Tea and Me

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 ...

Unfortunately, for me at least, the weather has turned hot again  😥  and tea drinking hasn't really been at the top of my list of things to do (nope, I still haven't yet tried making iced tea either, but I might have a go this weekend).  W hen I have been drinking tea I've generally been sticking to Oolongs as they're nice and light - Milk and Milk Caramel are still the best.   However, I have managed to sup a few mugs of a rather unusual Oolong made by T2 , who are a nice modern tea company with lots of bright square packaging, called Oolong Chocolate Chai . Ingredients: Oolong tea, cocoa husk, ginger, cinnamon, cardamon seed, cardamon husk, clove, chocolate chips (sugar, cocoa, lecithin: E322  soy* ), black pepper, flavouring *contains soy products They describe it thus: “A chocolaty, cinnamony, gingery, oolong combination laced with pepper. An intriguing sweet, bright and spicy flavour.” I think I was still reeling from th...

Hi everyone, I know it’s been a little while since I last posted but with the unbearably hot weather we’ve been having in good old Blighty (which does not suit me at all), and with getting home from work too late to do anything much but slump in a chair and moan about the temperature in my (33 degrees) sitting room, I haven’t really been drinking much tea, and where I have it’s tended to be an Oolong (usually Milk Caramel as I’m jealously hoarding my minuscule remaining stock of the China Milky for a day when I really need it). Yes, I know ice tea is a big trend at the moment, but to be honest, it’s not one I’ve ever really got into as I remember the pre-made stuff like Liptons Ice Tea and Snapple, which I tried and hated in the 1980s, and it was enough to put me off trying it again. Having said that, with all my favourite tea sellers now pushing their ice tea selections, and with warm weather no doubt set to continue for the foreseeable future, it is probably time for me to r...

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...

How I love Fridays! Of course, I love them because they’re the end of a long work week and it’s nice to know a couple of days off are coming along (sadly too few, but that’s for a different blog). But this week I love Friday because it’s the day I got all my new tea. First, there was a box crammed full of sealed packages from the Kent and Sussex Tea & Coffee Co. , with so many different flavours of tea to try, I don’t even know where to start (that’s a lie, obviously, I went straight for the Milk Oolong , then followed it up with apricot black tea). Lots of lovely tea just waiting for me to try it  Then, the T2 shipment arrived and it was like a little celebration. Without a shadow of a doubt, T2 have won the prize for best packaging and they’ve given me a lovely box to keep my teas in (yes, I know I’ve got a cupboard but still . . .) So, the 3 teas (a largish box containing a selection of 5 fruit teas) and the 2 small chai cubes were lov...

I thought it might be useful if I keep a league table of my top 10 favourite teas, going forward. This list reflects the favourites of those I've drunk recently rather than all-time favourites as I've discovered its very difficult to have an all time list when I'm trying so many different teas and what I like is affected by the weather or the time of year.  For instance, over Christmas and through the winter I drank enough Gingerbread Chai to sink a battleship (is that a thing?) and I would definitely have said it was my all time favourite tea. But at the moment I have no interest in drinking it at all because it seems to me that its the wrong time of year for it and so it's dropped from the top of the charts completely off the list. It will definitely be back by Christmas, though, that I can guarantee. The only thing I can say with any certainty is that my all time favourite tea is definitely China Milk Oolong from Camellia's Tea House. I could, quite...