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...

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...

Today’s tea bag is a twist on an old classic — it’s Earl Grey Creme Ingredients: Ceylon black tea, vanilla, cornflowers, bergamot oil. They describe it thus: Don't we wish prime ministers today were as good as the ones in the good old days? Take PM Earl Grey, he was the cream of the crop. Not only did he help abolish slavery and reform the House of Commons, he also invented the legendary Earl Grey tea! So we've created this creamy tribute just for you old chap! I’m sure you’ll be unsurprised to hear that I’ve never been particularly keen on Earl Grey tea as it’s far too flowery for my liking and I’m not a lover of bergamot either. But as this was today’s tea bag I knew I had to give it a try, even though I wouldn’t normally drink black tea this late in the day. This is actually quite a delicate-tasting tea so the usual flower/bergamot flavours aren’t particularly forceful as in most Earl Greys or perhaps the addition of the vanilla masks the fl...

To be honest, I have been so extraordinarily busy with work this last week or so that I haven’t had much time to enjoy tasting new teas. When I’m head-down over the laptop for dozens of hours on end I need lots of tea to keep me going, but it needs to be the stuff I can chug quite happily without thinking about it, and without needing to think about writing a review afterwards. This means that I’ve basically been living on Milk Oolong (of course) from various suppliers (hence no link), Garden of England and this weekend’s favourite, Apricot . However, I did manage to sneak in one new tea as I’ve had it for quite a while now and really wanted to try it. It’s a fruit tea by Kent & Sussex Tea & CoffeeCo. called Gentle Pumpkin Fruit Tisane . Ingredients: Pumpkin Pieces, Apple Pieces, Orange Peel, Apple Cubes, Natural  Flavouring, Vanilla Pieces, Safflower, Freeze-dried Tangerine-Orange Fruit Pieces. They describe it thus: “Pumpkin Tea! Using the sweet ...

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...

Why Brew for 21 days when you have instant polyjuice? Polyjuice Potion is a very complicated potion that allows the drinker to assume the form of someone else. WARNING cannot change into an Animal. Ingredients: black tea, cinnamon bark, ginger root, rooibos tea, cardamom, dried coconut, lemon grass, cloves, orange peels, cocoa nibs, natural coconut flavour, natural chocolate flavour, natural vanilla flavour, natural cinnamon flavour The teas used to create this blend are: thai chai , chocolate chai and rooibos vanilla chai . Polyjuice is one of the blends in the Magic Potions sampler box by Adagio Teas . It smells absolutely amazing, just as you’d expect from something that blends three different types of chai — and you can definitely smell the chocolate (always a favourite with me). It also tastes pretty good, even considering the coconut (which I absolutely detest). I suspect this is because it’s fairly subtle and I can’t taste it and the spiciness mask...

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...

The sweet taste of Butterbeer, which is a mildly alcoholic drink served throughout the wizarding world. Ingredients: black tea, natural caramel flavour, natural creme flavour, natural vanilla flavour The teas used to create this blend are: caramel , cream and vanilla . Butterbeer is one of the blends in the Magic Potions sampler box by Adagio Teas and has, unsurprisingly considering its contents, a creamy flavour even on its own and is relatively sweet although personally, I’m not keen on it without sugar as it’s definitely a classic black tea. I think it’s actually quite a subtle blend so it doesn’t really smell of much, apart from some creaminess, and while I enjoyed drinking it I didn’t really pick up on the butterscotch flavour it’s supposed to impart so to me it bears about as much resemblance to Butterbeer as the one sold at the Harry Potter Studio Tour does to the one sold at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter — i.e. not much — although it is very pl...