Tea, the quintessential British refreshment, is so very quintessentially British that we even have our own dedicated Tea Council. And the world’s very first tea sommelier. 

But the nation’s favourite drink did not, in fact, catch on here until years after it had done so in other parts of Europe, and it was a Portuguese princess – Catherine of Braganza, queen-consort of Charles II – who was responsible for building its popularity in Britain. 

Happily, however, we can claim the idea of afternoon tea as our own, thanks to Anna, Seventh Duchess of Bedford, to whom the introduction of the tradition in the early 1800s is attributed. 

And the tradition is one that has survived through the years, and is currently enjoying a comeback thanks to the sumptuous and luxurious offerings of afternoon tea from some of London’s top hotels. Forget wilting cucumber sandwiches and rock-hard scones, these cake stands come piled high with an exquisite range of sweet and savoury mouthfuls and are usually accompanied by a choice of teas as wide as any good wine list. 

Discover the Tea Guild’s top places for tea, in London and throughout the UK, here.  

And to celebrate the custom’s return to favour, here is our pick of tea-related property currently on the market.

Tea trader
Llanerchydol, the seat of David Pugh, a wealthy 18th century tea trader

Tea room
A small country estate with tea room

Afternoon tea on your doorstep
Next door to the Ritz

Take a moment to unwind and enjoy the finer things in life as we take a brief departure from property to share some rather luxurious finds. Today, in anticipation of Easter, we bring you chocolate heaven courtesy of three of the UK’s very best chocolatiers…

Melt, Notting Hill
Founded four years ago by Louise Nason – a mother of ‘four demanding children who only like to eat the best chocolate’ - you can watch the chocolates being made in Melt’s shop kitchen. This boutique chocolate shop’s Easter range includes these (almost) too cute to eat bunnies.

William Curley, Richmond
Ex-Chef Patissier at The Savoy Hotel, William Curley is the Academy of Chocolate’s three-times (and current) Best British Chocolatier. Try his award-winning sea salt caramel egg – a dark chocolate egg filled with Normandy sea-salted butter caramels.

The Highland Chocolatier
Ian Burnett works from his specially designed chocolate kitchen in Highland Perthshire. Pick of his collection are the famous Velvet Truffles – the recipe took three years and over 120 adjustments for Iain to perfect.

Spring has, at last, sprung, and here at Primelocation.com we are in the gardening mood. From koi carp to private cricket grounds, here’s our pick of the properties with the best gardens currently on the market.

The award-winner
Keston, Kent: £4,750,000

The long, sweeping driveway of Bradmoor House leads to 17 acres of secluded, landscaped gardens – designed by a Chelsea Flower Show award-winning designer, no less.

Even the village name – Leaves Green – promises foliage and springtime abound. And it’s within an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. What more could one want?

How about the five stables, large dog run, outdoor heated pool with electronic cover, Travertine marble terrace, and the small lake?

The Japanese garden
Marden, Kent: £995,000

When you have tired of Hertsfield Barn’s English garden, with its rose arbour walkway and Sissinghurst-inspired design, head to the Japanese garden, which is full of bonsai trees and traditional bamboo and grasses. 

For wildlife, seek out the lake, which is stocked with koi karp and ducks. Or head down to the River Beult, where the property has its own private fishing rights. 

The secret garden
Norwood Hill, Surrey: £5,500,000

Hidden behind a large brick wall and accessed through wooden gates is the secret garden, designed by Russell Page, whose work can also be seen at Leeds Castle and Longleat. 

The 100 acres of Little Mynthurst also home a swimming pool, vegetable plot, bird and butterfly garden, Tudor garden, dovecote, lake, tennis court, woodland and a private cricket ground. 

These gardens are too good not to be shared – the owners open them to the public on a bi-annual basis under the National Garden Scheme.

The maze
Wetherby, West Yorkshire: £1,500,000

The Pool House sits in 8.3 acres of grassland, formal lawned gardens and terracing, with a woodland backdrop and views towards Wetherby Racecourse. 

This is a garden to get lost in – quite literally, in the circular maze. 

