Tea and Me

Today’s tea is the only one of the Bird & Blend July Tea Club teas that I haven’t already reviewed — Birthday Cake . On the accompanying card, they say they’re celebrating their sixth birthday, so this tea is particularly relevant. My apologies in the long delay in posting this, but I was unwell and then have been too busy to get near the blog. Reviews for the August and September tea club teas will be coming shortly, as I really need to get up to date. (sorry, I forgot to take a picture of the individual packet) Ingredients: Rooibos (84%), Sri Lankan Black Tea, Sprinkles (Sugar, Potato Starch, Rice Flour, Corn Starch, Vegetable Fat, Spirulina Extract, Colours (E160a Carotenes, E160c Paprika, E100 Turmeric, E163 Anthocyanins, E162 Beetroot), Stabilisers (Maltodextrin), Almond Pieces, Vanilla Pieces, Mallow Flowers, Flavouring.   * Please note that this tea has less than 1% of Ceylon black tea, it's not just a Rooibos blend. They descri...

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 ...

So the final window on the advent calendar has been opened and it’s another tea bag —  the extremely festive-sounding Christmas Cake . Ingredients: Ceylon black tea, vanilla pieces, almond pieces, cinnamon, cloves, orange peel, spruce needles, snowflake sprinkles (sugar, rice flour, hardened peanut oil, potato starch, flavour, gum arabic (E414), potassium sorbate (E202), colours (E171)), flavour. They describe it thus: Holding its own for the title of best Christmas tea of all time, this blend tastes like cake, contains real life actual Christmas tree (spruce needles!) and, as if that wasn't enough, it has little candy snowflakes. Still not impressed? Well brew it up and watch it glitter like icicles!  In the same way that I don’t like mince pies and Christmas pudding, I don’t like Christmas cake — not the fruit ones, anyway — I used to like the chocolate topping, the frosting and the marzipan fruit on a Tunis cake but n...

It’s the second ghost of Christmas Past  —   White Christmas . Ingredients: Chinese white tea, Apple pieces, cranberry,  Hibiscus, Rosehip, orange peel, Cocoa shells, Morello cherries, Rose petals, Flavour. They describe it thus: Apparently everyone is dreaming of a white Christmas… One full of white tea, white chocolate and Morello cherries by any chance? No?! Well, you sure will be once you've tried this brand new limited edition Christmas blend. Packed full of juicy cherries + white chocolate chunks, this tea is sure to be top of your Xmas gift list!  Just as the Mulled Wine was brought back for the day yesterday, so Bluebird have resurrected White Christmas for one day only and made it the advent calendar tea bag of the day. The first thing to say about this tea is that it smells absolutely fantastic, with the most mouth-watering cherry smell that transfers in colour to the mug. This isn’t a particularly strong flavoured tea tho...

The weather is getting colder and today's tea reflects that - it's the Snowball tea bag. I ngredients: Ceylon black tea, coconut pieces, cacao bean, cocoa shells, desiccated coconut, mini marshmallows (glucose-fructose syrup, sugar, gelatine, maize starch, flavouring, colour (E162)), chocolate chips (sugar, cacao , emulsifier soya lecithin), red cornflowers, flavour. They describe it thus: The chocolatey, marshmallow, coconut goodness of a gooey Snowball is one of the best sweet treats of Christmas and this year it is award-winning too! Our most famous Christmas tea blend scooped a Great Taste Award this year for its chocolate chips in plenty, coconut flakes in tons and a sprinkle of mini marshmallows to finish it off- The perfect Christmas Snowball.  This tea is one of Bluebird's Limited Edition Christmas teas and they also do a vegan version of it for those of you who can't have the marshmallows in this version. As you'll b...

Today we’re back to a traditional tea bag and it’s the always festive Mulled Cider . Ingredients: Apple pieces, ginger, rosehip, hibiscus, cinnamon, cloves, lemon peel, flavour They describe it thus: Aromatic winter spices, cinnamon, cloves + ginger, steeped with apple chunks to create this mellow + comforting hot tea toddy. Brew up a fruit infusion or use to create Mulled Cider, serve steaming with a splash of dark rum and snuggle up on a chilly winter's eve! The first thing is that the bag smells fantastic, all spicy loveliness that makes me think of cold winter nights and crackling fires and settling down to listen to carols by candlelight. It says to brew it for 4+ minutes but I left it for about 10 as I wanted a decent strong flavour. Unfortunately, because this was a bag rather than loose in a teapot the tea had cooled quite considerably by the time I drank it. This wasn’t that much of a problem as it tastes just as good cold – but obviously,...

Hurrah for a strong opener — welcome to  Gingerbread Chai ! Ingredients: rooibos, cardamom, cinnamon, ginger, mallow flowers, flavour They describe it thus: We have our Nordic neighbours to thank for the tradition of gingerbread. Every year the town of Bergen, Norway still build a lifesize gingerbread city to celebrate Christmas. What a nightmare for poor old Hansel and Gretel! Let's hope they are keeping a low profile and enjoying a steaming cup of our Gingerbread Chai instead! If you’ve read my other posts you will recall that it was the same friend (she really is amazing —  thanks Quincy) buying me a Gingerbread Chai Christmas bauble last year that got me back into serious tea drinking when I fell so in love with this amazing rooibos blend that 10 teabags just wasn’t enough. Once I had visited the site to buy more I was lost and have spent all year buying their astonishing collection of blends, most of which I have still to review. ...

It’s a lovely summer's afternoon with blue skies, the odd fluffy white cloud and a gentle breeze rustling through the trees and I am drinking Strawberries and Cream Tea by T2 , the company with the funky orange boxes, (okay, so really it’s 30 odd degrees out there and absolutely bloody baking so I’m hiding indoors, but I can see the blue sky and clouds out of the window). Ingredients: Apple, hibiscus, rosehip, strawberry granules (glucose syrup, strawberries, fructose, modified starch: E1414, thickener: E401), sweet blackberry leaves, yoghurt crispies (skimmed milk* yoghurt, sugar, maltodextrin, modified starch E1412, acidifier: E330), flavouring *contains milk. They describe it thus: “Strawberry fields are forever with this beautiful red brew and sweet aroma.” You may remember a while back when I went to afternoon tea at the Horseguards Hotel that I tried someone else’s Strawberries and Cream Tea and I quite liked it. Therefore, when I saw...