Tea and Me - An Introduction

Recently, I’ve had a bit of a renaissance with regards to my love of tea. To be honest, my love affair with tea has always been a bit hit and miss, from the early days of my childhood when my Nan used to serve it with sterilised milk (an interesting taste to say the least) to a brief flirtation with green tea and even matcha and finally, through to my current obsession with flavoured teas.

For years I eschewed tea altogether, though I honestly can’t remember why now – probably because my family all drank coffee and so tea was never on the menu. Strangely, during that period I did collect teapots which I never used – completely mad, I know!

When I did take up tea drinking again (by which time the teapots were long gone), I was locked into only drinking the strongest ‘builders’ tea available – hello M&S Extra Strong teabags or Yorkshire Gold (I still love you really).

But relatively recently my love of Harry Potter (of course) collided with my (mainly forgotten) love of tea with the discovery of Adagio’s Fandom Sampler range – one of which is based on the Magic Potions of the aforementioned book and film series. The Potions Sampler contains 4 small tins of different flavours of tea inspired by different potions (Draught of Peace, Felix Felicis, Polyjuice Potion and Veritaserum) and 2 that attempt to replicate the wizarding world’s favourite beverages: Butterbeer and Pumpkin juice.

Obviously, when I first bought the set I had no intention of actually drinking them, they were just another part of my HP collection but eventually, my curiosity about their taste made me open and try them. At the time, I recall being less than impressed by most of them, and Pumpkin Potion was the only one that I liked enough to buy a full-sized packet of.

I did join Adagio’s black tea club for a year, which gave me the opportunity to try a dozen new teas – some of which were better than others, and thanks to them I discovered a love for chestnut tea, and found a fantastic caffeine-free pumpkin tea designed for children that is an absolute godsend when I have a migraine (Cinderella), but then, somehow, my tea drinking lapsed once again until last Christmas, when I finally opened a bag of Christmas tea that I had been sent as part of my club subscription and became completely addicted to drinking it over the festive period.

Now my tea drinking has increased considerably again, this time thanks to my best friend, the incomparable and beautiful Miss Q, and it all began with an unexpected Christmas present. The present in question was a plastic Christmas tree bauble containing gingerbread chai teabags from the Bluebird Tea Company who are based in Brighton and Tunbridge Wells, which she had purchased because she knew I was enjoying the Christmas tea so much.

I have to admit here, that my heart sank a little when I realised what it was as I had previously purchased (as part of another set) from Adagio a tin of gingerbread tea and I had absolutely hated it (actually, I have 2 tins because I love both the chestnut and candy apple flavoured teas which are also in the Hearty Treat set and Adagio don’t sell either of those flavours singly in Europe and postage from the US site is extortionate). 

I have tried drinking the gingerbread tea in every combination – with and without milk and cream and with and without honey/sugar/xylitol/sweeteners and I haven’t found a single combination that enables me to stomach a whole cup of it.

As you can imagine, I was torn between feeling dread at yet more terrible gingerbread tea and needing to show my best friend that I was extremely grateful for her thoughtful gift.

I took the tea home and put the bauble on my Christmas tree, fully intending to forget about it until I took the tree down but then disaster struck – I ran out of Christmas tea, I was low on chestnut tea and even the candy apple was almost gone. I had no choice but to try the gingerbread chai.

I went into it fully expecting to hate it but soon discovered that it tasted nothing like the Adagio tea. Hot and gingery and yet smelling of cake, this rooibos-based tea was absolutely amazing, especially when a couple of spoons of dark brown or demerara sugar were added. Instantly, this tea became my new favourite drink ever and I spent the soberest Christmas of my existence as I drank almost nothing but tea.

Imagine my heartache then, when I realised that I only had 1 teabag left. What should I do? Should I say to hell with it and drink it straight away? Should I save it for New Year’s Eve or until my birthday or some other special occasion? Miss Q, sensibly, told me to stop being a drama queen and just drink it – so I did, and then mourned the loss of the tea like an old friend.

At the time, I was completely broke and unable to do more than stare longingly at the web pages of both the Bluebird and Adagio tea companies, wishing I could afford to buy some nice tea, and then my birthday arrived.

As ever, Miss Q and her parents (my surrogate mum and dad) came to the rescue. I think they were a little surprised at how excited I got when I opened my present from them to discover a whole tin of loose leaf Gingerbread Chai tea. Miss Q thoughtfully provided a whole range of tea-making goodies including a non-drip teapot (which doesn’t work properly), a proper measuring spoon and a whole load of little bags so I could make up my own teabags. I was in Gingerbread Chai heaven!

As soon as I got some money (and because I was running out of tea again) I headed over to the Bluebird website and ordered more Gingerbread Chai goodness and a whole load of trial sizes of other flavoured teas, as I was interested to see what other heavenly drinks awaited me.

Armed with this now extensive collection of tea, I have, therefore, decided to start a blog, discussing the various teas with my less-than-expert opinion on them. I have no doubt that it will probably fall by the wayside eventually, as all my blogs do sooner or later, but until then, I shall enjoy drinking tea, and hopefully, you might enjoy reading about it and be inspired to try a few of them yourself.

As a tea explorer, I would also be happy for any recommendations for teas that you have found interesting or tasty, although be aware that I do not like chamomile tea or anything that smells like stewed weeds.