Laduree at Harrods and Laduree tea review

Since I wasn’t able to go to laduree in Paris, I decided that I would go to a Laduree in London. Specifically I wanted a cute laduree container and when I saw the tea online I thought it was a good way to get one. I really do love tea, so I thought it would be a great early birthday present to myself.  The store I went to is the Laduree inside Harrods. I thought this would be a good one to go to because I then can wander around Harrods and look at all the things I cannot afford to buy.  It took be a while and asking a cashier to find the laduree. It’s on the ground floor like the food halls, but it is not in the food halls. You have to go through the food area and into the watch section, and after turning left through there you hit Laduree with its classic green and gold sign. I also found out on my way back to the tube station (knightsbridge station by the way is almost attached to harrods it is so close) that there is a separate enterence if you just want to go into Laduree. The store has a small café where you can by some (expensive food). Beware though; because I have heard rumors it’s not very good.  There is also the counter where you can by sweets and behind the counter on the wall it the tea. I could not read the sign labeling the types of tea though because the print is small and far away, so I asked for the tea list. I advise asking for this list because it says the prices, the color of each tea container, and all the elements of the tea.  Most of the tea containers are green, but there are a few other colors (black, purple, red and pink). There are about 15 or so flavors to choose from. I chose the purple container called Mathilde. Most of the tea comes in either loose (11.95 pounds) or a box of 20 tea bags (9.95 pounds). Mathilde only comes in loose but I would have bought it anyways because for a small extra charge you get a lot more tea. The container has 125 grams of tea which is quite a large amount of tea and will make way over 20 cups. The Mathilde tea contains “china green tea with magnolia, china black tea, and orange blossom petals.”

The tea is supposed to be brewed for about 5 minutes according to the label. When brewing it releases the most wonderful smell of orange blossoms; if I could I would have my house smelling like this constantly. The flavor of it is not orangey; it just had a mild tea taste that is very pleasant.  Because of the mild flavor I didn’t add any sugar or milk to it. The tea leaves you can tell are high quality because after brewing they reconstituted completely; they actually looked live leaves and you could even see their veins.  They also made a good second cup of tea (I just let them soak a bit longer than 5 minutes) but the third one tasted like nothing, so feel free to try for a second brew but not a third.

Overall, this was definitely a splurge item, but in London 12 pounds isn’t that much; I can rarely get a restaurant meal for that price. And since the tea is so good and I get a good amount and I am keeping both the tea container and the bag it came in; I consider it worth the money.

P.S. on the tea container: it isn’t a tin but a very solidly built cardboard type cylinder. It has gold embellishments and is very sturdy (it even got rained on but still remained pristine.