Teatime at Forres museum

Date Added - 16/07/09

Visitors to the Falconer Museum at Forres are to be given the rare opportunity to take part in a tea-tasting session in honour of the man who gave his name to the museum.

Forres-born Hugh Falconer was an eminent botanist and geologist of the Victorian era and an influential contemporary of Charles Darwin.

Falconer carried out much of his scientific research in India where he played a major part in the introduction of tea growing.

And on Saturday, August 1 the museum will host a tea-tasting session with Irene Henderson of renowned tea merchants Brodie Melrose Drysdale.

Under her expert guidance, visitors will have the opportunity to taste a variety of teas from the company's range.

It is one of a series of events being held in Moray to celebrate the Year of Homecoming 2009.

Moray Council's senior museums officer, Alasdair Joyce, said: "This is a one-off opportunity to come along to the museum and be shown how to make the perfect cuppa. Visitors will be able to see, smell and taste the very best of teas from around the world all in one afternoon.

"At the same time the museum will be launching a specially branded Falconer's Tea which will be on sale in the museum shop.

"The new tea is our way of celebrating Hugh Falconer's contribution to a global industry and it is fitting that we should acknowledge the part that he played in the very early days of its development."

Accompanying the tea-tasting session, which is free, are some new museum exhibitions.

The Falconer Room is home to a new permanent addition which traces the role that Hugh Falconer played in tea research.

The museum will also host a temporary exhibition during the latter half of July and August that celebrates the museum's Indian connections more widely, featuring objects from the collections from India and Indonesia which were acquired during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Falconer died in 1865 and his family founded the museum, which today still houses much of his scientific collection, in his honour.