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tea

Herbal Tea Tea Reviews

Tea in the City Cranberry Leaf & Rosebay Willowherb Review

21st February 2017

Today I’m really excited to share two new teas with you that have been sent to me by Tea in the City. They’re both herbal blends that are super unusual and completely different to anything I’ve tried before.

Both are unflavoured, not blended and completely natural. The first is Cranberry Leaf, made using the bud and leaves of the cranberry bush rather than Camelia Sinensis. The other is Rosebay Willowherb another caffeine free blend that is mildly sedative, making it perfect for bedtime drinking.

As always both teas were beautifully packed, every element of Tea in the City’s tea is high quality and a joy to open!

This review is also the perfect opportunity to show you latest teacup, I bought it with a gift card my boyfriend gave me for my birthday and have been saving it for a special tea review 🙂

On to the review!

 

Cranberry Leaf

As soon as I open this tea a sweet, floral fragrance drifted from the bag. The smell has a rose-like vibe but also really fruity.

Upon steeping the tea I found that the leaf opened up beautifully in my teapot and a malty aroma began to emanate. A little of this tea goes a really long way so it’s definitely a very economical blend, especially as the price is extremely reasonable for a product of this quality.

I love this teas delicate malty flavour, with a floral sweetness that dances around your mouth. It has a velvet smoothness to it which is really comforting and thoroughly refreshing.

It’s also remarkable just how much flavour this tea has while being completely unblended and unflavoured, it really is a wonderful tea!


Rosebay Willowherb

This tea is equally as exciting but with a completely different flavour and aroma. It has more of a herby fragrance to it which creates a drier more savoury flavour.

I particularly love watching the vibrant purple flowers turn white as they steep, perfect to steep in glass teaware!

This tea has quite a dry feel but there’s also a nice sweetness alongside the slightly tart fruity flavour. Tea in the City’s website mentions that this tea is similar to fruity red wine, which I’d have to agree with but thankfully the flavour isn’t as strong as red wine, I’m not much of an alcohol drinker 😉

Overall this tea is fantastically unique and genuinely exciting to try, it’s different to almost any other tree I’ve tried and an awesome find by Tea in the City!

Final Thoughts

I found both of these teas extremely exciting, I always love to try new tea and these are two wonderfully unique teas. You can buy samples of these for as little as £1.50 on Tea in the City’s website, perfect to try before you buy a larger pack, which you definitely will once you’ve tried them!

A huge thank you to Tea in the City for sending me these wonderful teas to review. A while back I reviewed their Yunnan Gold & Wuyi Black which were phenomenal, you can find that review here.

If you’d like to take a look at Tea in the City’s tea you’ll find it all on their website, their tea really is something special! 🙂

Thanks for taking the time to read this review. come say hi on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook!

Bye for now xXx

 

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Reviews Teaphernalia

Adagio ToasTEA Stainless Steel Travel Infuser Review

11th February 2017

I’ve got a bit of an obsession with tea bottles and flasks, out of all my teaware I love collecting tea bottles the most. The majority of my tea bottles are glass so I was thrilled to find the Adagio ToasTEA, which is a completely different product.

Adagio were awesome enough to send me a ToasTEA to try out and share my experience with you guys! You can also take a closer look at the Adagio ToasTEA on Amazon or Adagio’s website.

The Adagio ToasTEA is a stainless steel travel bottle with built in tea infuser that keeps your tea hot (or cool) for hours, literally hours! 😀

First Impressions

The first thing I noticed about the ToasTEA is the quality is incredible, as you would expect from Adagio. If you’ve tried the Adagio IngenuiTEA you’ll have an idea of the quality of Adagio teaware (check out my IngenuiTEA review).

It feels solid with a comfortable matte finish that won’t slip out of your hand like glass tea bottles can and would probably survive even if it did! It comes in blush, lemongrass or charcoal, I went for charcoal 🙂

The size is perfect, bigger than most of my tea bottles but you don’t lose as much volume as you would with a similar double walled glass tea bottle.

Using the Adagio ToasTEA

The infuser unscrews to allow you to easily add your tea leaves and the spring loaded flip top lid allows for one handed drinking, perfect for driving or drinking on the move. There’s even an easy click locking lid that enables the ToasTEA to be closed with one hand and stay closed. Inside the lid you’ll find an expertly designed lip to drink from, which slowly fills with tea from a small hole so you can feel confident of zero spillage.

The infuser inside the bottle is a good size, allowing your leaves to open up for perfect steeping. The holes in the infuser are really fine so you don’t get any bits sinking to the bottom, as can happen with bottles that have a less fine infuser.

