March Elite Event: Tea @ Wall & Keogh

Was an amazing event. Very laid back and mellow, as it was supposed to be. Loved every minute that I was there. The teas were delicious for the most part (the smoked one was odd tasting but I’m glad I tried it). The jars of teas that you can smell is a cool feature of the place. Also they have a guitar downstairs that you can play!

Having been previously tipped off by the authenticity and wonder of wall & keogh I was taking my time to get there! Maybe its the fact that I don’t really like tea, well I don’t dislike it really, but I’m not a huge fan of the hot drink variety… I know sacrilege to all you coffee fanatics out there. So my first Unilocal elite night presented me with a great opportunity to sample not just one but several concoctions, so I naturally snapped up the invitation, thanks Annie! What can I say after Sundays experience only that this doubting Thomas is reformed. Maybe not to the Barrys tea variety with milk in it but to some of the enticing specialities on offer in this delightful tea room. Even the one that smelt like I can only imagine damp majors would taste like took my fancy and they only got better from there. Thanks to all the staff who made the experience all the more enjoyable. Luckily I live near by and I’m already going back on Thursday, can’t wait!

I feel refreshed.
After a long day at work, I pulled myself together just enough to get out the door and venture down the canal to Portabello and the Elite event at Wall & Keogh.
I was exhausted, and a little reluctant to be around a crowd of people, just not generally in the mood to socialize or try something new. Still, I knew I would regret it if I turned around and retreated to the comfort of my sofa. I turned the corner from the canal and almost walked past the unassuming storefront settled in beside the glowing signs of the surrounding chippers.
I pushed in the door to the little tea shop and, like Dorothy in Oz, I immediately stepped into an world of vibrant, fruity scents, the street I left completely forgotten. The teas line the walls in big glass canisters, reminiscent of an old apothecary, indeed the healing properties of these herbal concoctions are clearly labeled on the lids: Virile man, pu-​ehr fitness, Active Woman, De-​Stress. Since we arrived a little early, my partner and I wandered around the shop, lifting the glass lids and wafting the scents towards us. I was feeling better about this already. We relaxed for a bit in the back garden on up-​cycled beds-​cum-​sofas, listening to Billie Holiday croon over the speakers.
The event began with a short description of the history of the shop, Formerly a wallpaper and paint shop, Wall & Keogh in its current incarnation has only been around for about 3 months, but seems to be doing quite well for itself. We were instructed to find a place and relax, and teas would be brought around to us for tasting. Fine by me! My partner and I found a corner by a bookcase and chess set and settled in. The first tea arrived as my partner was showing me which way on the chess board the horsey moves (apparently it’s called a «knight»…to each his own) The blend was a smoked tea. The smell was intimidating at first, my partner described it as «smokey bacon tea,» but when I took a sip, the tea went down surprisingly smooth, with just a hint of smokiness lingering on the tongue. I imagined Sherlock Holmes drinking this tea as he absently played his violin, pondering a sticky alibi in his current case… I think spending so much time flipping through the collection of the owners books was beginning to have an effect on me.
The night rolled on, and with it the teas — weight loss tea, aloe tea, sweet dreams tea, Rooibos… I sipped and sipped and slipped a little more and more out of myself until the night came to a close. Many of us huddled at the counter, eager to purchase a bit of the night to take home for ourselves. My partner and I left the shop with Lapsang Souchong (smoked tea) and Falling Snowflake (a wintery-​warming herbal tea).
I’d love to return to Wall & Keogh with a book and a few hours to kill… I think this will be one of my new favourite spots right in my own backyard.
Thanks Annie!

I love tea… and similarly to Reagan I was just knackered on Sunday after a busy weekend and losing that crucial hour! But it was just lovely to sit and chill and taste the teas. Definitely the cure for my weekend!
It encouraged me to be more adventurous with tea, and I think it will be a future favourite venue for relaxing with a book!

Tea isn’t my cuppa. Normal tea, herbal tea, fancy tea whatever you want to call it, unlike a coffee, is just not my thing. But due to giving up coffee for lent (would Easter EVER get here already!) I have been forced into some hot drinking alternatives. As lovely as the local green teas you get in the supermarket are, they’re just no substitute. So the thought of drinking more fancy tea on a Sunday night didn’t jump out and scream «winner» at me. But I was well wrong.
This was a fab little event in a cool place I probably would never discover on my own, especially not being a regular tea drinker. Top marks to Annie for picking this spot. We were warmly greeted by both Unilocalers and Wall & Keogh staff. The décor of this little chill-​out zone in Richmond St is fabulous and witty. I love the little section outside which had beds for seats and fairy lights. There was something very Beckett-​like about the beds I had to quell the urge to get up and perform.
When you enter you are taken away by the smell of all the various teas on offer, all contained in glass jars. After a bit of a meet and greet we were given a wonderful presentation on some of Wall & Keogh’s 150 varieties of tea. Tea from China, tea from Brazil, teas that weren’t teas, tea for slimming, for insomnia, for relaxing. The staff were very knowledgeable and all contributed, explaining the differences between black tea, green tea and white tea and their properties.
We got to try a couple of varieties, the staff bringing around different teas in see-​thru teapots. The first, a «smoky» tea was delicious. Then we had a couple of fruity teas, a puh-​err tea with matte and a couple of biscuits thrown in all over conversations of poetry (there was the poetry book from the inter cert on the bookshelf, did that bring back memories) and some chess playing. All my troubles, all the outside world, all my trepidations about racing across the city from work hungry to make the event melted away.
I really enjoyed this night and left with some packets of new discovered teas which the girlfriend and I settled down to after. Well done all involved :)
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As I sauntered in the door (slightly late and out of breath as usual) and was hit by a delicious smell that I wanted to cut into bricks and take home with me.
I think they should make the smell into a candle and call it… wait for it… a TEA CANDLE (I’m sorry I couldn’t help it, must be the damn beautiful tea talking…)
Before I rant on about how great the tea is (which I think merits me bouncing around even more than usual so I’m spending my day dodging men in white coats for now) I want to mention the décor of the place. It was an amazing style of relaxed mixed with adventure. Step downstairs into a land of cool hazy tea drinkers to soothe your soul, or get adventurous and explore the garden area outside (even if it’s raining they have a lovely big red cover that makes you feel like you’ve just found a secret hidey hole!)
So we all know about the relaxing tea, the type to help you sleep, lose weight, love kittens blah blah… What I loved was this place introduced me to the near adrenalin heights that normally a double shot of espresso together with a latte can only achieve. It was the Lapsang Souchong tea that has stolen my heart. Y’know those sunny balmy days that you are walking along and the smell of a BBQ tickles your senses? Well this tea is exactly that distilled in a cup.
The staff really knows their tea, but not in a snobbish stuck up way «Like this tea is importing organically from Kenya by pigeons dontcherknow» but more in a laid back friendly interesting sort of way.
The owner also has vinyl’s sitting on the counter on shelves complete with a record player (which I had a good rummage through, he even had the beastie boys!).
I will be back here very shortly, letting the sounds of Ray Charles and Shirley Bassey waft over me as I sit gazing out the window watching the world go by (yes the crazy lady sitting in the window staring at everyone will be me).

Awesome tea place! Lots of great and different types of teas. I got to try kinds I never had before (mixed, smoked, Mate) and found a new favorite (Mate)! I will definitely be going back to buy more Mate and a Mate straw when they are back in stock!
Really relaxed event, and a lot of fun!
The atmosphere of the store is exactly what a tea shop should be – music, books, comfy chairs, outside patio and, of course, lots of wonderful tea! They also had food which I thought about getting but decided to save that for next time I go!