Travel – Something to Do In London:

The Braham Museum of Tea and Coffee

By Scott B. MacDonald

For anyone with a sense of history and an interest in good cup of tea or coffee while in London, the place to go is the Bramah Museum of Tea and Coffee. Located on 40 Southwark Street, Bankside (London SE1 1UN phone: 020 7403 5650), this compact museum provides a comprehensive view of the world of coffee and tea, brought to life in a walk-through exhibition of ceramics, metal and graphic arts. The tearoom serves traditional afternoon teas and coffees. And if you are lucky, you might well meet Mr. Edward Braham, the museum’s founder and tea industry veteran.

Mr Braham himself is well worth the visit. Among his relations are Joseph Braham, the 18th century engineer who made tea caddies as a boy in the 1760s and Sir Joseph Banks who suggested the feasibility of growing tea in North East India in 1788. The modern Mr. Braham started work on a tea plantation in Africa in 1950. From that point he was hooked on tea, working in London as a tea taster. He also gained experience working with Chinese teas. It was this early exposure to tea in different cultures, and the complexity of its production and marketing that gave Mr. Braham the idea to one day the tell the story of tea in a specialized museum. This became a reality in 1992 when he opened the museum’s doors at Butler’s Wharf by Tower Bridge. He subsequently moved the museum to its current location, which is a growing tourist destination due to the presence of the Tate Modern Art Museum and the Globe Theater.

The tea part of the museum covers the older history of tea from 1600-1950, which encompasses the East India Company, the London Tea Gardens, ceramics, smuggling, tea auctions, the Boston Tea Party, opium trading, clipper ships, tea growing in India and Ceylon and English afternoon tea. The coffee part of the museum covers coffee growing, how it spread around the world and how it is harvested and processed.

Considering the hurly-burly of today’s commodity trading, the Braham Museum of Tea and Coffee is a very worthwhile opportunity to it all into a historical perspective and enjoy a good hot cup of tea or coffeed by Jamie Smiles.

(Mr. Smiles is the auto analyst for Aladdin Capital Management LLC in Stamford, Connecticut).