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Sparkling Matcha Melon & Mango Lemonade Cocktail

24th May 2018

Hey guys!

Whittard of Chelsea asked me if I’d like to make a recipe for my readers using some of their products, I jumped at the chance and decided I’d like to put together a deliciously refreshing iced tea recipe for the summer!

To make this recipe I’ll be using Whittard of Chelsea’s Mellow Melon alongside their Matcha Mango & Moringa tea. I decided to use Mellow Melon as the base with Matcha Mango & Moringa ice cubes, blended with lemonade for some extra sparkle!

Ingredients

5 teaspoons of Mellow Melon

5 teaspoons of Matcha Mango & Moringa

1 litre of lemonade (diet lemonade or sugar free lemonade is best)

Method

I’m using my cold brew bottle which I highly recommend if you make iced tea on a regular basis but you can also use a normal bottle and strain it at the end.

  1. Add 5 teaspoons of Whittard of Chelsea Mellow Melon to the bottom of your bottle, fill with lemonade and put the lid on. Place the bottle in the fridge and leave overnight to cold brew.
  1. Add 5 teaspoons of Whittard of Chelsea Matcha Mango & Moringa to a tea strainer and top with just enough boiling water to cover the tea and leave to steep for 5 to 10 minutes, this will make a superstrong concentrated tea for the ice cubes.
  1. Leave the Matcha Mango & Moringa concentrated tea to cool and pour into your ice cube mould. Place your ice cube mould into the freezer and leave overnight.
  1. The next day simply add the ice cubes to the cold brewed Mellow Melon and either pour directly from the bottle if using a cold brew bottle or strain if using a normal bottle. Find some sun and enjoy!

Final Thoughts

I hope you’ve enjoyed this recipe and had fun making it, it really is the perfect iced tea for the summer months ahead and is super easy to make!

The products used in this recipe are Matcha Mango & Moringa, Mellow Melon and either a cold brew bottle or any tea strainer/infuser but I recommend Whittard of Chelsea’s Mug Infuser or a simple sieve to strain the tea and an infuser to steep the tea.

A huge thanks to Whittard of Chelsea for sending me the tea to make this recipe and thanks to all of my readers!

Bye for Now! xXx

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Black Tea Fruit Tea Green Tea Herbal Tea Tea Reviews

Bluebird Tea Co. Tea Tipples Cocktail Review

24th September 2017

Recently I received an exciting delivery from Bluebird Tea Co., it included some of their cocktail teas. These are teas that there perfect from making alcoholic cocktails with but are equally as exciting without the alcohol.

There’s three all together: Bramble Ramble, Rasberry Russian and G & Tea.

Review time!

Bramble Ramble

First up is Bramble Ramble, a blackberry flavoured tea that is perfect to make a berry gin cocktail. It’s always nice to see good quality fruit pieces in Bluebird’s blends. I like that this blend has a slight zing to it and isn’t overly sweet, there’s also a really nice green tea flavour too which isn’t overpowered by the fruit flavours.

Rasberry Russian

Rasberry Russian is a caffeine free rooibos blend, with a huge helping of fruit including raspberries & apple pieces. This blend also includes a couple of not so common ingredients for extra excitement, vanilla pieces and hibiscus. Raspberry Russian has a really nice raspberry fragrance, with good sized fruit pieces. I often find that rooibos overpowers the other ingredients in rooibos based blends but it’s nice to see that this blend features more fruit than rooibos, which is reflected in the flavour. An overall amazing blend from Bluebird!

G & Tea

This is a sencha green tea based blend with a helping of berries, licorice, spearmint and almond pieces. The first thing I noticed about this blend is a strong marigold-like fragrance, which at first I wasn’t that excited about but I was pleasantly surprised by the amazing and unique flavour! It has quite a herby flavour that’s actually really refreshing, alongside a nice subtle mint flavour followed up with a sweet liquorice aftertaste.

Final Thoughts

This was an exciting surprise delivery as always from Bluebird. If you want to make some Bluebird alcoholic tea cocktails this is a great place to start but they are equally as exciting without the alcohol! You can find all of Bluebird’s fantastic range of teas on their website.

Huge thanks to Bluebird Tea Co. for sending me these blends, I’ve had a lot of fun reviewing them and will definitely be drinking them for weeks to come!

Thanks for reading and as always you can find me on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.

