While in London during the summer of 2007 I met Edward Bramah. Some of you may find his name vaguely familiar. Most will not.
Edward Bramah was the world's foremost expert in coffee and tea. He was perhaps the world's only expert in coffee and tea, but that was some of the magic about this man.
As I said earlier I met him while I was on a trip to london. I stumbled upon his museum in a guide book and thought it sounded extraordinarily interesting -even before I became obsessed with hot beverages of all sorts. Something about the museum made it seem whimsical and fantastic. Nothing like the more popular attractions where tourists piled on top of other tourists to see things like a wax figure of Jackie Chan.
Most of all it seemed brilliantly authentic. The reason it existed was to inform people about the history of tea and coffee and the devices used to brew these beverages. So my grandmother and I ventured of to find the museum. After a much longer walk than we expected we found the museum. It occupied a space no larger than two street-side stores and the signage was so minimal we nearly passed it.
My grandmother was tired and sat at a table in the cafe while I explored the rest of the museum. There were so many different apparatuses for the production of tea and coffee that I got lost in them. When I emerged from the last of the exhibits I saw my grandmother sitting at a table laughing and talking to an older man. She waved to call me over and said,
Jeffrey, I would like you to meet Mr. Edward Bramah.
He was the foremost expert on tea and coffee having tea with my grandmother -in his own museum. He was telling her how to properly pour a perfect cup of tea and telling stories from his trips to different tea farms across the world. After a while we had all finished out tea and were chatting away.
That's when he did something I will never forget. He said, "Come with me, I want to give you a tour of the neighbourhood." He knew the history of everything. From the market down the road, to the John Harvard house, to the extraordinary building that used to hold the London Hop Exchange.
He was interested in everything about the area and his excitement showed through, even on a tour I am sure he had given a myriad of time before. It was one of the best tours I have been on in my life and he provided it purely because he wanted to pass this knowledge onto others. It was clear that this was his underlying drive in everything he did from his museum, to the tour, to his wine-bar that we ate at later that night.
There were many other interesting things in london but none has left such a profound mark on me than the afternoon I spent with Mr. Bramah. He communicatied passion without saying it once. Something, in my opinion, we should all learn how to do.
Note: Mr. Bramah passed in feburary of 2008. I am pretty sure the mesuem has since closed but if it ever repoens I implore you to give it a visit. It won't be quite the same but it's still an interesting way to spend an afternoon.