At the house, you are served tea before you are asked your name. It is the first thing done for someone who arrives: rinse the tea, add the mint, the sugar, let it steep.
Then the gesture: the teapot lifted high above the glass, so the tea takes air and the foam forms. Pour it back, taste, start again. There is no right height, only the hand of the one who pours.
At the Belvedere, afternoon tea is served this way, facing the bay. In winter a sprig of wormwood or lemon verbena goes in; in summer, orange blossom. The first glass is sweet, the last a little stronger: they say you need all three.
An article signed by the house