Carry On Tea and Sympathy

There is an area of the West Village that is slowly becoming known as “Little Britain” due to the proliferation of shops run by British merchants and specializing in British goods. Carry On Tea & Sympathy is one of those places and I go there for my annual stocking stuffers for my family. It’s a grocery/sweets store for homesick British ex-pats. I love finding sweets there that are hard to come by: Yorkies, Crunchies, Double Deckers, Flakes, Aeros, Bountys, Red and Black Bulls Eyes, Terry’s Oranges and Maynard’s Winegums to name a few. Honestly, I didn’t know what half of this stuff was when I first walked through the door.

The people who work there, and the customers, are so incredibly nice. One time, I got to talking with a woman ahead of me in line about food, and British cuisine in particular. We spoke about different foods and what makes them special. I said I liked the shepherd’s pie next door at Tea & Sympathy and she said that for most folks in Britain, it was considered food you ate when you were poor and had to stretch out what you had, so it really wasn’t a positive memory for her. Really enlightening for me to get a different viewpoint on a food that just says “comfort” to me.

Carry On also carries British groceries: packets of Walker’s crisps (flavors include BBQ beef, pickled onion and prawn cocktail), Heinz spaghetti, beans, HP sauce, Walker’s biscuits, Jammie Dodgers, treacle, sticky toffee, custard and much more. There’s also a lovely selection of teapots and a huge variety of loose and bagged teas.

This place reminds me of Bill’s candy store in “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.” Honestly, I can get a number of these candy bars at the local market, but the people at this shop are far more engaging than the “customer service challenged” individuals one has to deal with at the market. Hie thee to Carry On and drink in all of the wonderful flavors they have to offer.