TWG changed how I felt about teas. It was my first time dining with a classy tea house and there was never an ounce of disappointment that came in me. There are only two branches that I have known of in Dubai and I decided to take the plunge at Dubai Festival Mall.
It was a two story shop and from the exterior you’ll know that you’re not getting yourself into some cheap tea house. It has a very classy ambiance and tables are set as if you’re in a fine dining restaurant. Staffs are well groomed, well trained and very approachable for people like me who is no expert in tea at all.
The choices of tea are MASSIVE that I couldn’t find the right one to pick. The attendant gave us a tea book that will help us understand more about the tea options that they have but I was too lazy to flip over pages and read about each one of them. Under classic tea my eyes just happened to have a glance at a tea named “Sakura, Sakura!” which stirred curiosity on my side. As explained this is a mixture of green tea and sakura leaves. And even though the sound of green tea on my ears sends chills on my spine, I opted to try as it’s one of their best sellers and besides my buddy Joseph was a big fan of greens.
Aside from the tea, we had a three layered tray of sweets and sandwich goodness which was, frantically so delicious. The tray comes together with a pot of the tea of your choice and definitely you’ll have the option to choose which kind of sweets or sandwich you would like to have. In our case, we chose three macarons (mint, green tea and sakura), muffins and croque monsieur which was a sandwich wrapped in French gruyere cheese with turkey ham and was served with greens together with their house vinaigrette dressing. The whole set will cost AED 78, but since we fell deeply in love with sakura, sakura! we had another pot of it. Another pot will cost AED 30 for the classic teas and it can go up to AED 100+ depending on your choice of tea.
Let’s talk about sakura, sakura! AMAZING and I am not over reacting! If you’re still on that stage where you need to build a human-tea relation kind of thing, sakura, sakura! might be your best-est choice to start everything with tea. You need not to add sugar on the blend which was something that I like since I am not a huge fan of sugar. It’s not too strong hence made it far from being bitter but it got hat angst to it that gives character to the tea. There’s a hint of sweetness but not that overpowering (might be from the sakura leaves? ). From first sip we knew that it was the kind that soothes every tenses and stresses we have in our body. We were just left in awe and again I am not exaggerating things here!
I might as well fully divert my likings to tea now, and instead of spending too much time at a café that cost AED 26 for a venti cup, why not delve back in TWG for AED 30 that gives me three handful of cups which I bet is a lot more beneficial for my health. Plus the ambiance is so great it makes you want to imagine your next trip to somewhere else, write a story or just have a classy chat with a friend like I did.
Overall it’s a clear 5 for everything, ambiance, service, location, and price!
