Garden of England Afternoon Tea — Kent & Sussex Tea & Coffee Co.

I have found a new favourite relaxing afternoon tea blend and I am extremely pleased to be able to share it with you. The tea is Garden of England Afternoon Tea from the Kent & Sussex Tea & Coffee Co.

Ingredients: Black Teas from India and Ceylon, Green Tea from China, Natural flavouring, Cornflowers and Safflowers.

I was having a relaxing day today after all the stress and excitement of the election (yes, of course I stayed up all night to watch the drama unfold) and decided that I would give this pretty-looking tea a try as I wasn’t feeling in the mood for any of my usual teas and wanted something that wasn’t going to be too heavy on flavour or caffeine.

They describe it thus:

“Using a blend of teas from all over Asia, it creates a complex blend of sweet, floral and malty notes. The mixture of the delicate addition of blackcurrant softens the otherwise slightly astringent blend, to a sweet, well-rounded tea that would complement Afternoon Tea or Cream Teas on a warm summers day.” 

The instructions suggest it is best served black to enjoy the deep blackcurrant notes and that it should be brewed with boiling water for 3-5 minutes.

This is a lovely flavoured black tea (there is green in there too but it isn’t noticeable, not to me anyway) that isn’t overpowering and makes for a wonderfully enjoyable afternoon cuppa but has, in a slight twist, blackcurrant flavour that really does come through at the end. Obviously, as usual, I felt it was improved by a teaspoon of demerara, which I thought brought the flavour out even more.

I did try it with milk, just out of interest, and found that the blackcurrant taste disappeared once it was added and it became a normal cup of black tea, pleasant but nothing special. However, the second pot I made I left rather longer than 5 minutes as I forgot about it and by the time I did remember it had acquired a slightly bitter taste — I think we were probably talking about 10 minutes or maybe even more.

Adding milk to the tea then not only dulled the bitterness but because of the longer brewing time the blackcurrant flavour was still beautifully obvious and the milk added a creamy consistency that I rather liked. I thought it tasted okay cold, too, and it would be interesting to try it black as a chilled tea – nice on a hot summers day, I would think.

Obviously, this has a moderate caffeine level so I personally wouldn’t drink it in the evening, but for an afternoon, particularly a relaxing one, it was just perfect. I would definitely agree with their assessment that it would go well with an afternoon cream tea and would love to find somewhere serving it – if anyone knows of anywhere please let me know, you know I’m always up for afternoon tea.

It is a tea that is suitable for more than one brewing — 2 spoons of tea easily made 3 pots without any noticeable loss of flavour, so it’s good value for money too.

I was so taken by it that when I received an email from Kent & Sussex Tea & Coffee Co., who are this weekend giving a 10% discount and a free sample of their Forest Fruit Tisane with the code TISANE (along with points that you get with every order which can be redeemed for more tea), I immediately bought a considerable quantity more, along with the Milk Oolong Caramel that I so loved yesterday. 

While I was there a Caramel Rooibos and the intriguing sounding Fruit Angel Tisane fell into my basket along with some of their Apricot Tea, which I haven’t yet reviewed but really enjoyed drinking — the review on that will come shortly.

I would definitely take advantage of this discount offer to give the sample sizes of their teas a try although I have no doubt, that like me, you’ll be going back for more.