ESPRIT DE NOÈL

In Rome there is a small café and shop near Piazza Repubblica, where I used to live. The café sells the most delicious 'piccola pasticceria' (small bakery that sells confectionery, pastries and tiny tarts also knows as 'petite four' in French) with a touch of Roman Jewish bakery, some Sicilian traditional goods and all kinds of French patisserie. 

It's a hidden gem for locals only that's been around for almost a century, located in the centre of Rome and has the city's character: sophisticated but decadent, full of beautiful businessmen, priests, refined women, criminals, young artists and high-class hookers. This is how diversified Rome can be just at first glance in a café.

Inside the café there has always been a tiny shop selling only Le Mariage Frères tea, a luxury French tea blend. 

I remember buying my very first EARL GREY there and feeling so Anglophile after my teenage holidays in London, where I probably drank Twinings.

The smell of these teas in the shop was like a window to the whole world: Asia, India, Morocco, England, France... I can't forget the smile on my face when I went there and could smell them all, one after the other and my favourite: Marco Polo.

The name, the tin and above all the price make this product a luxury item that I certainly couldn't afford at the time, but I bought it with the Roman motto "crepi l'avarizia" (defeat avarice) in mind. 

I loved it, it is probably the same feeling of my flatmate at the time that used to work at Celine and bought his first pair of Prada spending all his wage, we were young, skint but full of dreams. He dreamed of designer shoes, I dreamed of a designer tea - to each his own. 

15 years later, I bought my mum and I a ticket for a weekend in Paris because she wasn't feeling well after dad passed away. We had the best time there and we ate everything that we could. When we visited the Louvre we found out that in the museum there are several shops including one that sells only Le Mariage Frères tea.

The cashier said that you can only find this tea in three cities: Paris, Rome and London. Obviously. These karmic connections of migrating flavours...the story of my life, literally.

This year in January I went back to that cafe in Rome, the shop miraculously is still there and I bought ESPRIT DE NOÈL: a blend of black tea with flavours of cinnamon, almond, bourbon and mandarin. Unapologetically festive. 

When I bought it I made a wish "I'll drink this tea during Christmas in my new house".

Little I knew that buying a house in England is one of the most stressful things to do (let me add the moving as well), and be-in-a-chain is still a very weird concept to grasp.

I almost lost hope during the year, until mum came to visit last month and bought me this festive mug from Fortnum and Mason wishing me to drink THAT TEA in THIS MUG while sitting in THAT NEW HOUSE.

Just because life is full of ups and downs, we shouldn't be defined by the people we are during these hard times. We should always, always, always, always remember the highs and set new goals as we make new wishes. 

That's what Christmas is all about, isn't it? 

The idea of buying such a sophisticated tea and drinking it in my new house when I'm a grown up, refined person... so it wasn't just a delusional dream or a shopaholic moment.

It is reality today, welcome to my new kitchen in my frigging new giant house.

Merry Christmas everyone