One among London’s most venerable motels is blowing the mud off the staid picture of Britain’s favourite beverage as The Waldorf Hilton employs a tea sommelier to encourage and educate a brand new era of tea lovers.
The Waldorf grew to become a well-liked venue for trendy celebrations as quickly because the lodge opened in 1908 on the trendy and newly constructed Aldwych Circle. Exhilarating dance events came about within the White and Gold ballroom above the Palm Court docket when the Argentine tango made its scandalous look in London. By the Nineteen Twenties, consuming tea and dancing have been as synonymous as clotted cream and strawberry preserves when the lodge hosted particular Tango Teas to accommodate the dance’s raging recognition.
Sadly, tea dances halted when the Palm Court docket’s glass ceiling was shattered by the explosion of an aerial bomb throughout World Struggle II. Nevertheless, the magnificent roof was finally restored, and the almost forgotten tea dances have been resurrected on the spacious marble ground of The Waldorf’s Palm Court docket in 1982. Throughout sure vacation weekends, a small combo accompanies the afternoon soirées, the place {couples} of all ages could also be discovered foxtrotting and waltzing their cares away. Vacationers from throughout the globe, younger {couples} attempting out their freshly honed dance steps, pensioners reliving a bygone period, and even moms and sons fill the dance ground at present.
Now The Waldorf Hilton is heating up the London tea scene by introducing their distinctive Waldorf Tea Expertise with Tea Sommelier Domenico Gradia. Recognized to his shut mates and associates as “Dom” or “Mr. T,” this effervescent tea skilled honed his expertise with the UK Tea Academy as he labored with such notable tea institutions as Harrods and Fortnum & Mason. His former instructor and TeaTime contributing editor, Jane Pettigrew, accompanied me on a current go to to Dom’s stunning new tea studio.