One thing I particularly dislike about tea bottles is if they don’t offer an easy way to remove the tea leaves after steeping, leading to over steeped bitter tea. The ToasTEA completely avoids this issue, you simply fill the infuser, screw it back in to the lid, add the water, then flip the ToasTEA upside down and then flip it back when it’s steeped to your desired strength.

I’m particularly impressed with how long the ToasTEA keeps tea warm for, it easily outlasts my other tea bottles, another plus for drinking while you’re out and about. The only downside of this is I like to drink a lot of tea and I found that it takes a while for the tea to reach a drinkable temperature but this is easily remedied by adding a little cold water after the tea is prepared. The ToasTEA also remains completely cool on the outside at all times, making it easy to carry and hold.

Overall

The Adagio ToasTEA really is a wonderful product! It makes an exciting change from a tea bottle market that is dominated by glass bottles, making it stronger and nicer to hold.

It has a list of design choices that I haven’t seen on any other tea bottles. The flip top locking lid, lip to drink from and the ability to steep your tea without it being over steeped are all features I haven’t seen on other tea bottles.

Final Words

Thanks for taking the time to read my review of the Adagio ToasTEA, I hope it’s helped you with your buying decision. Also a massive thanks to Adagio for sending me the ToasTEA to review, I LOVE it!

If you’d like to try out the Adagio ToasTEA you can find it on Amazon or buy it directly from Adagio.

The Adagio ToasTEA is featured in my Top 10 Tea Bottles for 2017 post.

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Bye for now xXx

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Green Tea Tea Reviews

Yunomi Nanadan Organic Asamushi Okumidori Sencha Review

6th February 2017

The last couple of weeks I’ve been drinking a ton of Nanadan Organic Asamushi Okumidori Sencha from Yunomi, after they were awesome enough to send me some to review 🙂

The first thing I noticed with this tea is the vivid green colour and fine leaf. The smell is equally as green, a really crisp fresh scent that I knew would equal a good cup of tea!

The tea steeps at a lower temperature of 50° which is important to note in order to avoid a bitter taste and enjoy this tea at its best.

As the water hits the tea the fine leaf quickly opens up, becoming even more inviting. The liquid turns a milky pale yellow as the smell floats in to the room.

The flavour is incredibly delicate with a buttery quality and quite subtle but addictive, once I start with this tea I can drink it happily all day! It also lends itself to being reinfused which is great to make the tea last a little longer, I prefer to reinfuse my tea in a tea bottle of some kind, currently loving this Bamboo tea bottle I got for Christmas!

I hope you enjoyed this mini review, I’d definitely recommend checking out this sencha and all of Yunomi’s teas. They have some of the finest teas I’ve ever tasted, I also highly recommend their matcha!

Thanks for reading!

Bye for now xXx

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Black Tea Chai Fruit Tea Green Tea Oolong Rooibos Tea Reviews White Tea

Teatourist Tea Subscription Boxes Reviewed

3rd January 2017

I’ve been interested in signing up for a tea subscription box for a while and have tried one or two in the past. I’m always on the look out for new tea so it really makes sense for me to have a selection delivered each month, plus it’s incredibly exciting!

Teatourist were lovely enough to send me a couple of their boxes for November & December so I thought I’d do a review of my experience and a run down of the 6 teas in each box. Read on to find out how I got on! I also have a discount code to get 30% off your first box which you can find further down the review 🙂 

 Review Time!

When the box arrived I was so excited, it fit straight through my door and was waiting for me when I woke up! The packaging is really classy with a box inside a slipcover and the inside of the lid has a stunning hot air balloon photo, it’s a lovely image to see when I dive in for my next tea to try!

I was pleasantly surprised to find 6 teas inside, in the past I’ve only found 3 or 4 teas in subscription boxes so 6 is definitely appreciated. Each tea comes sealed with a card attached with a little bit about the company the blend is from and instructions for steeping, the instructions are really clear so this would be a great introduction to the world of tea for any newcomer.

The selection each month is extremely varied, with herbal blends, black tea, oolong, white tea and rooibos all making an appearance.

 

November Box

Orange Blossom Oolong – Easy Teasy

The first tea I knew I had to try from the November box was Orange Blossom Oolong. I’m a huge Oolong fan, it’s always refreshing and pairs well with a lot of flavours, there’s not much Oolong I don’t like and there’s also not much Oolong I like as much as Orange Blossom Oolong!

The orangey smell was inviting the second I opened the packet, I knew this was gonna be good! The orange flavour is a sweet orange rather than a citrusy orange which lends itself perfectly to an Oolong blend. It almost has a chocolatey hint to it as well, I couldn’t help thinking of Terry’s Chocolate Orange when I was drinking it, there’s also an enjoyable earl grey vibe to it.

