Souvenirs from Singapore

Last Saturday afternoon, I visited my uncle and aunt. They are sociable people, and I can often see and hear something interesting in their house. This time, they had boxes of tea and cookies that their neighbor brought from Singapore as souvenirs. The boxes bore the name Raffles Hotel. I thought it was a famous hotel because I had heard the name somewhere. We were excited when my aunt opened the boxes finally to taste them.

The tea box contained 25 tea bags of Darjeeling tea. We could feel the fragrance even before taking them out from paper bags. We drank the tea with fine teacups with flowers. It was good. The cookies were white chocolate macadamia cookies. They were crunchy and had a rich taste of nuts.

We talked a lot. Before I left their house, my aunt gave me some tea bags and cookies. I thought I had to write an article about them, so I took pictures of the boxes.

Later, I learned a little about Raffles Hotel on the Internet. It is an old colonial hotel opened in 1887. As I imagined from the picture on the cookie box, it is a hotel of the highest quality. I also found that the tea company The 1872 Clipper Tea Co. written on the tea box is Singapore’s oldest tea producer. It has partnered with Raffles Hotel for more than 20 years. The products of The 1872 Clipper Tea Co. are one of the most popular souvenirs from Singapore because they have no shop in Japan.

Today, I had the tea and cookies again. The tea had a beautiful color and reminded me of wine somehow. It may be because today is my uncle’s birthday. Cheers!