Tea and Me

Because of the current absurdly hot weather, I’m finding my usual go-to teas a little heavy and spicy and because I’m almost out of the China Milky Oolong  I’m having to ration myself because I can’t bear the idea of running out. I was intending to try the Strawberry Lemonade  fruit infusion from Bluebird Teas , as that sounds exactly what I need and should hopefully taste pretty good cold. Unfortunately, because it knows I want to try it the tea has completely disappeared – and believe me I have looked everywhere – well, obviously not everywhere as it is around somewhere, but I have looked in all the obvious (and some not so obvious) places and I can’t find it anywhere. Instead, I’ve finished off my stock of Rhubarb and Custard  tea (also by Bluebird and just as lovely cold as hot) and gone shopping for some more Summer-sounding teas.  Fortunately, the Bank Holiday has encouraged some tea companies to give discounts or giveaways and I’m all for it ...

Enrol in a School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, think magical thoughts and drink this. Ingredients: black tea, cinnamon bark, natural pumpkin spice flavour, cloves, ginger root, natural vanilla flavour, natural caramel flavour, marigold flowers, cardamom The teas used to create this blend are: pumpkin spice , vanilla and caramel , accented with apple pieces. Pumpkin Potion is one of the blends in the Magic Potions sampler box by Adagio Teas . I absolutely adore the spiciness of pumpkin pie and was delighted when the wizarding world was revealed to drink pumpkin juice in the same way the Muggle world drinks orange juice.  It was the drink I was most excited to try at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, and the one I loved the most (sorry frozen Butterbeer, although you were amazing). Sadly, it isn’t available outside the US as it’s not transportable, so I have to make do with tea instead. I have tried both this and Adagio’s Pumpkin Spice tea which is...

The Draught of Peace is a potion which relieves anxiety and agitation. Its ingredients are powdered moonstone, syrup of hellebore, powdered porcupine quills, Valerian root, and powdered unicorn horn. It should be a turquoise blue when finished and simmered before being drunk. It is ironically a difficult potion to make, requiring that the brewer follow the directions carefully because making a mistake can have drastic consequences. Adding too much of the ingredients, for instance, will put the drinker of the potion into a deep — and possibly irreversible — sleep. Ingredients: black tea, apple pieces, natural apricot flavour, natural creme flavour, marigold flowers, apricots, natural vanilla flavour The teas used to create this blend are: apricot , cream and vanilla , accented with marigold flowers. Draught of Peace is one of the blends in the Magic Potions sampler box by Adagio Teas . It is chock full of apricots and tastes every bit as good as it smells. Bright and bo...

One of the sets of tea bags I received in the free goody bag from Camellia’s Tea House last month was called Sleep Well . As someone who suffers from chronic insomnia, I am open to anything that might aid in helping me sleep so I was interested in trying it. It’s actually an infusion as it doesn’t contain any type of tea leaves but I will still be treating it as if it is tea.  I did have some slight concern as one of the ingredients is my old nemesis chamomile but as it contained plenty of other (potentially) good stuff too, I decided to give it a go. Ingredients: Valerian, hops, chamomile, lemon verbena, hawthorn, red clover, violet and spearmint. They describe it thus: ‘Sleep Well is a lovely infusion which combines lemon verbena with chamomile to produce a gentle and soothing infusion with delightful undertones of mint. The ingredients of the tea are believed to ease insomnia and promote restful sleep.’ Wrapped in a sealed foil packet, the infusion...

So, tea that smells like weeds – I honestly can’t stand the stuff. When I was a teenager and still living at home my mum used to ‘enjoy’ and I use the word loosely drinking things like chamomile tea, a beverage which made me feel ill. It was the smell, mainly. I couldn’t even get as far as tasting it because the horrible smell was so off-putting. Fortunately, years have passed and chamomile is no longer quite as popular as it once was and so I’ve managed to keep away from its terrible ditch water smell, until today.  Today, I decided to try the Bluebird Tea Company’s Honey Bee Beautiful as I was having quite a stressful day at work (and that was before I found out about the General Election) and wanted something soothing. Ingredients: Rooibos, honeybush, chamomile, nettle leaves, cornflowers, calendula petals, flavour They describe it thus: ‘Have you ever considered the work it must take to make a queen bee? Their beauty regime is extensive and their mu...