 

Malawi Peony – Baraka Teas

This was another blend I was really excited about, I adore white peony and was particularly intrigued by the large leaves! Other white peony I’ve tried has had smaller leaves so it was nice to see it in a more natural form, you could imagine this tea being freshly picked for this blend.

Malawi Peony has a nice fresh aroma to it, while steeping it I was entranced by the large leaves swirling around. I enjoyed the crisp delicate flavour of this tea immensely, it was one of the first from the November box to run out!

 

Tummy Rub – Tea Box

This tea is a herbal blend containing fennel, chamomile, liquorice and mint. These are ingredients known to calm you down and ease an upset stomach.

I found that the flavour of this tea wasn’t amazing for me personally, I have a bit of a dislike of liquorice flavoured tea but I really enjoyed the chamomile element. Despite not being a huge fan of the flavour I did find it calming and especially good before bedtime and I had fun trying something different so overall a positive experience 🙂

 

Yoga Tea – T-Tox

The stand out flavours of this tea are the white tea and a candy sweet rose flavouring. The delicate flavour of the white tea has been blended with the rose petals perfectly, I was glad the rose didn’t overpower the white tea at all.

There’s also a hint of ginger and lemongrass that add a subtle but enjoyable flavour and nettle, known for it’s antiseptic properties. I found this tea was really economical and as it’s quite fine there really was a lot of cups of tea in the sachet.

 

Peppermint – Cheshire Tea

This tea blend comes all the way from the USA! I’m not the biggest fan of mint tea usually, I always feel that they’re overly minty and a bit harsh tasting. This mint tea is different! The sweeter peppermint flavours really come through, creating an enjoyably fresh experience.

Mint tea is known to be beneficial for digestion, it’s great for easing tummy cramps, giving this tea a medicinal purpose too. I really appreciate that this tea is so pure, it’s literally one ingredient: peppermint!

 

Japanese Kukicha – Shibui Tea

This tea comes from Shibui, a tea company I’ve previously reviewed not too long ago. I loved their tea the first time round, their caramel oolong and maple walnut are two of the most memorable teas I’ve ever had! You can find my shibui tea haul review here.

I must admit that I’m quite new to kukicha, having only had it one other time from Adagio. A huge difference I noticed straight away with this kukicha is its black, despite being a green tea. Kukicha is made up of the left over stems and twiggy parts of the tea plant that aren’t used, the last kukicha I had was a hay like pale green. This kukicha from Shibui has a slightly roasted flavour which is enjoyably unique and warming, making it perfect for cold winter nights!

 

December Box

Gingerbread Chai – Tugboat Brew

First up in this box is Gingerbread Chai! I’ve had another Rooibos based Gingerbread Chai from one of my favourite ever tea companies, my regular readers will know who! 😉

This tea is fairly similar but has a sweeter, less spicy flavour which makes it more of a naughty dessert-like tea. As soon as you steep this tea the smell erupts in to the room, filling it with a cakey gingerbread flavour. It’s a really economical tea, with a little tea turning your water to a beautiful amber.

 


Winter Spice – Chash The Fine Tea Company

This blend was one I wasn’t crazy about, it had quite a medicinal smell to it with strong aniseed and fennel aromas. Upon steeping I found that it was a very unique blend with a sweet aftertaste from the liquorice, I was also happy to find that the mint wasn’t overpowering.

I’m not really a fan of herbal teas but I’d recommend this tea if you like more herbal flavours or are looking for something new to broaden your horizons!

 


Shiraore Green – Momo Cha Fine Teas

I loved this blend! It smells so fresh and natural while instantly turning the water a vibrant green colour. The flavour is so pure and really refreshing, it has a really delicate vibe to it with an exciting zing.

Shiaore Green is one of those blends that I’d really describe as being creamy, before being obsessed with tea I would never of understood someone referring to tea with no milk as creamy but it really is! I’d highly recommend this tea and am excited to explore the range of tea this brand has to offer!

 


Marzipan Rooibos – Hoogly Tea

I just don’t know where to begin with this beautiful blend! As soon as I opened the December box and saw marzipan I couldn’t wait to try it. I’m a big drinker of rooibos, I love drinking it at night instead of fruit tea all the time. I’ve found some really exciting flavours out there, this is definitely a contender for the best rooibos I’ve tried!

It smells just like battenburg cake, with a sweet cakey almond aroma, as the water hits the tea you can smell this tea throughout the house! I love the marzipan taste with the nutty rooibos, this is an epic find by Tea Tourist 😃

 


Citrus Ginger

I’m not a big fan of ginger tea when it’s more herbal, spicy ginger and not a sweet dessert blend. I was quite sceptical about this tea as I have a soft spot for sweet tea blends so this isn’t a tea I would usually go for.

