Joyously multicultural, everyone is drinking, and all seem to be on nodding terms. It’s already bustling just after 1pm on a dull Monday, a mixture of regular topers leaning on the bar and larger groups too, devouring a hearty lunch.

Aloo tikka chat: a street-food classic, says Tom, that’s ‘as thrilling as Jonny Bairstow with his mighty bat’ An older Trinidadian gentleman provides running commentary on the Headingley Third Test. With faded tartan carpet, tattered floral fabrics and a strictly functional bar, it also has four fruit machines of various vintages, and two vast televisions, one tuned to the news, the other, thankfully, to the cricket. Just not something to get if it’s a “ chocolate tea” you’re wanting to try.The Prince of Wales, an unashamedly old-school boozer in the heart of London’s Southall, has little interest in the finer points of interior design. That said, it’s a perfect cozy, curl-up-in-a-blanket kind of tea, even if a little misleading. There are nice, warm spices, but nothing spicy. Then, I was also expecting from that something more “spicy,” what with the story about the Mayans and all.

But I really don’t think I would recognize it at all if it wasn’t in the name. The chocolate seems to be in there mostly as an aftertaste. The cinnamon and peppermint hit you first. Cup B, naturally, suited me much better, allowing simply the flavors of the tea itself to come out. Sure enough, the sugar in Cup A was a little too off base around the mint and the deepness of the various spices. I always drink it plain, so that’s just an odd flavor to me.

Because, truthfully, I usually think sugar tastes bad in tea.

When my companions unanimously decided that this seemed like a tea to add sugar to, I added some to half my tea, purely for reviewing’s sake. The fifty natural, unbleached tea bags give off a wonderful minty smell set in a black darkness.

Spicy mint reviews