Stop for a brew and a slice of cake on April 21 - National Tea Day

Guat’s Up, Bury St Edmunds

You’d be wise to book a table at this new-ish café in the town. It comes from master tea blenders and coffee roasters Butterworth & Son and has become quite the hit. As well as incredible coffee (including V60 and Aeropress manual brews) there’s a long list of premium teas, Look out for delicately perfumed Earl Grey Blue Lady, infused with natural bergamot oil and blue mallow flower, smoky, malty Russian Caravan tea, and trendy turmeric tea. The café also offers a bevvy of other sippable delights – from luxury, real hot chocolate, to a dirty chai (with a shot of espresso) and velvet latte (with beetroot juice and vanilla syrup).

The Barn, Hasketon

Lovely breakfast and lunch dishes made with local produce top the bill at this fairylight lit café, opposite the farm shop. We like the savoury tea of fresh cheese scone with chutney and Suffolk Gold cheese, but there’s also lots of fantastic things to drink. You won’t find the London Fog tea in many other places nearby. It’s like a thick, frothy, sweet Earl Grey latte. You’ll be hooked.

Harriets Café Tearooms, Bury St Edmunds

Step back in time as you pass over the threshold and into this tearoom, which has been designed to feel like you’re in a bygone era. Everything on the menu is homemade, even the dainty miniature cakes in the counter which sit alongside afternoon tea. Harriets takes tea seriously and has its own blends (including the Anniversary Blend No. 2 made for the café’s 15th birthday) and teas which are a touch more exotic. Sample the Oolong, blended with aronia berries, mango, rose petals and passion fruit, or the Rose Chocolate green tea, combining the finest leaves with cocoa and rose petals.

Cragg Sisters Tearoom, Aldeburgh

Celebrating 75 years in the town this year, Cragg Sisters is a welcoming, traditional spot for a cup of great tea and a billowing scone or generous slice of homemade cake. Staff are well versed on the huge tea menu and you’re encouraged to have a sniff before you select which you’d like. If you’re an aficionado fancying something a bit different there’s the Tie Luo Han, Wuyu Ooong, roasted over charcoal for a soft, fruity flavour. Or the Bu Lang Sheng raw tea is flowery and sweet, with an almost minty, pine finish. There’s Butterworth & Sons coffee and real hot chocolate too.

Pickwicks Traditional Tearoom, Ipswich

Tucked down Dial Lane in the town centre, this historic building houses a tearoom with one of the largest selections of loose leaf tea in Suffolk. Any of the 40 or so blends can be bought to take home, but try before you buy first with a sandwich or scone as a nice break out of your day. Varieties range from green Sencha with mango, to four types of Ceylon, such as the Ceylon OP, grown at 4,000 to 6,000ft on the slopes of a mountain in Sri Lanka.

The Swan, Lavenham

This hotel is renowned for its exquisite afternoon teas, served on specially commissioned Royal Worcester china, no less! Trained tea sommeliers can help you select the right brew for your tastes – especially good is the Milk Oolong, a very interesting, clean-tasting tea with a sweet, almost milky caramel flavour. If sweet afternoon tea isn’t your thing, there is a savoury ‘gentlemen’s tea’ at The Swan, laden with sandwiches and pastries.

Honey + Harvey, Woodbridge and Melton

As well as churning out great cakes and superb coffee, Honey + Harvey makes a good job of brewing tea too. Not only do the team purify the water used by reverse osmosis, but a precise temperature is set for each variety served to ensure it gets to the customer in tip-top condition. Try the Vanilla Black, filled with organic vanilla pods, the Peach Blossom (a white tea with natural essence of peach and tangerine) and the Organic Sencha, sourced from Kagoshima in Japan.

The Secret Garden, Sudbury

Pastries, tarts, cakes and breads are painstakingly made from scratch every single day at this tearoom, which also makes a very scrumptious smoked mackerel toasted sandwich at lunchtimes. Visit mid-morning on a sunny day and sit out in the courtyard garden with something sweet and a tea from the range, which includes Yunnan Gold, Chai, Silver Needle, and Osmanthus flowering tea. Cafetiere coffee is ground to order. And the chocolate is made with 100% pure cocoa.