I decided to go for it and see if this tea would surprise me! It’s definitely a blend that will wake you up in the morning, with a real zing from the citrus and instant alertness from the ginger. It was one of my least favourite teas but it was made up of good quality ingredients and definitely something different to add some extra excitement to the December box! 😊

 

Scotch Acorns – Nothing But Tea

The smell of this tea is heavenly, with sweet chocolate notes and high quality black tea combined beautifully. The flavour is another awesome combo, the black tea flavour is perfect with a small chocolate hint, making this tea fantastic as a guilt free treat.

It’s also a tea that is very economical when used in a tea bottle, it doesn’t over infuse too much if you leave it in and doesn’t take much tea at all to make a bottle full. I’ve recently been enjoying a new tea bottle, it’s really good quality and the neoprene handle is convenient for hot drinks 🙂

 

Final Thoughts

I’ve loved my experience with the TeaTourist subscription! It’s super convenient, straight through your door and with a large selection of very different teas.

You also get 6 teas each month which is really good value at this price and the amount of tea in each sachet is very generous. To make these TeaTourist teas go even further you could consider a tea bottle of some kind, I’ve written a Top 10 Tea Bottles post that’s a great place to start if you’re looking for a tea bottle.

The subscription service is perfect for tea bloggers as you’ll be served with 6 new teas to review each month and 6 new tea companies to check out 😀

Teatourist have given me an extremely generous discount code for my readers to get 30% off their first subscription box! simply use the code RUSSTEAS30 and you’ll receive the discount off your first box!

A huge thanks to TeaTourist for sending me these month’s subscriptions!

Bye for now! xXx

 

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Fruit Tea Matcha Recipes

Huel Review, Including How to Flavour with Matcha & Tea

17th December 2016

A while back I became interested in finding some kind of meal replacement that’s super easy and good for me at the same time. I found Huel, a nutritionally complete food that I can make in minutes and not feel guilty about it’s effect on my body, I may even lose a little weight too!

Huel has received rave reviews and been featured in numerous newspapers but I wanted to try it for myself and have some fun experimenting. It contains all of the necessary proteins, carbs, fats and essential vitamins and minerals. Huel is also vegan which was one of my other requirements 🙂

The main reason for this post is to do a quick review of my experience with Huel as well as some recipes to get you started, they’re tea related of course! I wanted to see if I could use matcha and tea to add flavours and some extra health benefits to Huel

Review

When I stumbled upon Huel while researching fast healthy meals I thought it seemed like a great idea but was a bit sceptical if it would fill me up and how it would taste. I ordered a little to try and was pleasantly surprised, so I reached out to Huel and they were awesome enough to send me some more Huel to experiment with for you guys.

The best thing about Huel is how easy it is to prepare, it really does only need a few minutes, making it perfect for busy schedules! You can make it using just the Huel shaker bottle or a blender of some kind. I found it did take quite a bit of shaking so I moved on to using my Breville Blend Active, this guarantees almost instant lump free Huel and doesn’t leave you with a messy blender to clean afterwards.

I’ve only tasted the vanilla flavoured Huel, I figured vanilla is a pretty enjoyable flavour and would be easy to add other flavours to. The flavour is overall very pleasant, the vanilla flavour is sweet and enjoyable, there is a little bit of an unusual taste behind the vanilla but it’s so easy to add other flavours that this really isn’t an issue. The consistency is good and it does blend well, it reminds me a bit of a really runny porridge but it’s definitely a positive experience.

I found I could use 2 scoops of Huel (76g) and that would be enough to fill me up, the most surprising thing is it really does fill you up.  Two scoops works out to be 304 calories, so I was quite amazed I could replace a main meal with Huel and still be full. Huel works out to be only £1.33 for 500 calories so its also pretty good value and it lasts for over 1 year so you’ll never waste any by it going out of date.

Flavouring with matcha

As soon as I tried Huel I was anxious to try and flavour it with matcha! I always start the day with matcha and didn’t want to have to prepare my matcha and then make Huel as well and then drink both and the vanilla flavouring of the Huel really lends itself to matcha. I found that the correct amount for my personal taste was half a teaspoon of matcha per scoop of Huel, this was enough to still leave it tasting of vanilla but add a nice hit of matcha alongside it, and with no bitterness.

I use matcha from Kiss Me Organics for all my recipes, it’s good enough quality to taste amazing but priced low enough to not be crippling when a recipe requires large or regular amounts of matcha.