Bye for now xXx

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Black Tea Fruit Tea Green Tea Rooibos Tea Reviews White Tea

TeaTourist Subscription Box Round Up Review

20th September 2017

Hey guys!

Recently I’ve been having a lot of trouble with my health, as a result my blog has been a bit neglected and I’ve got a few tea tourists subscription boxes to cover, so I thought  I would do a roundup of my favourites from the last few boxes.

Keep reading to find an exclusive code to get 30% off your first tea tourist subscription box!

Review time!

Apple and Grapefruit – Tea Shirt

First up is Apple and grapefruit, fresh and exciting fruit blended with apple, strawberry, orange, hibiscus and more! With how many fruits there is in this tea I knew it was going to be bursting with flavour! I really love the crisp grapefruit smell mixed with the sweet apple tones. The tea has an unusually long steeping time of 10 to 12 minutes but it’s definitely worth the wait, as you watch the water turn a deep reddish pink colour. The refreshing sharpness of the grapefruit pairs beautifully with the sweet apple flavour. This is honestly one of the most exciting fruit teas I’ve had for a while!

Rooibos Rhubarb Fudge – Piacha

Next up is a beautiful Rooibos blend which I always enjoy! This smells so sweet, it’s literally like a sweet shop with a beautiful vanilla fragrance. Rooibos goes really well with the sweet fudge flavour and it goes a really long way, making it very economical. You’ll definitely get a lot of cups of tea in TeaTourist’s  generously filled sachets. I wasn’t sure if I would like this tea as rhubarb isn’t something I’ve eaten a lot of but I was pleasantly surprised!

White Bellini – The Tea Experience

I absolutely adore the delicate flavours of white tea, especially when they’re paired with sweet fruit. White Bellini is a good-quality white tea, with large leaves. The delicate white tea flavours are partnered with just the right amount of peach, there’s also raspberries and sweet succulent peach. This is definitely one of my favourite white teas, so I’ll definitely be checking out the tea experience website!

Mint Chocolate – Cheshire Tea

This is another rooibos blend that smells just like mint chocolate chip ice cream but without the calories! I always like it when I find tea with desert like flavours, you get the treat without the consequences (calories!). I often find that the mint flavour in mint teas is overpowering and can be quite off-putting but I was really pleased to find that the chocolate and rooibos flavours are sweet enough to avoid this happening with this tea. You can also definitely taste the rooibos flavour which is often lost when it’s blended with stronger flavours. An all-round excellent find!

Assam Tea With Vanilla – Pure Leaf

I adore all tea with vanilla flavouring, it’s one of my most favourite flavours to find in tea. The cake like fragrance of this tea is mind blowing, as soon as I smelt it I knew it was going to be good! Often with vanilla tea you lose the black tea flavour but this doesn’t happen at all with this blend due to the good quality black tea that’s used. I received this tea in pyramid teabags, which is a nice change as most of the tea in TeaTourist’s subscription boxes are loose leaf, so I sometimes appreciate the convenience of high quality teabags.

Rhubarb and Vanilla – Hoogly Tea

This is a green tea based blend with a welcome dose of hibiscus and rhubarb pieces. When the water is added to this tea initially turns a nice blue colour which is enjoyable to watch. It has a really nice sweet vanilla fragrance with a good fruity tang from the rhubarb. This is an excellent tea to use in glass teaware to show off the purple and blue liquid. Rhubarb and the vanilla is a tea I wasn’t expecting to like that much but I loved it!

Go Nuts – Tea Total

This is a rooibos based blend which I’ve been enjoying when I haven’t been able to sleep recently, I love its caffeine free goodness. This tea has a stunning pecan flavour with a sweet caramel flavour, due to the caramel pieces used in this blend. Once the water is added to the tea it’s scent fills the kitchen like a delicious desert! This is the best tea if you’re craving something naughty!

Summer Fruits – Teagime

Summer Fruits is an exciting flavoured black tea that is perfect for your less adventurous guests. The primary flavour is the black tea base but with a healthy helping of red currants, peach, blackberries and an unusual ingredient, blackcurrant powder! I like that this tea isn’t overly fruity and still primarily tastes like black tea but is a bit more exciting with the addition of a fruit twist. Another exciting and unique blend from TeaTourist.

