Tea and Me

So, I haven’t had much time for tea tasting recently as I spent last weekend at the Harry Potter convention called LeakyCon  which was held at the Citywest Hotel in Dublin — if you were there you would have seen me dressed either as the Fat Lady, Doris Crockford or in my Slytherin robes. It was an amazing weekend, full of magic and fun, but it was also pretty non-stop so there wasn’t much time for sleeping. As I already knew this was going to be the case I prepared in advance by making up my own tea bags — Morning Kick to wake me up and get me going in the morning, Apricot and Garden of England to get me through the afternoon, and Milk Oolong Caramel for the evening wind down. I didn’t just drink my own tea, though. Over the course of the weekend, I also had several excellent pots of generic tea in the hotel lounge (as well as quite a few pints of their rather marvellous Orchard Thieves cider). However, unfortunately, despite my best attempts, I didn’t manage to try...

This week, as I’m sure you are all aware, is Afternoon Tea Week . As you know, I love any excuse to have an afternoon tea and with a whole week dedicated to it, you would think I would be in my element. Unfortunately, we are currently a tad busy at work, desperately trying to get ourselves sorted for an impending IT system change, so there isn’t time to go swanning off to a café, restaurant or hotel for the afternoon. However, not wanting to miss out on the fun, today we decided to have tea and cake – a kind of mini afternoon tea. And very nice it was too, providing a little break from the on-going madness of the week. Sadly, there are no photos of the event, but colleagues brought in various delicious cakes (and some crisps) and I, of course, provided the tea. The most popular selection and ideal for any afternoon tea was Garden of England Afternoon Tea by Kent & Sussex Tea & Coffee Co . This was closely followed by Gingerbread Chai by Bluebird Tea Co . There is ...

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 ...