Flavouring with fruit tea

Next up I wanted to try and use fruit tea to add fruit flavours to Huel. You can just cut fruit up and blend it with Huel but I felt that adds an extra level of preparation to the process.

To flavour Huel with tea simply steep 2 teaspoons of fruit tea in 200ml of boiling water per scoop of Huel. Adding a teaspoon extra of tea for every scoop of Huel you’re using.

Any fruit tea you have will work, preferably loose not teabags. My favourites were Vanilla Slice from T2 & Strawberry Serenade from Whittard of Chelsea but have fun experimenting with any tea you have and let me know what your favourite is in the comments below!

 

Huel Matcha Grape Smoothie

While experimenting with matcha I found that I wanted some way to add a little more sweetness, without using a sweetener or sugar. I tried different fruit but found that grapes were perfect alongside the matcha and added a little extra excitement to Huel. These were the amounts I found perfect for me but you can test it out and adjust accordingly.

It was a little late in the day and the light was fading so the photo doesn’t really do it justice, it tastes amazing though! 😛

Add the following to your blender:

3 scoops of Huel

550ml water

1 – 2 teaspoons of matcha

10-15 grapes

Then blend throughly.

To keep things quick and hassle free I really recommend using the Breville Blend Active to prepare your Huel, it’s great for smoothies too so well worth buying:)

 

Final Thoughts 

I’ve really enjoyed my time with Huel as it fits perfectly in to my lifestyle, has helped me lose a little weight and is also amazingly convenient. It works as a meal replacement and really does fill you up, I’ve been having Huel a couple of times a week at dinner time but you can really have it as often as you like.

You can find the full range available from Huel here and a super helpful guide for using Huel here.

I’d like to say a massive thank you to the guys at Huel for sending me these products to review and experiment with. Also a huge thanks to my readers, I hope you’ve found this post useful 🙂

Bye for now! xXx

 

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Black Tea Tea Reviews

Tea In The City Yunnan Gold & Wuyi Black Tea Review

10th December 2016

Hey Guys!

A short while ago I was sent some tea by Tea in the City for me to review. I received two blends, both black but worlds apart!

The tea arrived beautifully packed in stunning matte white and matte black tins, opening them really felt like an experience 🙂  The tins were well sealed and look great standing together on my tea shelf, another nice feature is a plastic lid with a pull tab under the lid of the tin which really helps to keep the tea fresh.

both-tins-lid-off

Yunnan Gold

This tea is quite a high end tea with a malty flavour with hints of cocoa. The first thing I noticed about this tea is it’s appearance, it doesn’t have the usual dried black leaf that you find in most black tea, instead it’s composed of larger less dense fine golden leaf buds. The tea is quite spaced out in the tin and as a result it has less in the tin than the Wuyi Black but the leave’s larger size allows them to really open up when the water hits, so a little does go a long way.

The smell of this is really incredible, as soon as you open the lid it fills the room. It’s one of those teas I find myself asking everyone to smell and then everyone always asks me if I can steep some for them, it’s such an inviting fragrance. I find it has a nicely complex flavour that’s deep and malty with a cocoa after taste, definitely a tea I can just drink all day!

 

Wuyi Black

The second tea included by Tea in the City is Wuyi, a black tea from the Wuyi mountains. I have a bit of an obsession with teas that are deliberately flavoured with other ingredients, anything from fruit to chocolate. The most surprising part of Wuyi for me is how amazingly flavoured it is, without any other ingredients. Upon opening the tin a Turkish Delight-like smell erupts in to the room, a sweet floral aroma that I can only describe as addictive.

The flavour has a delicious deep black tea flavour but with an indulgent rose flavour alongside it, I’m not usually even a fan of rose flavours but I just can’t get enough of them in this tea. The tea steeps to a beautiful almost red, copper colour, making it perfect for glass teaware and it’s a tea that will be welcome at any social gathering.

I’ve been hiding away from the cold with Netflix recently in the evenings and found this tea is the perfect companion to snuggle up with!

 

I’ve thoroughly enjoyed my time with these teas from Tea in the City. All the way from the packaging, through to the aroma and flavours, these teas really do add a touch of class to an evening.

If you haven’t already had a look at the tea available from Tea in the City I really recommend it, you can find them on their website.

A huge thanks to Tea in the City for sending me their teas to review, it’s very much appreciated 🙂

Thanks very much to all my readers, come say Hi on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram for more tea fun or leave a comment below!

Bye for now! xXx

 

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Black Tea Fruit Tea Tea Reviews

Bluebird Tea Co. Christmas Review

1st December 2016

When it comes to Christmas I love the little things, like the weather changing, people’s excitement building, Starbucks limited edition treats and new bath goodies at Lush but most of all I look forward to the Bluebird Christmas exclusives!

