Hot tips

There is – excuse the pun – a blossoming trend for Chinese flowering teas at the moment. I must have sipped half a dozen in the past couple of months, including one tightly curled ball of leaves that unfurled into a big, red amaranth. It looked madly exotic, but did nothing to disguise the flavour of the tea itself, which was a close relative of dishwater.

Not that they are all just for show: I recently tried some flowering silver tips from the Rare Tea Company, and a whole new world of tea drinking opened up. This one was not only pretty (the grey-green leaves peel outwards to release three yellow marigolds into the cup), it was also utterly delicious: delicate and subtle, with a gentle waft of scent. “I chose the flowers to mingle perfectly with the tea,” says Rare Tea’s founder, Henrietta Lovell. “Anything else would be style over substance.”

Lovell is gaining a reputation as the couturier of the tea world. She sells a range of darjeeling white teas so rare, only a few kilos of each are made; and her jasmine silver tips (flavoured by gently steaming the leaves with fresh flowers) have gained a legion of fans, including the chefs Tom Aikens and Mark Hix. It’s the tea in the flowering balls that makes them so different. Lovell is the first to use silver tips – the most sought-after form of green tea – which she sources from China’s champagne tea region, Fujian. The buds are picked in April, just before they open, and left to dry in the sun. The balls of leaves are then tied by hand. None of which comes cheap, but this is the fine wine of tea drinking, after3 all. “We’ve been fobbed off with bitter, low-quality green teas, but we’ve drunk them because we think they’re healthy,” says Lovell. “I’m hoping to start a revolution and show that green tea can be absolutely delicious as well.”

Flowering silver tip white tea, £9.95 for four balls, from the Rare Tea Company; www.rareteacompany.com

DON’T MISS
The Crisis Cook Book, a collection of recipes from 28 top chefs, including Heston Blumenthal, Alain Ducasse and Ferran Adria, costs £5 from Marks & Spencer, £3 of which goes to the charity Crisis. It’s the gift that keeps on giving.

A BIT OF FRENCH SAUCE
Lounge-jazz compilations by resident DJs at the Hôtel Costes have made the fashionable Paris hang-out a byword for Euro cool, and it is obviously hoping to do the same with its food. The hotel has launched a chic little collection of sauces based on dishes from its restaurant, including a wasabi mayonnaise (good with raw veg), a fragrant tom yang (great with cold chicken and fish), an intense morel cream and a punchy caesar dressing. They’re moreishly good – and all the better for the inadvertent Frenchisms on the packaging.£2.99 each, from Selfridges

TAKE 3

Daniel Clark, of Suka, at the Sanderson hotel, puts an east-west spin on scallops with this extravagant party canapé.

Makes 6

6 diver-caught scallops, cleaned, in their shells
6-12 tsp XO sauce (sold in Chinese supermarkets)
3 tsp ossetra caviar

Open the scallops and trim off the roe. Season with salt and pepper, then sear in a hot frying pan for 2-3 minutes on each side, until brown on the outside but still juicy in the middle.

Take the six shells, put 1-2 tsp XO sauce in each, then place a scallop on top. Garnish with ½ tsp caviar.

Suka, Sanderson hotel, 50 Berners Street, W1; 020 7300 1444

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