A unique blend of tea shop, cocktail bar and literary salon, Teatulia will show Londoners a new way to enjoy tea when it opens on 15 October at 36 Neal Street in London's Covent Garden.
Teatulia will be the first tea shop in London to have complete ownership of its provenance. Every leaf is hand-picked in the Teatulia garden in Tetulia, northern Bangladesh, a tea-growing region lying between the better known Indian regions of Assam and Darjeeling.
Teatulia will be the flagship teashop of an organic tea garden in Bangladesh, with unique business practices driven by Ahsan Akbar and K. Anis Ahmed. Where other tea companies source from any number of providers, Teatulia teas all come from one garden.
By day, Teatulia will serve six impeccable teas, for consumption at home or on site, while in the evenings it will also serve tea-based cocktails from a menu designed by Enrico Gonzato, from Dandelyan at the Mondrian Hotel (World's Best Bar 2017).
The signature tea will be the ‘Bengal Builder’s’, a rich, dark and bold blend, served with milk, nearly as caffeinated as coffee for your morning cup. The rest of the tea menu will showcase the finest examples of organic single origin Green, Jasmine Green, Oolong, Ginger; and Lemongrass.
Served in ceramic ware by sleek Japanese brand Kinto, teas at Teatulia will be brewed to precise standards, using the optimum length of time for each variety of tea leaf.
Gonzato’s drinks list for Teatulia will marry these teas within a sophisticated cocktail offering such as Builder's Bourbon - black tea, blackberries, sugar, fresh mint, bourbon, Lemongrass Mojito - lemongrass tea, fresh mint, lime, Rum, light brown sugar, club soda, and Chai Hot-Buttered Rum - chai tea, dark brown sugar, butter, honey, cinnamon, nutmeg, spiced rum.
For the abstemious, mocktails: Green Tea Ginger Cooler - green tea, lemon juice, simple syrup, and Chai Spiced Hot Toddy - chai tea, cinnamon, cardamom, honey, fresh lemon, ginger & orange.
The intimate 16-cover venue and retail space has been designed by Russell Sage Studios, the designers behind Dishoom, Tamarind Kitchen and a host of London’s most stylish recent restaurant interiors. An art deco space with a mid-century twist, it will be a unique place to buy and drink tea and read.
There will be books – lots of books – at Teatulia. ‘The Living Bookshelf’ as coined by Tilda Swinton is a monthly selection curated by notable writers, actors, musicians and filmmakers. The first bookshelf is curated by Swinton herself.
The Teatulia founders, Ahsan Akbar and K. Anis Ahmed, also run the Dhaka Lit Fest, Bangladesh’s leading literary festival, which attracts internationally renowned writers from around the world.