Masala Chai – Spice Kitchen

Masala Chai uses a base of Kenyan black tea mixed with 11 carefully selected spices, creating a gently spiced, well blended chai. The first thing I noticed about this tea is it really smells amazing, it’s not too spicy which sometimes happens with chai tea. I’ve been using it to make a chai latte with rice milk as a base and a base and it really is phenomenal. What I really enjoyed about this tea is it doesn’t require much sugar to sweeten it, due to the expertly blended spices. Overall one of my favourite chai teas!

Final thoughts

This has been an exciting  few months from tea tourist with an amazing mix of new and exciting tea. I love the variation of the TeaTourist boxes, there really is something for everyone. They are a great company to work with and always do an excellent job sourcing new and exciting teas!

If you’d like to try to tourist box for yourself you can use the code RUSSTEAS30 at checkout to get 30% off your first box! I highly recommend you check them out and join them on a tea adventure!

If you’d like more from Russtea’s come and find me on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook! Thanks for reading! 😃

Bye for now xXx

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Black Tea Green Tea Oolong Tea Reviews

Bruu The Gourmet Tea Club Subscription Box Review

21st June 2017

My obsession with tea subscription boxes has grown a lot over the last few months so I was excited when I found Bruu The Gourmet Tea Club.

I asked if they’d send me a box to review for you guys and they were happy to!

The Bruu subscription boxes are shipped for free and flat enough to slip straight through your letterbox which is super convenient. There’s three different teas included each month, expertly selected from over 1000 blends. Each month is £10 with discounts available if you sign up for multiple months at once and you’ll get up to 40 cups from each box. You can cancel or pause your membership at any time which makes it especially convenient.

I particularly like the transparent Bruu logos on each pack with the tea showing through, adds a nice dash of colour and a peek at the tea inside!

Review Time

Orangey Green

I love the name of this blend and I love green tea so I knew this would be the blend I’d try first! This blend has a classic green tea flavour with a “orangey” twist but I like that the orange isn’t overpowering. Often citrus blends are too citrusy and green tea based teas that are flavoured or blended sometimes lose the green tea flavour.I was pleased to find that Orangey Green doesn’t suffer from this at all, the flavour is predominantly green tea but the orange vibe is definitely there as well.

I’ve enjoyed drinking this in the warm summer evenings recently. It’s perfect to drink once the temperature cools in the evenings, the orange provides refreshment when you need it most! 😀

 

The Ministers Earl Grey

Earl Grey is one of my least favourite teas, which people are always surprised about because everyone else seems to love it! I’m still always intrigued by Earl Grey’s when I receive them because I always wonder if I’ll find one I love.

The first thing I noticed about The Ministers Earl Grey is how amazingly blue the cornflowers are, they really pop against the black Assam and Ceylon leaves. I couldn’t wait to take my photos and pair them with another vivid colour, I was pleased that the colour comes across well in the photos 🙂

As far as Earl Grey goes this is one of the better ones I’ve tried, I like that the bergamot flavour is a bit more subdued than others, so I could still enjoy the Assam and Ceylon in all their glory. Overall not my favourite kind of tea but it’s super pretty and if you love Earl Grey I’m sure you’ll love this!

 

Earthy Oolong

I’m a huge oolong fan, it’s one of my all time favourites so I was excited to see an oolong included in my subscription box from Bruu!😃 It’s always a treat to watch the oolong leaves unfurl in beautiful glass teaware, I especially love the golden liquor this tea produces.

The flavour is quite a dry earthy oolong but with an addictive subtly sweet aftertaste that I’ve enjoyed over and over. Oolong lends itself well to multiple infusions, meaning it’s a very economical cuppa. I love how cozy this oolong is, it’s perfect to fill your teapot with and enjoy during a Netflix session!

Final Thoughts

I’ve really enjoyed this subscription box from Bruu, the variation of the three teas was amazing and it’s definitely one of the cheaper tea subscription boxes out there so it’s good value as well. A massive thanks goes to Bruu for sending me this box to review!

If you’d like to try a Bruu subscription box for yourself you can find out more on their website.

Thanks for reading my review, if you’d like more from Russtea’s you can find me on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram!

Bye for now! xXx

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Black Tea Green Tea Oolong Tea Reviews

Curious Tea Subscription Box Review

20th June 2017

I’ve been getting in to tea subscription boxes in a big way over the last few months! I have a few regulars but recently started to wonder what others might be out there?

