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).