4160 Tuesdays: Hammersmith Tea & Biscuits

A Rainy London Tea Date with Lemon Biscuits for Cheer

You’ve just woken up on a sunny spring morning—it’s your day off. Your best friend calls and wants to meet up for a relaxing cup of tea and to catch up after a busy work week. You’re sick of the crowds and the traffic, so you slip into a quiet side street. The tea shop is a perfect postcard scene of “shabby chic,” with it’s country-cottage window boxes. The sky is overcast and you need a bit of cheer, so when the owner (who takes orders herself, because this is her very own tiny dream of a cafe) brings you an elegant little plate of biscuits, you’re taken aback at their flavor: lemon.

You wonder how she guessed that you needed just this kind of cheerful flavor today: a little bit tangy, but also creamy and subtle, like the pastel yellow flower design scattered on the tiny ceramic plate.

The aroma of your black tea floats up and around you, blending with the grainy, floury scent of the fresh biscuits still baking behind the scenes. Your swirling thoughts of the past week and your scattered conversation can finally start to settle into a more peaceful space as you get comfortable in the mismatched armchairs and let the warmth of the cup in your hand work its magic.

Hammersmith Tea & Biscuits, despite its “grey day” vibe, brings exactly this kind of escape, bottled for you to wear whenever you need a break from your busy days. It’s not, “why does it always rain in England?” It’s, “What a lovely, rainy day in England!”