New twists on the humble cup of tea could rival coffee as the hippest brew on the block, says Phoebe Luckhurst

ea is tea: you know where you are with a cuppa. Occasionally, in a moment of panic, you try some outlandish infusion and then glower enviously at your pal’s English brekkie. But that attitude is anathema to London. Where there is comfort in familiarity, the city craves change — now it’s tea’s time.

“I think to a lot of people the concept of tea is quite polarised,” muses Antonia Hyltén-Cavallius, business development manager at Amanzi (amanzitea.co.uk), a Marylebone tea shop that is spearheading the revolution. “You have your standard teas that people are very familiar with — builder’s, Earl Grey, maybe a camomile, maybe a green. And then you have the other end of the market: quite high end, quite luxurious, quite intimidating. People think of afternoon tea at The Ritz, where you have to book three months in advance, or Fortnum & Mason or Harrods. It’s a beautiful experience but you have hundreds of canisters of tea, and if you don’t know what you’re looking for it feels a bit intimidating to ask. You don’t want to feel stupid.”

Amanzi — which has a shop on New Cavendish Street and will open a second in Brewer Street in August — dispenses standard teas, high-end options and plenty in between. It sells a selection of black, white and green teas, herbal tisanes, tea smoothies, bubble teas, tea lattes and even (virgin) tea cocktails. Many can be served hot or cold. Best sellers include lychee, pomegranate, honeydew melon and cherrybubble tea, and Silver Needle (the “champagne of teas”, explains Hyltén-Cavallius).

Though you can get a steaming cup of regular char (I had a builder’s when I tumbled through the door), it feels rather like you’re missing the point.

Hyltén-Cavallius speaks about temperatures and water purity with the furious fixation of an academic (green tea needs to be brewed at between 75 and 80 degrees for two to three minutes otherwise it will get “that horrible bitter taste”). It’s a promising sign: coffee wouldn’t have amassed a hipster following if it weren’t for its catalogue of nerdish details — knowledge of the niche is a pleasingly exclusive pursuit.

But unlike coffee the tea revolution is consistent with the capital’s health wave: Amanzi serves Yunnan Pu-erh — a favourite of celebrities for its rumoured weight-loss properties — and has concocted its own detox blend. Hyltén-Cavallius points out that white teas are high in antioxidants and low in caffeine; oolong is allegedly good for the metabolism. Matcha teas — already a hit in New York, whose esoteric food trends provide the template for what’s coming to London — are popular with Marylebone’s yummy mummies: there are two sitting at a table near mine when I visited on a Friday morning. There are also two glamorous girls sucking on Marlboro Lights.

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Hyltén-Cavallius insists the sweeter flavours — including Nutella-and Oreo-based tea frappes — are popular with Marylebone schoolchildren. Hopefully that won’t deter the hipsters.

Will London take to it? “Londoners want to stay ahead of the curve,” says Hyltén-Cavallius, “they want to know what’s new, what’s happening, what’s trendy. I think from that perspective tea works really well because even though it has a huge amount of heritage and tradition to it, you can do it in different ways. And then people want to try it, want to know, want to explore things that are new. Also, tea has incredible health benefits and I think that is also a strong reason why it’s working so well.

“It’s also something you can socialise over. You grab a coffee — it sets up your day — it’s very quick. Tea is a much slower experience.”

Crack out the bubbles and let the tea party commence.

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