Bird & Blend Tea Co. - Mermaid Mist (Limited Edition)

Mermaid Mist is a limited edition fruit tea from Bird & Blend and was provided as part of the June tea club offering.


Ingredients: Hibiscus, apple pieces, aniseed, rosehip, blue pea flowers, liquorice, blackcurrant leaves, natural flavouring

 They describe it thus:

 Mermaid Mist is a magical concoction of apple, blackcurrant & blue pea flower with notes of aniseed and liquorice! Add a squeeze of lemon & be hypnotised by the magical colour change! ✨

 The first thing to say about this tea is that it is a beautiful colour, or maybe that should be colours. Depending on the number of blue pea flowers in the teaspoon it can range from a lovely deep plum right through to an almost scary dark blue, more reminiscent of Ursula the Sea Witch than Ariel the Mermaid. Whatever the colour, it looks particularly impressive in my clear glass teapot. 
The aroma is interesting, with fruit being the most prevalent when you open the packet. Once brewed it smells quite unusual and it is hard to pin down any one ingredient. But once you taste the tea itself the aniseed emerges giving a light and bright flavour with a bit of bite. As always, to my mind a teaspoon or two of demerara helps to increase it further, bringing to mind aniseed balls with their sweet coating.




As this is a fruit tea it can bear a longer brewing time, and I think benefits from leaving considerably longer than that recommended by Bird & Blend. At 4 minutes the flavours are far subtler; if you’re not keen on liquorice or aniseed you will enjoy the subtle bite but without it being overwhelming. However, if, like me, you are a lover of anise then leaving it for ten minutes means the flavour floods out.

Sadly, as I was drinking it at work I didn’t have any access to lemon which, apparently, effects a magical change on the colour (from blue to pink) and there is no photo of the tea in the mug (or the pot) as I am not able to have my phone at work.

However, I did get to drink it cold (several times, in fact, thanks to pressing work matters) and I think this would make a lovely cold-brew.

This is a tea I would definitely be happy to buy more of as it's pretty, got an unusual taste and I really like it. It just needs a bit of glitter and then it would be perfect. 

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