This year sees the return of Christmas Cake & Snowball, which also has a much appreciated vegan option this year!

The new products in this year’s Christmas bundle are Mulled Cider, Sugar Plum & some Bluebird crackers which I’m insanely excited about. Review time!

pouches

Sugar Plum

Sugar plum is a sugary sweet berry filled infusion with a nice warming hint of cinnamon. The blackcurrant in this blend really comes through, along with the hibiscus. The cinnamon is definitely there in precisely the right quantity, it’s warming and festive, without it being overpowering.

It’s a beautiful coloured blend once prepared, that’s perfect to show off in glass teaware on the big day. The sweet cinnamon scent really travels and is sure to add a festive aroma to any gathering! 😀

 

stars

Left to right: Snowball, Sugar Plum, Mulled Cider

Mulled Cider

This is a less sweet tea that I find super refreshing, it gives off an almost peppery scent with cinnamon notes but the apple & lemon peel create a drier more savoury vibe. Mulled Cider is perfect for cold Christmas evenings when you’ve devoured all the chocolate in sight but still want a little extra treat to snuggle up with.

I generally steep my tea multiple times during long work days and by the end it’s often been a bit steeped to death but I found this tea is actually really enjoyable as quite a weak infusion, hot or cold.

Bluebird’s Mulled Cider & Sugar plum are both caffeine free making them perfect to drink on those late night Christmas Netflix sessions, while remaining able to sleep.

cracker-close

Christmas Crackers

These really are too cute! I love the silver foil effect against the brown and the rectangular shape is far more interesting than more traditional cylindrical crackers.

Each cracker contains an individually wrapped Bluebird tea bag, party hat and tea related joke. I decided I’d unwrap one of these without the ‘snap’ and have a look inside for the purpose of the review, then put it back together and save them for Christmas day, no one will ever know! Just like presents under a Christmas tree 😉

 

Final Thoughts

One of the things I admire most about Bluebird is their ability to capture the essence of an event or completely non-tea food in their blends. Mulled Cider & Sugar Plum really are Christmas through and through, with snowball as a chocolate-coconut treat and Christmas Cake completing their Christmas line up.

If you’d like to read a more in depth review of Snowball, Christmas Cake or many of the other Bluebird Tea Co. Christmas teas you can find most of them covered in last years hamper review.

Take a look at Bluebird’s Christmas range to find the perfect treats for the holiday season, you won’t be disappointed.

Thanks for taking the time to read my review.

Happy Christmas to everyone over at Bluebird HQ and to my readers! 🙂 xXx

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Top 20's

Top 20 Gifts for Tea Lovers

18th November 2016

Whenever I have a birthday coming up and someone wants to know what to get me I always just say “anything tea related is cool please”. Then it occurred to me that my friends and family that aren’t in to tea still don’t really know what tea related gift to go for.

So I decided to write a gift post, listing the top 20 gifts at various prices that are perfect for tea lovers.

Ready to find that perfect gift?

£10 or Less

pug-infuserPug Tea Infuser – £5.99

 

vahdam-tea-sticks

Darjeeling Tea Sticks from Vahdam Teas – £9.95

 

glass-teapot-warmerBredemeijer Glass Tea Warmer – £9.95

 

teacups

Bedazzle Chatenier Matte Black and Gold or Silver Teaglass – £10

 

tea-timerTwo Time Tea Timer – £10.00

 

 

£10 – £25

dk-tea-bookDK Tea Book – £13.48

tea-discovery-boxWhittard of Chelsea Tea Discovery Collection – £20

 

miu-colourMIU COLOR Tea Infusing Bottle – £20.99– My Full Review

white-tea-blending-kit-overheadWhite & Green Tea Blending Kit – £25.00

 

 

full

Adagio IngenuiTEA – £18-£26 available in regular or XL –  My Full Review

 

 

 

£25 – £50

tea-lady-for-one
Tea for One Japanese Kokeshi Tea Pot and Tea Cup Set – £29.60

 

tea-set-japaneseUfengke Japanese Tea Service Set – £32.44

 

 

t2-big-chillT2 Tea Big Chill – £38

 

tea-soul-set

TEA SOUL Porcelain Portable White Tea Set with Bamboo Tray – £48.67

 

 

maoci-chawan-set

MAOCI Chawan Matcha Gift Set – £49.20

 

£50 or More

matchaeologist-new-packaging

 

Matchæologist Matcha Brewing Kit – £50.00  My Review

travel-set-pink

ZENS Tall Chinese Travel Tea Set – £54.99

bosch-kettle

Bosch Multi-Temperature Kettle – £56.45  My Review

 

dragon-teapot

 

MAOCI Cast Iron Dragon Teapot, available in 3 colours – £56.50


and one last one: Weimar ‘World Voyage’ Hand Made Teaset – £750 (we can all dream, right? :p )

weimer

 

So that brings me to the end of my Gift Guide for Tea Lovers. I hope you’ve enjoyed reading it and have found a gift for that special someone 🙂

Bye for Now! xXx

 

P.s let me know what gift you’re buying the tea lover in your life in the comments below!

