HAS BLENDED TEA FOR OVER TWO CENTURIES

Chronicle (Levin), 14 January 1948, Page 5

HAS BLENDED TEA FOR OVER TWO CENTURIES

Tea-men to Royalty for nearly two and a-half centuries is the proud legend of a iittle shop in the Strand, London. Established m the reign of Queen Anne an'd still in the hands of the founder's family, the business .has been entirely modernised behind the old facade. It is 240 years since coffee and tea were first sold in this shop, which has two white pillars supporting a miniature gable over the door, flanked on either side by iittle figures of an Indian and a Chinese. Above the In'dian and Chinese are the names and coats-of-arms of some of the Royal people it has supplied throughout their reigns. It began as a coffee house at the time when they were fashionable resort§, and the Strand, oiie of the most fashionable parts of London, Then came the new luxury— tea— - at 24s a pound. From being just a fashionable resort for Londbners, the shop began to send its teas and coffees, first to people all over England by lumbering stage coach, and then abroad. In 1760 people in -Albany and Boston, soldiers quartere'd in Canada, were writing to the Strand for tea. The sedan chair and the family coach, the post-chaise and the carriage . and pair have one after another set do'wn customers at the tea shop. Now that thq red London buses and swift taxis hurry alongithe Strand instead, the shop is still busy with customers and stiil sending its choice blends out to people all over the world.