Tea and Me

It’s apparently a ghost of Christmas Past  - it’s the Mulled Wine tea bag. Ingredients: Hibiscus, rosehip, apple pieces, lemon pieces, orange peel, orange flowers, cloves, cinnamon. They describe it thus: A steaming mug of mulled wine on a frosty winter's eve is just about our favourite part of the chilly Christmas season. Brew up a Bluebird Mulled Wine and delicious scents of clove, cinnamon and orange will waft you right into a winter wonderland! You can also add to red wine on the stove for the real deal. So, today’s tea is classified as a 'ghost of Christmas past', but as luck would have it, this week Bluebird are reviving five of their ghosts, each for one day only.  Today’s 'ghost' is the same Mulled Wine as the advent calendar tea bag and you have until midnight to get it if you want it (and better still there’s still free delivery until then as well). This is a really tasty fruit tea, full-bodied and full of flavour with all those...

I feel like summer has suddenly returned — it's Strawberry Lemonade tea. Ingredients: Hibiscus, rosehip, apple, lemon, orange, strawberry, elderberry, sunflower petals They describe it thus: Amazing iced or hot, any time of year, all ages, girl, boy, dog . . . This versatile little number is a big hit all-round. With real strawberry bits and zesty lemon peel, it's easy to see why. Get a pitcher on the go will you, love? So, you might remember that I bought some of this tea back in the summer but lost it so I never got to try it. I still haven’t managed to find it so I’ve no idea where it went — I’m guessing the fairies stole it — so I was rather pleased to see this tea bag as one of the advent calendar gifts. The tea bag itself had a strong smell of strawberry so I was expecting that to be  the dominant flavour, but I can be a bit funny about strawberry-flavoured products so I wasn’t sure it would be to my taste. Once again, I left it way l...

Today’s tea — G + Tea — is another from the limited edition cocktail trio and is the third of the teas on the Bluebird Tea Co. ’ s keep poll that I have access to. Ingredients: Chinese sencha green tea, juniper berries, spearmint, angelica root, coriander seeds, lemon peel, almond pieces, liquorice, cardamom, natural flavouring. They describe it thus: “Close your eyes, imagine the first sip of an ice-cold gin & tonic – this is it. Super light + energising, the different flavours hit your taste buds separately. From citrus to spearmint, coriander to cardamom. It’s a brew asking to be cold brewed, tea cocktail if you wish!”  So, I’ll be honest and say straight up that I wasn’t expecting to like this tea. I’ve never really been a fan of gin and I detest tonic and would never choose to drink a G&T of my own accord (unless there really was nothing else to drink — I did once go to a party where it was the only drink on offer, I didn’t stay long) so...

Like the previous review, today's tea is one of the limited-edition teas from Bluebird Tea Co. which is in their poll to decide which ones will become a permanent blend (as will be the next few reviews, no doubt). It is called Bramble Ramble and is one of a trio of teas inspired by cocktails. This one is, apparently, based on a gin cocktail called The Bramble , of which I've never heard, but then I'm not really a cocktail aficionado (not since the dark days of the 1980s, anyway, and gin was never really my tipple of choice). Ingredients: Chinese Chunmee green tea, juniper berries, elderberries, apple pieces, hibiscus, angelica root, coriander seeds, freeze-dried blackberry, liquorice, lime leaves, cardamom, lemon peel, blackberry leaves, blackberries, raspberry pieces, strawberry pieces, flavouring.  They describe it thus: " The Bramble cocktail is a delicious, blackberry based, sweet yet sour gin cocktail, garnished with a slice of l...

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...