Tea at Harrods

What a lovely start to the day - breakfast at Harrods!  But no ordinary breakfast, this was an invitation to sample what is on offer at the new Tea Room on the second floor, so cakes were available in abundance.  I had thought it far too early to be sampling these, but it didn't take long for me to crack.
Harrods' new novel idea is to have a kind if pick-and-mix with the cakes (this is after you have sampled their savories obviously) - you can decide what arrives on your three tiered cake-stand.  This is accompanied by the tea of your choice, from a 20 tea list, some of which we tasted this morning, made and poured by Yousef Serroukh, their tea and coffee buyer, who then gave us instruction on how to make the perfect cup of tea -

• always use well stored, top-quality loose tea
• a small china teapot will allow you to control the infusion of the tea much better than bigger pots -no large than 300ml
• be generous with the tea - around 5g for a 300ml teapot
• use filtered or bottled water for a better taste
• water temperature is crucial - white and yellow teas are best when infused at 40-60C, and black teas are better with near boiling water
• time your infusion - 3 minutes is the recommended optimum time

Yousef told us we should treat tea as a ritual, and in my mind this ritual should be accompanied by a big log fire, delicious cakes and close friends.