And when you’re bored with the maze, there’s an all-weather golf putting green too. 

The view
St Martin, Jersey: £10,000,000

The smallest of the lot, but with views like this who needs all that acreage? 

The 2.8 acres of this cliff-top Channel  Islands property boast show-stopping sea views all the way to France.

Never mind a room with a view – this house in Surrey has been built so that almost all the rooms have a view. And what a view it is. 

The pretty, peaceful lakeside setting isn’t all that this property has going for it either. The design of the house takes its inspiration from nature – lots of stone and wood – mixed with a modern, Scandinavian feel. 

This, coupled with some really luxurious spaces (wine cellar, games room, spectacular vaulted reception hall, lakeside terrace), makes it a very special home. There are also seven bedrooms and seven acres of land. 

It’s on the market for £4,250,000 – well worth it to wake up to that view every single day, I’d say.

There are many unique properties newly available this week, including a converted synagogue and two amazing waterside properties.

1. Unique Bauhaus property

2. Waterside residence

3. Clerkenwell penthouse

4. Synagogue conversion

5. Unique features

6. Seaside charm in Devon

7. Grand proportions

8. Belsize Avenue home

9. Water tower conversion

10. Immaculate gardens

Could this home in Cornwall be the dream setting for an English summer? It’s just so utterly perfect – and made even more beautiful by the glorious sunshine in these pictures. It’s a home for picnics on the lawn, strawberries and cream, and all things that sum up the British summertime.

The house is perfectly restored, and has six bedrooms and four bathrooms, but for me, this is an outside house. It was the summerhouse that won my heart first when I came across this property. It looks like something out of a fairytale. There is also a swimming pool, tennis court, and not one but four landscaped gardens. This house might be pretty on the inside, but sometimes it’s beauty on the outside that counts. In this case, that is certainly true.

 It’s on the market for £3,500,000.

Over on Primelocation.com, we’ve been writing about polar explorer Paul Lavelle’s eco barn, Barnsley Hill Farm. Six bedrooms, a 25-seat home cinema, indoor pool, steam room, sauna, hot tub, yet the same carbon footprint as the average two-bed flat – a ‘more comfortable shade of green’ indeed. 

And it turns out we’re not the only ones to be impressed. According to today’s Telegraph, the couple who recently scooped Britain’s biggest win on the EuroMillions Lottery, Nigel Page and Justine Laycock, have just moved in. 

It was on the market for £4 million – which will have left them with plenty of change from their £56 million jackpot.

Things are looking good for prime property prices in London. The Primelocation.com February  Prime Index heralded a rise in prices in the capital, and now the figures from Knight Frank’s Prime Central London Residential Index are saying the same. 

Prime property prices in central London were up 3.2 per cent in February, says the Knight Frank report. Not since August 2007 has such a rise been seen. The gap is closing on pre credit crunch levels, as prices are now just 10 per cent lower than during the market peak of March 2008. 

And Knight Frank are seeing more and more cases of houses in the £5 million+ price band now even out-doing those of the March 2008 market peak. 

Liam Bailey, head of residential research at Knight Frank, says: “At the very top of the market we have begun to see increasing examples of properties hitting or exceeding peak prices again – the £5m-£10m sector is most effected by this new phenomena especially in Mayfair, Kensington, Holland Park and Knightsbridge where supply of excellent properties is very thin and buyers are increasingly willing to pay figures above guide prices to secure the right house.”

The market was kick-started again when low interest rates and the weak pound began attracting foreign buyers to prime central London in March 2008. The buyers kept coming, with 45 per cent of purchases costing £2 million or more coming from non-UK buyers over the last 12 months. 

Demand from Asian investors has risen 120 per cent in the last year. New-build properties along the river and into Canary Wharf have been attracting buyers from Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand. 

And developers in the capital are building again. The rising prices and high demand are drawing niche developers back to Chelsea, Mayfair and Belgravia, after an absence of almost 18 months. There was 43 per cent more construction starting in the borough of Kensington and Chelsea in the second half of 2009.