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Bluebird Tea Co. Exam & Summer Blends Reviewed

23rd May 2017

The last couple of weeks I’ve been finishing my final assignment for the year. This week my focus is shifting to revising for my last exam of the year, it’s been massively stressful!

Luckily, a surprise delivery arrived from Bluebird with limited edition exam blends and suddenly my revision looks a whole lot more exciting! 😊

Review Time!


One In A Melon

First up is a gorgeous green and melon blend! This tea smells incredibly fruity and sweet, I could smell it through the packaging and recently went to Bristol with it in my case and it left my clothes smelling super fruity 😃

Once the water hits the smell is magical, the whole kitchen smells of juicy watermelon. The green tea flavour is lush as you can always expect from Bluebird and the strength of the watermelon flavour is perfect. This is a tea that will clearly be AMAZING iced, I’ll definitely be drinking this iced over the summer once my exams are out of the way😃

Hocus Focus

I wasn’t sure what to expect from this tea and couldn’t imagine what it would taste like after smelling it but I was pleasantly surprised.

The tea produces a deep chocolate coloured brew with extremely satisfying toffee notes. There’s a slight chilli hit that adds a much appreciated element of excitement. An all round good blend but don’t be put off by the smell or you’ll miss a unique and exciting tea!

Summer of Love

This is a blend I was instantly excited about, I love the name and it’s one of the most colourful blends I’ve ever seen! The tea gives off an incredible fruity smell that smells super summery. Bluebird sent me this tea in a 50g pouch which is generously filled as always and is sure to fuel a lot of happy tea sessions 😊

The taste of the green tea element of this blend is fantastic and the fruity flavour is sweet but doesn’t overpower the drier vegetal flavour of the green tea. Another blend I’m sure will be awesome iced and super refreshing on the warmer days of the summer ahead.

Ginger Beer

Ginger beer isn’t a drink I’ve ever really drunk so I wasn’t sure what to expect with this blend but I was definitely intrigued!

The tea is a rooibos based blend which Bluebird are particularly good at making. There’s a really refreshing lime scent which creates a nice lime aftertaste, which is accompanied by a hint of caramel. The ginger flavour is the most noticeable alongside the nutty rooibos goodness, with the combination of lime and ginger creating an almost fizzy mouth feel.

An overall awesome blend from Bluebird which I know I’ll be enjoying regularly 😃

Pineapple Sorbet

As soon as I opened my Bluebird delivery and saw Pineapple Sorbet I couldn’t wait to try it. It literally smells like a sweet shop with a smell that reminds me of pear drops.

It’s another blend that instantly makes you think of summer and the tea itself looks really pretty 😍Pineapple sorbet’s sweetness is perfect to serve iced without needing to add any sugar or honey. I received this blend in pyramid teabags which are generously filled and easily make tea for two. This is one of my favourites from these new Bluebird blends!

All Nighter

All nighter is one of the teas I was most excited to try, due to it being a tea and coffee combo. I really don’t like coffee and wouldn’t ever choose it over tea but it’s a combination I’ve never tried before which is always exciting. It actually smells incredible with a nice roasted coffee scent with green tea and an enticing chocolate hint.

The flavour is real good, definitely better than I expected! The tea flavour takes centre stage and the slight coffee flavour really works, the addition of chocolate is sheer perfection! I also love the name of this blend and I’ve been drinking a ton of it while I’ve been revising 😃

Relax

One thing that I struggle to do when my workload is huge is relax so I was pleased to see a Bluebird blend to help me take a break. Chamomile tea is always welcome in my tea cupboard but I find it’s one of those blends that when it’s bad, it’s really bad! As expected Bluebird’s twist on chamomile tea is one of the best I’ve tried.

It smells mind blowing, with a candy apple sweetness alongside a delicate aroma of white tea. I sometimes receive chamomile tea to review that is really overly floral and not very sweet but the addition of apple and white tea brings the chamomile flavour down a notch. There’s also an addictive honey aftertaste that keeps me coming back for more!

