Iford Manor Teas continues to work with St. Johns, Cambridge

Thanks to the ongoing support of Catering and Conference Manager, Bill Brogan, and following on from a successful May Ball serving over 2000 servings of tea to the revellers (see image), I return today to my alma mater to provide the tea for the Choir Reunion (and hopefully drink some of it and catch up some old friends).

Three of the happiest years of my life were spent singing in the choir at St. John's, Cambridge, and it is lovely to be able to maintain links with the college through the supply of fine teas (I gather that the fellows particularly enjoy the tea before dining in hall) as well as attending a reunion in this year of all years, the 500th anniversary of the college.

Iford Manor Teas awaits new samples

Over in the tea packing department, I'm excitedly awaiting new samples of tea, rather like a child expecting the imminent arrival of Santa Claus - only in my case the 'presents' are delivered by a brown uniformed UPS chap, rather than a red uniformed Laplander.  But the inner child's the same!

These samples are coming from rural Taiwan for a rather upmarket Somerset hotel which has asked me to pop over and see if we can't upgrade the tea they serve.  I'm quite sure we can, so I'm looking forward to that, and just hoping the samples are here in time - you see, it's really all about connoisseurship: not accepting the mediocre, just because it's what happens to be the norm.  Peto knew that too, and you see it through his garden at Iford, so I try to bring this same element to my work with the tea company.

It's always an exciting time of year in the tea world as the first pickings come around in March usually.  More excitement on that front next month!  If you haven't taken a look at our fine teas, you could do worse than to pop over to www.ifordmanorteas.co.uk, and also www.ifordmanor.co.uk/tea_room.html.