G + Tea – Bluebird Tea Co.

Today’s tea — G + Tea — is another from the limited edition cocktail trio and is the third of the teas on the Bluebird Tea Co.’s keep poll that I have access to.

Ingredients: Chinese sencha green tea, juniper berries, spearmint, angelica root, coriander seeds, lemon peel, almond pieces, liquorice, cardamom, natural flavouring.

They describe it thus:

“Close your eyes, imagine the first sip of an ice-cold gin & tonic – this is it. Super light + energising, the different flavours hit your taste buds separately. From citrus to spearmint, coriander to cardamom. It’s a brew asking to be cold brewed, tea cocktail if you wish!” 

So, I’ll be honest and say straight up that I wasn’t expecting to like this tea. I’ve never really been a fan of gin and I detest tonic and would never choose to drink a G&T of my own accord (unless there really was nothing else to drink — I did once go to a party where it was the only drink on offer, I didn’t stay long) so the idea of a tea that replicates a drink I dislike didn’t really appeal. If it hadn’t been part of the set I would certainly never have ordered it.

And if I hadn’t, I would have missed out on a real treat.

My first surprise was how nice this smelt when I opened the packet. Fresh, zesty and minty yet slightly woody, it doesn’t smell anything like how I remember a gin and tonic, but it did make me far keener to try the tea. The minty aroma intensified when the water was added and this follows through into the flavour.

For me, the taste was overwhelmingly of mint, with the other flavours coming in behind as an aftertaste. It was nothing like I was expecting, and so much better than I could have ever hoped.

Amazingly, despite being a green tea, I didn’t detect any bitterness, even though I brewed the tea for about twice as long as was recommended (they say 3 minutes) because I got side-tracked. It is so fresh and so minty that I was able to drink it perfectly happily without sugar and had drunk almost three-quarters of the mug before I remembered that I hadn’t taken a photograph.

This gave me the opportunity to have a second mug, which I enjoyed every bit as much as the first. Despite the predominance of the spearmint in the brew it isn’t like a peppermint tea (which I’m not very keen on as it tends to taste like weeds) because all the other wonderful ingredients lift it and turn it into something special and every so often you get a burst of one of the other flavours, but at the same time it remains a light tasting tea.

This is yet another tea that is every bit as drinkable cold as hot, and yet again would make a wonderful mixer for a cocktail.

I always love it when a tea surprises me and turns out to be so much better than expected and makes up for those times when the tea isn’t as good as I was hoping. I am so glad I tried this tea as it is a real delight.

I have to say that it’s still not as good as the Ginger Beer tea, but it’s pretty close and would be my second choice for keeping. 

THIS WEEK'S DEALS

Bluebird Tea Co. have joined in with the Bank Holiday spirit and are giving away a free three-pack of their Summer Cold Brew teas (Ginger Beer, Sangria and Pink Grapefruit) with any purchase of one of their cold brew bottles using the code COLBREWBIRD. The offer runs until 30 August 2017, and is limited to one per customer.