Bird & Blend Tea Co.'s Tea Club – July and August 2018

Okay, so after last month’s fairytale selection which provided a trio of excellent new teas, all of which I could more than happily purchase more of (if I didn’t already have enough tea to last me several years), I was a little disappointed to discover that July’s selection — Christmas in July — was mainly geared towards interesting you in their sale, which lasted only a few days and finished a whole week before my box even arrived. 

Unfortunately, my box didn’t arrive until 28^th July — I know this is my own fault for signing up so late for the June box, but I hadn’t realised that I would get a late box every month in the future. I assumed it would default to the beginning (or whenever they usually send them out) from this month onwards. In fact, because of the timing, when I got the email through to say it was on its way I thought I was getting the August box.

As it happened I wasn’t interested in buying the sale teas anyway as the middle of a heatwave isn't the right time for Christmas tea and I had already stocked up last Christmas anyway, but it would have been nice to receive and review them before the sale started. 

To add to the disappointment, I’ve already tried all three of the teas previously. As a long-time fan of Bird & Blend, you’ll recall that I received their Advent Calendar for Christmas last year and 2 of the teas in this month’s club box were included — Mulled Wine (day 18) and Christmas Cake (day 24). As I have already reviewed these teas I won’t be doing so again.

This leaves Birthday Cake which was one of the first samples I ever bought from the company. This was back before I started this blog so I never completed a review for it, but the fact I still have most of the sample pack left leads me to assume that this was not one of my favourite flavours, although I was obsessed by Gingerbread Chai at the time and didn’t think I’d ever find another rooibos based tea that I would like as much (and actually, I still haven’t, apart from maybe Ginger Beer — can you see a theme emerging here?) However, I won’t let that deter me and will be posting a review shortly.

I contacted Bird & Blend to see if I could change the subscription date so I can review the teas in the same month they arrive rather than the following month, as otherwise it seems a bit pointless, especially if they’re limited or sale-related. Sam, who dealt with me very promptly, apologised but said the subscription dates were set, but suggested I cancel and re-subscribe.

This I did, and today I received the August box, which I have to say I am very excited about.

I have to admit that when I saw the name of the box — You won’t Bee-lieve they’re Vegan! — my heart sank a little as for a moment I thought it was going to include Honey Bee Beautiful, which is one of their most popular teas, but as you may recall I detested it because of the camomile.

However, I was worrying unnecessarily because the tea club contains, of course, 3 new teas — Milk and Honey, Honey I’m Comb and (squeal) Milk Oolong Chai.

Not only is there a milk oolong, of which I’m a huge fan as I may have mentioned once or twice before, and it contains ginger which you’ll have also gathered I’m rather fond of, but none of the teas contain coconut again, so I’m triple winning without even tasting them.

I have to admit that I had the urge to dive straight in and try the Milk Oolong Chai, but I’m being good and will take them into work where they won’t be tried until the review of the Birthday Cake tea from July is completed. 

Nah, who am I kidding, we’ll be trying them tomorrow.

The Birthday Cake review and round up of the team’s favourites from the July box to follow at the weekend.