Ealing’s Ladies (Baker Street Blend and Lavender)

There are times when the story of a tea is long and involved and other times when it is short, sweet, and mostly about a flavour idea popping into my mind basically fully formed.

When Baker Street Blend was first named and the concept of the Tea Series first appeared, there was rather a flood of ideas – both for flavour sets and for names.

In some cases it was a bit of both.

Lavender combined with anything involving Earl Grey is less an idea I feel I can claim and more one that is so pervasive it would have felt odd not to create a version of Baker Street Blend that contained it.

The theme, as intended in the beginning, was to link teas founded on Baker Street with literary detectives. Many of these also appear on screen, and there may eventually be some chosen that did not start out on the page, but the initial intent was strictly literary.

Lavender. One of the first thoughts I had was “and old lace” and from there the discussion almost immediately reached Miss Marple.

I know Christie’s books are far from perfect, but one of my safe spaces as a child was the library in the room next to the front door at my grandparents’ house.

So many mysteries. Some more pulp than others, but there were many greats from an intriguing smattering of timeframes.

I read about murders and academia and murders and cats and murders and a monastery and murders and orchids and… I consumed many words in the genre during those early summers.

I will admit that not all of what I consumed from that library may have been considered to be age appropriate, but I always appreciated that, for the most part, if I proved I could understand the text – both intellectually and emotionally – they would let me read it.

They also let me make all my own oops-maybe-not-that-book regular library mistakes. And that was appreciated. Helped me learn to navigate both my own mind, on some levels, as well as developing a skill for library wending.

But I’ve digressed a bit more, perhaps, than is appropriate. This tea story was intended to be one of the shorter ones.

Suffice to say that old mysteries were part of the reality weave of a place that felt safe – and Miss Marple was the obvious choice for a lavender Earl Grey that was to be attached to mysteries.

Oddly enough, this did not, in the end, make it as easy to name as one might think.

This tea was jotted down in the first of the journals, and it has come up as needing a name several times over the intervening years. Nothing really seemed to fit, and more recent attempts provoked the urge to reread all the Marple mysteries.

Unfortunately, this urge was complicated by three things.

The first was that I had been persuaded to give away most of my Christie. ¹ The second was that what little I had left was packed up in boxes that are all, essentially, mini-bosses attached to the adventure of detangling the tendrils spread through current life of a 19 year relationship that is done and dusted.² The third was the intensely frustrating Reader’s Block that I’ve been experiencing.³

So, no name. Over and over again, no name.

Until a recent conversation in one of my discords led to a rabbithole made of data about the character and the various thoughts and ideas and theories on how she came to be.

And I loved the thought that she was kind of a mixtape of the best qualities of the women of a certain age and era who were either those who shaped Christie or were a part of her friend circle.

Thus – Ealing’s Ladies.

And I am very happy to finally be able to introduce you to this tea that has been languishing, unnamed, for more years than I want to think about.

Now for the basics:

Organic Ingredients: Baker Street Blend (Keemun Black Tea, Earl Grey Tea, Russian Caravan Tea), Lavender

Batch Size: 2.8 oz, 79 grams, 30+ servings

Options: Loose Tea (5 serving sample (Bag or Tin), Full Batch (Bag or Tin)),