Tea and Me

Butter Brew is a limited edition black tea from Bird & Blend , which is released today and was provided previously as part of the June tea club offering. Ingredients: Indian Assam black tea, Sri Lankan black tea, calendula petals, natural flavouring They describe it thus:  You're going to go PotTEA for our caramel butter brew! We've combined our favourite British book/film series with every British persons favourite drink...A good ol' cuppa!  ⚡ So, I’ll be honest, I have never really taken much notice of the Bird&Blend tea club before but the addition of a tea based on my favourite book series was always going to catch my eye, and inevitably was going to be the first tea I tried. There is already a perfectly good Butterbeer blend produced by Adagio Teas, which I reviewed last year, so I was interested to see how this version would compare to that one. The answer is that I think I actually prefer this one just slightly. ...

Today’s tea is the rather wonderful but sadly, at the moment anyway, limited-edition Ginger Beer tea by Bluebird Tea Co. It has moved up my reviewing schedule as it was mentioned in an email I received from them today, which reminded me that I had it and really needed to try it. Ingredients: Rooibos, ginger, lime leaves, lemon peel, calendula petals, natural flavouring. They describe it thus: “This Caribbean classic is here to set your taste buds on fire! Packed with flavour, punch + fruity freshness but with a cooling creamy lime finish. Perfect hot or iced, with a splash of spiced rum and a lime wedge!”   As I’m sure you’re all aware by now I am a huge fan of ginger flavoured teas and this one is no exception. The first thing to say about this tea is that it has a truly wonderful aroma. I made a pot of it and left it to brew while I did something else and when I came back to the room I could smell the ginger and lime before I even got anywhere nea...

In the dim and distant 1980s and 90s, anything that wasn’t ‘normal’ Indian tea was considered ‘herbal’ and was, therefore, generally only available from health food shops (or in Chinese restaurants in the case of Jasmine tea) – unlike today, when every style and flavour of tea fills up both the supermarket shelves and specialist online tea sites – oh, how far we’ve come. I used to regularly frequent Holland and Barrett as one of the only health food stores I had access to, to buy such exciting fare as those provided by the brands Heath and Heather and Yogi. One of my favourite blends was lemon and ginger (which I seem to recall was also one of Twinings first attempts at branching out into more interesting flavours) which was perfect for keeping me going in that post-lunch slump and was good for when I was bunged up with a cold or hayfever, had a sore throat or just generally felt a bit rough. Obviously, this was the start of my love of ginger-flavoured teas although I never realis...