I went to Paris just to buy tea. I didn’t of course, but the tea and the photos I took while there are the only things I have to show for my 3-day trip. For now I’m enjoying good tea every day while plotting how to reorganize my kitchen to store all the tea in one spot.