From foraging tea in Poland to Blackpool’s seaside – how three generations created a brew worth waiting for

The tea room in Blackpool shares a building with a tattoo parlour and also has a gallery

Traditionally, us Lancastrians love a nice cup of tea, usually black leaf but occasionally Earl Grey or fruit. “I’ll put the kettle on” is that inexplicably comforting phrase during a crisis, when you’re in need of a cuppa during a long and stressful day at work; to share over a good gossip with friends or because a cuppa is the only thing that makes you feel better when you’re poorly.

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But despite millions of us sipping on an English Breakfast tea every morning, it will be tough to find one of them who had foraged for the ingredients and blended their own tea flavours before brewing them. However, Poland-born Anna Paprzycka, who runs Tea Amantes – Tearoom & Gallery in Blackpool, does just that.

“When I was little, I would go to the forest with my mother and grandmother and pick herbs to make my own tea”, she told LancsLive. “My love for tea has come down through my family’s generations.”

Anna moved to the seaside resort in 2013 with her partner Przemek Malachowski (who primarily goes by his tattoo artist moniker Shamack). She quite quickly began to miss the different tea flavours from back home and by 2018 had set up an online leaf tea shop, selling her unusual and original blends of herbal, black, bubble, fruit and green teas.

The online business really took off and the duo wanted to expand the venture and they began the hunt for a permanent premises. Then last November Anna opened the tea room on Albert Road, on the ground floor of Shamack’s tattoo studio, Inkden, which has six resident artists and also welcomes guest artists from all over the world.

Customers can now try one of 70 blends on offer at the tea room, while also enjoying an afternoon tea with the option to choose whichever tea blends they like or sip a cuppa with breakfast, lunch or a cake. There’s indoor and outdoor seating available, too.

Bags of loose leaf tea are on sale and there’s colourful and oddly-shaped tea pots dotted around the cafe, the herbs and spices smells wafting through the air. Some of the blends are quite rare and also a required taste, including the yoghurt tea as they use the roots while some teas can be brewed for many hours.

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“The English people love their black tea, but they are often surprised by what they prefer when they have tasted new flavours and especially how many still work with milk,” self-taught tea expert Anna said. “The masala chai is one of the best sellers, it’s quite spicy and the earl grey creamer is popular too.”

“I’d recommend leaving tea to brew for between two and five minutes to get the best taste. I am so proud of the the room, it is my baby, it is our second home [in Blackpool], we spend so much time here.”

Despite still being in its infancy, Anna says the niche cafe attracts visitors travelling from outside of the county just to buy and try the tea and it has rocketed to the number two spot on TripAdvisor, with an impressive five-star rating. Customers have been left in awe of the sheer choice of tea flavours on offer, lapping up the themed nights and quirky experience.

Another of Anna and Shamack’s passions is artwork, with the cafe’s gallery space available for rotating exhibitions. The current art exhibition showcases the work of Blackpool-born street photographer Dawn Mander called ‘Stagefright’. Dawn has a background in theatre and dance, while she has been documenting street and social imagery for several years and pictures on show at Tea Amantes include both well known and never seen before work from her archives.

Anna added: “We ran a tattoo art exhibition on the North Pier and that’s where the idea of opening a gallery came from. “It wasn’t easy at first [living in Blackpool] but I like it here now and we have our art family, I have my favourite places and we travel a lot.”

Tea Amantes is open Tuesday to Saturday, 10am to 5pm, food served 10am to 4pm. You can visit the online shop here

By

Denise EvansTourism Writer
  • 08:19, 6 AUG 2022
  • UPDATED08:25, 6 AUG 2022

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