There is no setting more comforting—or more deceptively deadly—than a classic English tearoom. For fans of cozy mysteries, the gentle chime of porcelain and the scent of strong tea provide the perfect backdrop for discussing cunning plots and calculating killers. If you are hosting a book club, or even diving into our new book club kit for And Then There Were Scones, here are the five essential teas to make your gathering perfectly sinister and sophisticated.
The English Tearoom & Afternoon Tea at Home
To the uninitiated, an English tearoom is not just a café; it’s an institution. Emerging in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, these establishments were refined spaces that catered primarily to women, offering a respectable social venue away from the male-dominated public houses. They became synonymous with elegance, discretion, and the ritual of Afternoon Tea.
Afternoon Tea itself is a light meal, popularized by the Duchess of Bedford in the 1840s, to bridge the long gap between a light lunch and a late dinner. To recreate this luxury at home for your book club, you don’t need a three-tiered cake stand (though it helps!). Simply focus on the three pillars:
- Scones: Served with clotted cream and jam.
- Finger Sandwiches: Crusts off, cut small, with simple fillings like cucumber or smoked salmon.
- Sweet Pastries/Cakes: Anything small and delicate.
Crucially, you need the right tea. Our book club kit for And Then There Were Scones (link to the kit here) will help you with the reading, and the teas below will handle the atmosphere.
The Essential Teas
English Breakfast
Flavour Profile: A bold, robust, and full-bodied blend, typically made from Assam, Ceylon, and Kenyan teas. It’s intended to wake you up and stands up well to milk and sugar.
Quirky Detail: The name is actually a relatively modern invention. The blend itself was widely popular in Victorian Britain, but the specific name “English Breakfast” was largely popularized in the United States by Queen Victoria, after tasting a Scottish-created version in 1892 and bringing the concept south.
Mystery Links: English Breakfast is the ubiquitous standard in almost every British-set mystery, from the Golden Age to contemporary thrillers. It is the fuel for every detective, especially those like Hercule Poirot, who often demand “ze leetle grey cells” be supplied with something strong and hot to aid his thinking.
Earl Grey
Flavour Profile: A black tea base infused with bergamot oil, giving it a distinct, light, and highly fragrant citrus flavour that works perfectly with or without milk.
Interesting Name Detail: Earl Grey is named after Charles Grey, the 2nd Earl Grey and British Prime Minister in the 1830s. The common story is that a Chinese mandarin blended the tea specifically for him, using bergamot to mimic the taste of a rare tea that couldn’t survive the journey to England.
Mystery Links: Its distinctive aroma makes it a perfect plot device. In the TV series Downton Abbey, Earl Grey is the default elegant choice, hinting at the high society drama unfolding. In the world of James Bond, Agent 007 famously requests Earl Grey tea, proving that even a secret agent appreciates a classic brew.
Russian Caravan
Flavour Profile: A rich, smoky, and malty black tea blend, traditionally featuring oolong, Keemun, and sometimes Darjeeling. The flavour is far lighter and sweeter than the heavily-smoked Lapsang Souchong.
Interesting Name Detail: The name harks back to the 18th century, referring to the long journey taken by camel caravans from the tea-producing regions of China to Russia. The tea reportedly absorbed the smoky aroma of the campfires along the thousand-mile route, giving it its distinctive, evocative character.
Mystery Links: Its unique smokiness suggests travel, secrets, and perhaps espionage. While less famous than the others, its flavour profile lends itself perfectly to mysteries set abroad, or those dealing with Cold War secrets and international intrigue, adding an instant layer of complexity to your book club’s palate.
Bonus Favourites
Chai Tea
Flavour Profile: A fragrant, spiced tea that literally means “tea” in Hindi. It’s typically a mix of black tea, ginger, cardamom, cinnamon, fennel, and clove, brewed with milk and sweetened.
Quirky Detail: The biggest quirk is the redundant nature of its English name; saying “Chai Tea” is effectively saying “Tea Tea.” It is more correctly called masala chai (spiced tea).
Mystery Links: The complexity of the spice blend makes Chai a symbol of a detective’s keen perception. In the mystery world, the beverage and its cultural setting are key to the Perveen Mistry series by Sujata Massey, set in 1920s Bombay, where the scents, spices, and social strictures of India are central to the crimes being solved.
Liquorice Tea
Flavour Profile: A naturally sweet and slightly bitter herbal infusion made from the liquorice root. It’s caffeine-free and often used as a digestive aid, tasting much sweeter than black liquorice candy.
Quirky Detail: Liquorice root is intensely sweet—up to 50 times sweeter than sugar—meaning this tea provides a satisfying, dessert-like flavour without any added calories. (A note for your guests: it is recommended that people with high blood pressure limit their intake of liquorice root.)
Mystery Links: The strong, unusual flavour of liquorice makes it a memorable detail in crime fiction. The root, or infusions made from it, often appear in stories focused on poison or herbal remedies gone wrong. The taste itself is so distinctive it could easily be the fatal clue in a classic country house murder, giving your book club a potentially deadly topic to discuss. A much cozier reference can be found in Agatha Frost’s Peridale Cafe Mystery series, where main character Julia South often sips a comforting cup of peppermint and liquorice tea while puzzling over the village’s latest deadly occurrence.