Would you ever like to try what it feels like to drink tea the way real arisocrats do? You have the opportunity. Hotel Rubens, which is situated opposite Buckingham Palace in London, serves a tea called Golden Tips. But be prepared to pay £ 167 for one cup, which is slightly under five thousand crowns. And if you think a cup is not enough and wish to enjoy the whole kettle, you'll have to reach even deeper into your pocket - and pull out £ 500 - or 14,000 crowns.
Why such a high price, you ask? The answer is quite simple.
The production of this tea is takes place by means of a purely natural process. The special bushes that carry leaves from which the tea is made are grown in Sri Lanka. They are collected only under the most optimum conditions and subsequently dried on a velvet cloth. Thanks to the relatively cold climate of Sri Lanka, the leaves of these bushes grow slowly and take their time to mature - sometimes the collectors need to wait as long as seven years. To obtain one kilogram of tea, five kilograms of buds are needed, and so only 100 kilograms of the Golden Tips tea are produced per year.
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Source: Facebook The Rubens at the Palace
If you order this tea, you can look forward to being served in white gloves.
“It may not seem like it, but preparing this tea isn't easy at all. Using golden tweezers, the waiter performs careful and accurate weighing of leaves in front of the guests, so that the final taste of the tea would be a truly extrarodinary experience,"
Pronájem mezonetu Josefov 2+kk, Praha, Praha 1
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said the spokesman of the hotel for a British daily.
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Source: instagram @GoldenTips
Once the weighing is finished, the waiter prepares the tea using natural still water, which is boiled and used to infuse the leaves. As a bonus you will also receive a glass of champagne, freshly baked cookies and elegant small sandwiches to go with your tee. Within the three minutes needed for the tea to steep in a silver teapot, you'll get to learn all about the origin, production and rarity of the beverage. The tea is said to have subtle fruity tones that change with every sip.
You can enjoy your golden cup and the whole ritual overlooking the seat of Elizabeth II. and imagine that you are a member of the royal family.