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Matcha Rooibos Tea Reviews

Bluebird Tea Co. New Flavoured Matchas Reviewed!

25th October 2016

Hey guys!

Recently Bluebird Tea Co. released an amazing collection of Autumn products and they sent me a load of them to review 😀  it was an exciting surprise when it turned up at my house, even if they did slightly hint on Twitter that something might be on it’s way to me! 😉

I reviewed their new teas first which included an amazing Rooibos blend, chocolate blend and chai tea, you can check that review out here.

Alongside the tea Bluebird also unveiled three amazing new flavoured matchas as part of their Autumn lineup, there’s Cocoa Matcha, Golden Matcha and Gingernut Matcha AND they sent me all three! :O

After a long summer break from my studies it’s time to begin them again, one last time! Matcha always keeps me sane when I’ve got a heavy work load so these couldn’t of come at a better time 😃

On to the review!

 

ginger-matcha

Gingernut Matcha

This matcha is limited edition and the flavour is inspired by the well known gingernut biscuits. I bought a ginger matcha from another company a couple of months ago and it was shockingly bad, we’re talking burning throat, coughing profusely bad (I won’t name names!). Needless to say I was slightly hesitant to try another ginger matcha but I was pretty confident that Bluebird would pull it off, and they really did!

The other ginger matcha I tried was spicy, herby and almost medicinal but Bluebird’s is completely different, it’s the kind of ginger flavouring that reminds me of gingerbread men and of course, gingernut biscuits.

The matcha is good quality with nice bright green colouring and froths amazingly. You can feel a slight spice from the ginger but it’s overall sweet and actually is biscuity, as you’d hope for in a Gingernut Matcha.

 

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ginger-matcha-close-up
Golden Matcha

Bluebird’s golden matcha is a twist on their decaffeinated rooibos matcha with some added ingredients.

Alongside the decaf rooibos base is cinnamon, ginger, black pepper and the main ingredient; turmeric! The health benefits of turmeric have been celebrated for thousands of years, it’s believed that turmeric could be good for digestion, depression, pain, diabetes, arthritis and more! It’s not really an ingredient that I could imagine myself easily being able to work in to my everyday diet so Bluebird’s Golden Matcha is a great way to do this.

Bluebird’s recipe for making ‘Golden Milk’ is to add a teaspoon of Golden Matcha to a mug of coconut milk (I use rice milk) and a teaspoon of honey. I actually found that the sweeter taste of the rice milk meant I didn’t need to add any sweetener and I find the flavour more enjoyable without the coconut element.

I initially thought that drinking one of the main ingredients of curry with rice milk would be worth it for the health benefits but not for the taste but I’m actually amazed how incredible it tastes! It has a definite spicyness to it which gives it a chai-like vibe but the milkyness and sweetness of the rooibos really make it a unique and delicious drink!

As this is decaf I was thrilled to finally have a matcha I can drink at night, I often struggle to get to sleep so a hit of matcha isn’t what I’m looking for but this is perfect and really has a cuddly feel to it 😊

 

Cocoa Matcha

Last up is Bluebird’s cocoa matcha! I say fairly often in my reviews that I love chocolate more than any food, there’s nothing better! So when Bluebird announced cocoa matcha I was thrilled, I have one other chocolate matcha which I adore so I had high hopes for Bluebird’s and it didn’t disappoint.

I could smell the cocoa before I even opened it! Upon opening the tin the first thing I noticed is this matcha is a browny colour, which is because it literally has cocoa powder in it, no icky fake flavourings here! When you add the water it takes on a new fragrant drinking chocolate style smell that I knew was gonna taste good.

The matcha element of the mix tastes good and high quality. I enjoy that this matcha is genuinely chocolatey and the flavour isn’t drowned out by the matcha, perfect if you’re a chocolate addict! If you enjoy chocolate (who doesn’t?) and you like matcha, then this definitely needs to be added to your shopping list 🙂

 

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That’s my round up of the new flavoured matchas from Bluebird Tea Co., they were the first to develop flavoured matcha in the UK and these are awesome additions to their line up. If you’d like to try their flavoured matcha you can find it here.

