Tea Tasting in North Derbyshire

a version of this originally posted at tssreviews.blog

James Pogson, Director of Northern Tea Merchants

I was in touch with James Pogson, the Director of Chesterfield based Northern Tea Merchants (pictured above); expressing a wish to visit. James was willing to play host and I was looking forward to gathering more background information about the family business, and to undergo a tea tasting session.

On arrival I was welcomed with a brew of green tea and then received an informative presentation in which James was hugely educative and generous with his information sharing in regard to tea origins, leaves, tea workers; the processes; production, trading and pricing, and so on... with James filling in the gaps when I fired him a question or two.





Tea Tasting

We then moved to the deliciously low-tech world of tea tasting. You will see by the image above that James had arranged, in a row, on a long, tall table, examples a broad range of black and green teas. All teas supplied from those extensive tea plantations I had seen from the photographic showcasing of James on his business trips abroad.

James’s instruction, to arrive at a fair test, was to dip the spoon, and then sip each tea strongly and loudly from it, then to allow the infusion to friction wash against the taste buds under the tongue. Took a while for me to master, if I did at all!

If you are a reader who likes and appreciates a good quality beverage you will enjoy reading that detailed about the tea tasting in the next paragraph or two:





Firstly, from Taiwan, a Formosa Jade Oolong tea, the leaves are tight little rolled balls that when they free fall from the pack into the brewing cup and are infused for four minutes in hot water of 85 degrees centigrade (that is the requirement), they are then separated from the brew into the drinking vessel through a strainer. The leaves, which have now softened and have unrolled and are suddenly very large, are tipped out and set upon the upside tops of china lids for the benefit of further inspection and performance noting as part of the testing process.

Tippy Orthodox Assam

Other teas sampled in the same way included Japanese Houjicha – a roasted green tea, that was discovered in the 1920s when a Taiwanese merchant roasted some Sencha which he had owned for a while and it was beginning to deteriorate. It is unique in the way that there are no other teas processed this way as far as James is aware. Houjicha is about 10 times the price of small-leaf Assam tea (a black tea), widely used, and I tasted this too, a Tippy Orthodox Assam version in fact.

Two flower teas came in the form of the popular, Rose Congou and the exquisite Jasmine Yin Hao Lotus blend, the latter having an aroma from nose diving into the open pack that sends your senses into a spin. James included a Rooibos and explained it was not actually tea, and that it was a plant native to Africa which has an extremely long root. I particularly enjoyed the Moroccan Mint and have been brewing this a lot at home since.






The inclusion of a Chocolate Tea demonstrated to me that James is not falling short in the popular call for cocoa editions of various food and drink concoctions and guises that are not usually synonymous to chocolate and people like these kinds of products, especially for gift buying.

James has a wonderful working ethic and is extremely customer focused. He will offer his expert advice, not only on leaf grades, manufacturing queries, and many aspects of Tea and its health benefits, but he can put together any kind of bespoke order especially for you.

Gift hampers made-to-order

Once a salt work’s building on the Chatsworth Road, Chesterfield the premises houses over 20 employees all in all, and a popular cafe is situated to the front. Trade Customers of The Northern Tea Merchants include vast and varied members of the hospitality industry and the public sector.