Tea Blog

We all know how well chocolate and tea go together, so Pompadour’s description as a “chocolaterie patisserie tearoom” can only mean good things. And, as I found out for myself when stopping in there on a recent trip to Amsterdam, it does. Before I go any further, I will admit that they do not serve loose leaf tea, and therefore may fall foul of some of you tea lovers out there. But while I prefer loose leaf tea when possible, I do know how to get the most out of my bagged tea, and so in this instance I let my preference be overridden by the experience as a whole.

The fact that they advertise themselves as a tearoom at all is, in Amsterdam, fairly unusual. The Dutch today are bigger on their coffee than they are on their tea (although this was not always the case), and so finding places that serve decent tea can be a challenge. That said, every place serving hot drinks that we went into had several bagged teas, so it’s not a land entirely devoid of tea.

Knowing that I would be choosing from various bagged options, I went with Earl Grey. For me, it is a standard tea that is hard to go wrong with (although there always subtleties and differences between blends that diehard Earl Grey fans will have their opinions on). Besides, this was a mid-afternoon stop at a point where we needed an energy-boost as well as something to warm us up from the cold. Our decision made, we ordered a pot of tea for two, and were delighted to see that our tea was served with two miniature pastries. They were dense, moist, and tasted of rich almond paste—what a lovely surprise! As suspected, Earl Grey was a solid choice and did not disappoint. With an added splash of milk, it was exactly what we needed to perk ourselves up.

Deciding to indulge, we also ordered a few hand-made chocolates to sample (you can’t go into a chocolaterie and not order chocolates!), and enjoyed how the various flavours complemented our tea. All in all, a pretty perfect stop. And we didn’t quite get out the door without purchasing a few chocolates to enjoy later…with tea, of course!

More Amsterdam tea adventures to come.

See more of Elise Nuding’s articles here.

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