Thanks to the amazing girls and guys at the Bluebird HQ for sending me these amazing products to try, it’s very much appreciated!
A big thanks to my readers for checking out this review, I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below or on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram. Keep a look out for some awesome new favoured matcha posts I’ve got coming up! 😉

Bye for now! xXx

 

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Black Tea Chai Green Tea Rooibos Tea Reviews

Bluebird Tea Co. Autumn Tea Haul Reviewed!

2nd October 2016

I LOVE Bluebird Tea! If you read my blog on a regular basis you’ll have seen that I review their tea more than any other brand. Why? Because it’s simply awesome!

Bluebird were lovely enough to send me their new Autumn products! With three new matchas and Autumn teas all dropping at once it’s an exciting time for any Bluebird fan! I’ll be reviewing the tea now and follow up shortly with the matcha review, just because it’s a big bundle worthy of two posts 🙂

The four blends Bluebird sent me are Rooibos Earl Grey, Choco Pops, Lapsang Chai and Spiced Pumpkin Pie.

Review Time!

rooibos-teabags

Rooibos Early Grey

I’m excited by this blend! Earl Grey is awesome and rooibos is my drink of choice at night when I can’t sleep (happens A LOT), so this is perfect!

I received this tea as teabags, as always you get high quality pyramid teabags from Bluebird, with a generous serving of tea. This means multiple mugs from one teabag, perfect if you have company or just need something to binge drink 😉

The flavour is really unique, I love the sweet floral flavour from the bergamot as it dances with the sweet and slightly nutty rooibos. It’s a really soothing blend that’s perfect for the colder months ahead 🙂

 

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Spiced Pumpkin Pie

I was a bit unsure about this initially, pumpkin isn’t really something I’m amazingly fond of but after one sip, my view of the Jack-O-Lantern vegetable had been changed, drastically!

This blend is so warm but without being spicy or burning your throat at all and it screams Autumn! With Halloween and Bonfire night coming, this tea is perfectly timed and sure to go down well with anyone you share it with. It has just a gentle warming feel but is overall a sweet blend, with a slightly spicy tickle after every mouthful.

It’s one of those flavours you really want to savour and swirl round your mouth, the only way I can describe it is a cuddle in a mug. You need this tea in your life!

I’ve seen a lot of talk about a famous Bluebird Pumpkin Spiced Latte that can be made with this tea so I just had to give it a try! OMG it was amazing, the most Autumnal drink ever! This tea is really great all round and the Pumpkin Spiced Latte adds to it’s greatness, get some of this tea while it’s still available! 🙂

 

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Lapsang Chai

This is a combo between Lapsang Souchong, Assam and chai, the result is a beautifully unique and perfectly blended cuppa! I usually find that the smoked flavours of Lapsang Souchong are exciting but often overpowering, this blend keeps the smokey excitement but with a flavour that isn’t at all overpowering.

I like the addition of the chai flavours, it adds a slight warmth to the experience, while diluting the smoked taste. The tea is so pretty loose, with it’s warm fiery flecks of red against the dark black tea. Overall I found this blend highly enjoyable, I love that it’s not a flavour you’ll find anywhere else and the result is a complex and thoroughly enjoyable.

 

choco-pops

Choco Pops

I’ve been holding out on you a little bit and decided to save this one until last, basically because it’s incredible! The smell when I opened the packet blew me away, I’ve never smelt tea this good before. It’s so good it might actually be my favourite Bluebird blend, possibly ever! 😮

It smells like a packet of melted chocolate and isn’t like other teas that claim they’re chocolate and then the flavour disappoints, it really is chocolatey, thanks to cacao bean, chocolate chips, fat reduced cocoa powder AND chocolate sprinkles 😀 When the water is added the chocolate smell takes on a slightly herbal scent from the tea leaves but the flavour is so good! I like that this tea is made up from a blend of Sri Lankan black tea and sencha green tea, it gives the tea a lighter flavour than if it was all black.

I really love Coco Pops, especially the chocolate milk that’s left at the end and you really do get that same chocolatey taste from Bluebird’s latest blend. The toasted rice adds a genmaicha twist to the brew, which works amazingly to create a cereal-like vibe alongside the chocolate. I love this tea!

Closing Words

That’s my review of the latest blends from the Bluebird HQ, I hope you’ve enjoyed reading this as much as I’ve enjoyed writing it.

A big thank you to Bluebird for being so awesome and sending these fantastic new products to me!

If you’d like to check out the new Autumn blends from Bluebird you can find them here.

Make sure you join my mailing list below and follow me on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram to get more from my blog, including my upcoming review of the new Bluebird flavoured Matchas!

Bye for now! xXx

 

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