Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
specialty firm called Elizabethan England.
Their wide-ranging tea list includes some
30 teas from around the globe, including a
mellow blend named Cotswold Afternoon.
As suggested by the shop's name—
tisanes
is French for infusions—they also ply sev-
eral herbal and fruit-steeped drinks (not to
be confused with herbal tea, which techni-
cally must contain tea). Solid menu items
include fresh-baked pastries and granary-
bread sandwiches.
Southeast of Broadway on the A44, in
the smaller town of Moreton-On-Marsh
you can also stop in at
Marshmallow
Tearooms
(High St.;
&
44/1608/651536
),
with more of a farmhouse-cozy look. Its
afternoon tea menu focuses on traditional
English teatime classics such as toasted
tea cakes, crumpets, scones, carrot cake,
and Bakewell tart, all baked on premises.
Southwest of Broadway, in the village of
Winchcombe, you'll have to book ahead
for afternoon tea at
Juri's—The Old Bak-
ery Tea Shoppe
(High St.;
&
44/1242/602-
469;
www.juris-tearoom.co.uk), open only
Thursday through Sunday. The baked
goods at this charming stone-walled tea-
room are outstanding, and the tea list is
carefully selected. Juri herself is of Japa-
nese heritage, which accounts for the
number of green teas on the menu, includ-
ing tea-ceremony
matcha
.
(
London Heathrow (136km/84 miles).
L
$$$
The Lygon Arms,
High St.,
Broadway (
&
44/1386/852255;
www.the
lygonarms.co.uk). $$
The Falkland Arms,
Great Tew (on the B4022), near Chipping
Norton (
&
44/1608/683653;
www.falkland
arms.org.uk).
Tea
452
Taking Tea in Bath
Cream Tea in a Spa Town
Bath, England
Americans have a tough time pronouncing
its name (it should be a broad-A “Bawth,”
not “bahth” like a bathtub), but the 18th-
century spa town of Bath remains a peren-
nial tourist favorite in the heart of England,
with ancient Roman baths and stunning
Georgian architecture. And when the bus
tours begin to clear out in the midafter-
noon (got to check off Salisbury before
dark!), Bath's elegant ambience will come
to light as you dawdle over a spot of tea.
The place to see and be seen in Bath
has always been the Pump Room, an exqui-
site neoclassical salon built in 1795 over-
looking the bubbling natural hot spring.
(You can still buy a glass of hot spa water
from the fountain here—there are those
who swear by its medical efficacy, though,
frankly, it tastes pretty nasty.) The on-site
tea room,
Searcy's
(Stall St.;
&
44/1225/
444477;
www.searcys.co.uk), could no
doubt coast on the fact that tourists will
stream through here anyway, but instead
its management strives to deliver a first-
class afternoon tea—cakes, pastries,
smoked salmon sandwiches, and that
famous trio of scones, strawberry pre-
serve, and clotted cream known as a cream
tea. The creamy wood-paneled setting is
formal, with linen tablecloths, heavy silver-
ware, and fine china. It's a pricey experi-
ence, but isn't spending lavishly on carnal
pleasures the very essence of Bath?
Around the corner, the tea experience
is a little less aristocratic at
Sally Lunn's
(4 N. Parade Passage;
&
44/1225/461634;
www.sallylunns.co.uk), which is very much
on the package-tour route. Set in a narrow
timber-framed building that's purportedly
the oldest house in Bath (built in 1482),
this business has been running since
the late 17th century, when a Huguenot