Final Thoughts

All round this is a fantastic delivery from Bluebird with some of my all time favourite Bluebird blends. These teas have been much appreciated during my revision and I know I’ll be drinking the summer blends all through the summer months ahead.

Thanks for taking the time to read my review, if you’d like more from my blog be sure to come find me on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram (or all three! 😜).

If you’d like to try these new blends yourself you can find them on Bluebird’s website.

A huge thanks to Bluebird for sending me this awesome delivery 😘

Bye for now! xXx

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Matcha Recipes

Carrot Cake With Matcha Honey Cream Cheese Frosting

3rd October 2015

Bluebird Tea Co. recently launched Matcha Honey, what could be better than the combination of Bluebird’s matcha and local Brighton honey?! 😀

They sent me a jar to experiment with and it’s a really fantastic product, the honey is incredible and the sweetness of it blends perfectly with the matcha. It’s great on toast, crumpets or added to tea but it’s also great in frosting! 😉

I thought this cream cheese frosting would be paired perfectly with the subtle spiciness of moist carrot cake and this recipe was born!

After some taste testing I struck the perfect balance, which is roughly 3 teaspoons of matcha honey. It depends largely on how strong you want the matcha flavour to be, I wanted it to be definitely matcha flavoured but without bitterness and without the honey flavour becoming sickly but feel free to alter the quantity to your taste. I also wanted to keep the traditional colouring of carrot cake, with beautiful cream frosting! 😀

Cinammon Close Up

Cake Ingredients

3 eggs

300g soft light brown sugar

300g plain flour

300ml sunflower oil

1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon (plus extra to decorate)

1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon of salt

3/4 teaspoon of ground ginger

1/4 teaspoon of vanilla extract

300g grated carrots

 

Matcha Honey Cream Cheese Ingredients

2 1/2 – 3 teaspoons Bluebird Tea Co. Matcha Honey

300g icing sugar

125g cream cheese, refrigerated

50g unsalted butter, room temperature

 

I used 3 x 7″ cake tins but you can vary this a bit depending if you want thicker or thinner layers 🙂

 

Method

Cake:

Beat sugar, eggs and oil with a handheld electric whisk or mixer until well incorporated.

Sugar, Eggs and Oil

Slowly add bicarbonate of soda, baking powder, ginger, cinnamon, flour, salt and vanilla, continue to beat until mixed.

Stir in the carrot and transfer the mixture to 3 cake tins, with greaseproof paper on the base. Smooth the mixture over with a palette knife or by tapping the trays on the work surface.

Mixture In Tray

 

Bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown. Let the trays cool a little bit and then transfer to wire racks to cool completely.

 

 

Frosting:

Beat butter and icing sugar together with an electric whisk on a slow speed until combined. Add the cream cheese in one go and beat gently until incorporated. Turn the mixer up to a high speed and continue beating until light and fluffy, approximately 3 -4 minutes. Be careful not to overdo it to avoid the frosting becoming too sloppy. Finally add the matcha honey and whisk in on a slow speed, your best bet is to add it gradually and keep tasting it to get the flavour to your desired strength.

Frosting

Pick the layer with the most even dome to be the top of your cake, then use a bread knife to slowly take a layer off the top of the other two layers to flatten them out. This will make frosting easier, make the cake more stable and also look better when the cake is cut.

All you have to do now is spread frosting on the bottom layer, add the middle layer and do the same to add the top. Then spread remaining frosting on top of the cake and work it down the sides. You can either try for a flat smooth look with an offset spatula or keep it rough and fluffy like mine.

That’s it! You have the best carrot cake in the world 😉

Front

Slice

 

I hope you’ve enjoyed this recipe, I adored making it and I was thrilled with the results. It’s the perfect cake to share, I divided mine up and gave some to my mum and my boyfriend’s parents and they loved it!

Definitely check out the matcha honey from Bluebird Tea Co., it’s such an easy way to get more matcha in to your diet and tastes amazing!

Bye for now! xXx

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