Tea and Me

Belle’s Breakfast  is a limited edition black tea from  Bird & Blend  and was provided as part of the June  tea club  offering. Ingredients: Sri Lankan black tea, Kenyan black tea, Chinese Keemun black tea, Chinese black tea, rose petals, flavouring They describe it thus: Bird & Blend meet BREWtea and the Beast! This brew is our first rose breakfast  black tea  & you better believe it’s a blooming beautiful  loose leaf blend ! Think Turkish delight meets English summer garden!  ❣️ I have to admit it took me a little while to get round to trying this one as the rose teas I’ve tried in the past have generally given me a headache (sorry Enchanted Narnia , you are a major culprit here) and mixing it with black tea, which can also give me a headache doesn’t make for the most eagerly anticipated brew. Having said that, it smells wonderful, just like Turkish Delight (which I absolutely love), and so ...

Happy New Year! Gosh, it’s been a long time since I last posted, hasn’t it? Although, actually, it’s been a long time since I last had a cup of tea. You might recall that just before Christmas I went down with the lurgy and was unable to enjoy the last of my Bluebird advent calendar teas as I couldn’t taste a thing and I promised I would review as soon as I recovered. I also promised to try all those Matcha’s once I got my milk frother, which the pesky Post Office were trying their hardest not to deliver. Sadly, the virus was a bad one, as everyone knows, as it seems most people I know were struck with it at some point over the holidays and for several weeks now I’ve drunk nothing but plain tap water as it’s been the only thing I could face drinking (apart from the odd medicinal tot of Glayva). I did try a pot of my beloved Milk Oolong just after Christmas, but as it has a subtle flavour I couldn’t taste anything and so it seemed a bit pointless, and a waste of money, ...

I'm back, and with the weather returning to more normal English summer levels (i.e. a bit chilly, grey and gloomy) I'm drinking tea again.  Today’s offering is the extremely interesting and very pretty-looking Arctic Fire Tea from the Kent & Sussex Tea & Coffee Co. Ingredients: china black tea, cornflowers, mango, papaya, peppermint They describe it thus: “Arctic Fire is a scented China Black Tea with blue cornflowers. Beautiful flavours of Tropicana Summer Fruits and Peppermint. A powerful aroma when you open the packet! Mint and fruity flavours of Mango and Papaya make this a very refreshing tea for mid-afternoons.” Despite being a medium caffeine black tea, Arctic Fire has an extremely light taste if you brew it for the recommended 3 minutes. It also has the distinction of being the most unusual tasting tea I have ever tried. This is due to the mixture of peppermint with the fruity flavours of the mango and papaya, which combine to...

Yes, I know I said I was going to review some teas from another brand, and I will, soon, but today’s tea is Blue Spring Oolong by the Kent & Sussex Tea & Coffee Co. (yes, it's another Oolong). Ingredients- Chinese Oolong and Mallow Petals They describe it thus: “Blue Spring Oolong is a very fine and rare Ti Kuan Yin Special grade tea from the Chinese tea growing province of Fujian. Blue Mallow flowers were added to this tea to represent the freshwater spring that was created by Guan Yin, The Iron Goddess of Mercy to rescue villagers from drought. This semi fermented tea is still traditionally hand crafted in small batches.” This is a delicate tea but is extremely drinkable. It has a light flavour, slightly floral, with that quintessential Oolong coming through strongly.  Of all the Oolongs I’ve tried, I would say this is the smoothest yet and one that you could easily drink a lot of without feeling that you’ve overdone it. Kent ...

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 ...

Today’s tea is Chocolate Tea sold by Camellia’s Tea House . This tea was one of the black tea options on offer when I went for afternoon tea at the Corinthia Hotel a couple of months ago. Although I didn’t try it at the time, I did get the opportunity to smell the tea when we went through the sample box and I thought it had an absolutely divine aroma — just like rich, dark chocolate. Sadly, Camellia’s don’t regularly do sample sizes which make it a bit difficult to buy a tea just to try it, but as I’m sure you’re all aware by now I really love chocolate and was so convinced I was going to love it that I had no qualms about buying a full-size packet of the tea and didn’t even bother to stop and read the ingredients list first (which, as it turned out was a big mistake). Ingredients: Chinese and Ceylon black teas, chocolate chips, coconut. Unfortunately, I’ve discovered this tea really isn’t to my taste despite the wonderful chocolate aroma, which is every bit ...