Mrs Pumphrey’s Curious Leaves Tea Shoppe is now open for business within Newcastle’s Grainger Market. Part of the Pumphrey’s Coffee family, Curious Leaves is all about the tea!

With lots of speciality teas to choose from, you can either sit in and sip (like I did) or buy a bag of tea to enjoy at home (OR BOTH).

I decided to go with the Indian Breakfast Tea (with milk) – I’m of Indian heritage and it was breakfast time. Made perfect sense at the time. The barista also brought over a timer to let me know when my tea would be ready to drink. Of course it took me ages to realise my timer had gone off and was beeping at me.

There are also tasty-looking food items to go alongside your brew of choice, but for reasons unbeknownst to me, I didn’t eat ANYTHING during my visit. If I had to choose now, I would have a toasted scone or a slice of cake. Carrot cake. I did get to sample the lemon and ginger tea though, complete with a tiny slice of lemon. Delicious. The ginger wasn’t too overpowering which I much prefer, more lemon, less ginger.

This location in the Grainger Market is a lot quieter than Pumphrey’s, which I liked. I ended up chatting with the lovely girls working (hi Amy and Lidia!) and also made friends with a very sweet lady who sat on the bench next to mine.

Amy informed me that you can BLEND YOUR OWN TEA to take away! The way she explained it was: a lot of the teas have health benefits but might not taste great on their own so you can blend with something that’ll taste lovely. e.g. Echinacea Herbal Infusion could be blended with Lemon & Ginger Herbal Infusion in the nifty blender.

At the bar, there are 4 stools for tea drinkers and little bowls with loose tea in for you to look at (and sniff, if you’re like me). I sat in one of the little booths – there are three of those available, so yep it is pretty tiny but they’ve definitely made the most of the space they have.

If you’re a Grainger Market obsessive (there are many of us, I know!), or are just passing through, stop by Curious Leaves for a cuppa and a slice of cake. I’m going back soon to get some tea blended. I’m very tempted by the combo Amy suggested!

I think I’ll also go for a pot of flowering Jasmine tea – just look how pretty it is!

Curious Leaves are on Instagram and Twitter – follow them!

Let me know if you do pop in for a cuppa or if you create your own special blend of 3 teas – I need inspiration!

Before I go, I’ll leave you with these wise words…