How much are you willing to pay for a cuppa?
The Rubens at The Palace, which overlooks The Royal Mews at Buckingham Palace, is one of London’s swankiest hotels. The five star venue serves an already-pretty-fancy afternoon tea with freshly baked scones, pastries and classic finger sandwiches. But, for the sake of making it even fancier, they’ve decided to throw the UK’s most expensive cup of tea into the mix.
For a pot of Ceylon Golden Tips, which holds just three cups of tea, you’ll be handed a bill for £500. Five hundred English pounds. Of course, at that price, it’s not just any cup of tea. In fact, it’s a very rare tea blend produced in the highlands of Sri Lanka, and brought to the UK by specialist tea merchants PMD Tea.
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Exclusively available at The Rubens, Ceylon Golden Tips—now known as The Rubens Golden Tips Tea—has been created by expert tea pluckers who hand pick the tips of a special tea plant before sun-drying them on a velvet cloth. Ooh la.
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The tea has a smooth, light and mellow texture with subtle fruity notes. The leaves can be infused up to three times (and if you’re paying half a grand, you’ll definitely be getting your money’s worth) and the flavour profile will change each time.
Anyone who opts for this extra spennyspecial tea will be given the full, five star treatment. The tea leaves will be picked with golden tweezers and weighed with precision. After being infused, it will then be poured from a special silver tea set with white glove service.
The Rubens’ Royal Afternoon Tea costs £45 per person, plus the additional (and, importantly, optional) £500 for a pot of The Rubens Golden Tips Tea. For more information and to book, head to The Rubens’ website.