Tea Time! Polish Wałbrzych Tea Set, Finnish Strawberry Cheese Tart Served with British Clipper Fruit Tea

Autumn falls in Helsinki and it’s surely the cozy time to have some fruit tea! From etymology research, the Japanese tea specialist Yamada Utako on the vintage teacup collection, WAŁBRZYCH Porcelain has been continuing the unique craftsmanship tradition since 1945, until the declaration of its unfortunate bankruptcy in 2012. At Tapiola flea market, I am very lucky enough to hunt a mini WAŁBRZYCH tea set to enrich myself into more of a tea culture connoisseur. 

Fabryka Porcelany Wałbrzych (Walbrzych Porcelain Factory) continued tradition of nationalized, Carl Tielsch Altwasser factory, in 1945. The plot of land where in 1845 Carl Tielsch’s factory was founded was located at the edge of the locality of Altwasser (Stary Zdrój), which was included into the administration area of Wałbrzych in 1923. The place where the factory appeared, near the still working health resort, had not been chosen by Tielsch at random, but because it was situated in a short distance from a designed railway line.

WAŁBRZYCH porcelain is standardly modeled with China Bone as its base, and hand painted with rosy tone of rose buds, embellished with 22 karat gold on each works of art. After the factory was privatized in 1992, it fell into financial trouble due to the export markets, such as the rise of Arab spring in 2011. Comparing with German Arzberg, WAŁBRZYCH teacup is slightly thicker and heavier. My collection of tea set owns the ‘WAŁBRZYCH Made in Poland’ without ‘FINE PORCELAIN’ on top of the trademark, which is produced between 1952-1992, more precious among the series, surely that hand wash is highly recommended. 

As for the fruit tea for autumn afternoon teatime, the vintage Polish shall be dancing with a modern British! The organic green tea leaves with strawberry and raspberry by CLIPPER, is light and fruity, therefore, drinking a cup in the afternoon wouldn’t struggle me insomnia at night. Founded in Dorset 1984, by master tasters couple Lorraine and Mike Brehme, CLIPPER was one of the first who received Fair Trade Mark in UK. 

Here is the suggestive way to prepare a cup of fruity afternoon tea: 

1.     Boil the water at the short period of time up to 80-90°C

2.     Warm the tea kettle or cup with a small amount of boiled water

3.     Immerse Clipper tea leaves with the water in 2-3 minutes

4.     Dip a half of frozen strawberry for the richer taste 

Together with fruit tea, I drops several rose buds at kettle to infuse a more of fresh odor; on the first cup of tea, I decorate a dry Finnish rose to elevate the floral taste. As for the snacks, with the fresh Spanish strawberries, I select the freshly baked strawberry cheese cup cake at Gateau Bakery and a bag of dried Apples bites from supermarket! The whole concept of autumn afternoon teatime is strawberry fruity and rosy tasty, hence, the photography setting follows the pinkish plus off white tone: handmade linen mini tea set clothe, the dried rose buds, WILKIN & SONS Raspberry jam, surprisingly that the milk jar from Czech Republic matches Wałbrzych porcelain perfectly, and the crystal cup to show around the lovely colours of fresh Spanish strawberries. 

For more info about Wałbrzych:

http://slaskaporcelana.pl/walbrzych/fabryka-porcelany-tielsch