Christmas or Christmas
While our iconic "Christmas Tea" pays homage to the fruit jellies enjoyed in France at Christmas, Il était une fois Noël takes the opposite route: behind this deliciously French name lies the spirit of the most iconic of English Christmas desserts: the famous Christmas pudding. A cross-Channel nod, a gourmet dialogue between traditions, for a black tea with deep aromas, enveloping spices, and a gently regressive elegance. So delicious, indeed.
A dessert steeped in tradition…
Christmas pudding, a treasure of English tables, is not just a dessert: it is a ritual, a memory, a celebration in itself. Born in the 17th century, it was traditionally prepared on Stir-up Sunday, the last Sunday before Advent, and rested for several weeks to allow its flavors to mature. In each family, the dough was stirred clockwise while whispering a wish, sometimes slipping in a lucky coin. Its dense and generous recipe combines candied fruit, citrus peel, grated apples, molasses, spices, alcohol, and suet, the animal fat that once gave it its melting texture. Slowly steamed and flambéed on Christmas Day, it brought warmth, sharing, and indulgence in the heart of winter.
And because tea can also revive memories and awaken legends, Once Upon a Christmas offers an echo in a cup, a spicy and fruity infusion, like a drinking tale, between the sweetness of childhood and the thrill of candied orange.
While in London, people have been lovingly watching over the pudding dough since the end of November, in Parisian kitchens, on the afternoon of December 24th, people are busy preparing the Yule log, the aromas of sponge cake, melted chocolate and candied chestnuts wafting into the living room.
In Paris, in a Haussmann-style apartment with gently creaking parquet floors, the kitchen, with its antique floor tiles and patinated furniture, is filled with another festive scent: that of a sponge cake rising in the oven, melted chocolate shavings for a homemade Yule log, rum and icing sugar floating like a childhood vapor. The atmosphere is sweeter, more powdery, but just as enveloping.
In London, behind the frost-dusted bay windows, the kitchen, with its antique tiles and hanging saucepans, exudes heady aromas: flaked almonds, brown cinnamon, grated ginger, warm vanilla... The pudding simmers in its casserole dish, wrapped in a striped tea towel. On the table, oranges studded with cloves sit alongside jars of Christmas jam.
In both cities, it's the promise of a tender and delicious moment. But it's in London that we truly find the subtle aromas that make up our Once Upon a Christmas black tea.