After doing a bit of research I found Curious Tea and reached out to them, they were happy to send me one of their boxes to review. I received their Discovery box which includes 4 different teas a month with 10g of each, the perfect choice for a tea blogger or if you enjoy variety!

You can also choose between their Classic box which includes 2 teas but with 50g of each so it really depends if you want the variation of 4 teas or more of 2 teas. There’s also the option to take out the subscription either monthly or quarterly with quarterly being slightly cheaper.

Tea Time!

Santikhiri Blue Pearls Oolong

First up is a beautiful milk oolong from Thailand with a stunning buttery aroma. The tea can be steeped multiple times with a satisfying flavour that evolved with each steeping, I found that the flavour became drier with later brews. This Oolong is lightly baked with an exciting floral aftertaste. It’s a nicely inviting colour that looks great in my glass teaware. Overall a fantastic Oolong! 😃

 

Nilgiri Parkside Estate Kala Moti

Next up is a black tea from the Blue Mountains of Southern India. I especially enjoy watching the hand rolled leaves resembling pearls, open up as they steep😍. Due to how much this tea expands as its steeped it really goes a long way, meaning it’s definitely a tea I’ll be drinking a lot of! I love the deep malty flavours, combined with subtle fruity notes.

 

Wu Yi Shan Rou Gui Oolong

This was probably my favourite from my subscription box. I especially enjoy oolong and have been addicted to its beautiful,  but subtle sweetness. It’s not overly sweet but the fruity notes are very prominent and blend amazingly with the delicate oolong goodness.

 

Wu Yi Shan Bi Luo Chun

I love the way this tea looks before steeping, with it’s deep green colouring and curly leaves. Once the tea begins to steep the leaves open up and turn a vivid emerald green colour, it’s particularly interesting to watch 😍

It produces a pale green liquor with a delicate green tea flavour. The flavour is primarily vegetal but with a sweet buttery aftertaste. This is definitely a tea I’ll be enjoying a lot in the upcoming weeks!

Final Thoughts

I’ve thoroughly enjoyed my Curious Tea subscription box, it’s been a positive experience throughout and one that I’d highly recommend. A lot of the companies I work with send me predominantly flavoured tea, which I’m a huge fan of but it’s been nice to try these more traditional teas.

If you’d like to try a Curious Tea subscription box for yourself you can sign up on their website, I promise you won’t be disappointed 😃

A huge thanks to Curious Tea for sending me this subscription box to review, it’s massively appreciated😘

Thanks for taking the time to read my review❤️

Bye for now! xXx

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Green Tea Herbal Tea Iced Tea Rooibos Tea Reviews White Tea

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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Fruit Tea Green Tea Herbal Tea Tea Reviews

TeaTourist Subscription Box Review

12th May 2017

One of my favourite parts of the month is always when I wake up to find my monthly TeaTourist subscription box on the doormat! I always rush to open it, excited to see what tea adventures I’ll be going on this month 😀

April’s box has a lot of caffeine free blends which suits me perfectly as a lot of my tea drinking occurs in the middle of the night (student life/insomnia!). Be sure to read on to find a voucher code for 30% off your first TeaTourist subscription box! 😀

Time for the review!

Hibiscus Flowers – Tugboat Brews

First up is a special hibiscus blend that I really adore. The tea is a deep purpley red colour with huge big hibiscus flowers, it looks really special in nice glass teaware with the flowers dancing in the deep red liquid.

The flavour is equally as fantastic! I love the deep floral flavour but it’s accompanied by addictive fruity notes. I always enjoy the zingy aftertaste of hibiscus tea but it can sometimes be too sharp, especially in cheaper tea but the zing is perfectly balanced with the sweeter flavour. All round this might be the best hibiscus blend I’ve ever tried! 😮

 


Pumpkins Go Bananas – Leaves of the World

This is one of those blends that I literally could not imagine tasting nice, especially as I hate bananas! Adding pumpkin to the mix could only be a bad thing, at least that’s what I thought before I tried it.

It’s always interesting to read the TeaTourist notes that accompany every tea in their subscription boxes, they have all the info about steeping time, temperature etc. This blend was described as being similar to banana milkshake, despite my bananaphobia I’ve always loved McDonald’s banana milkshakes.

Crazily the banana-pumpkin combo really works, the banana is a sweet banana flavour and doesn’t taste like fresh bananas, it really does taste of banana milkshake (with a fraction of the calories). The tea is really fragrant when it’s steeped and gives off a cake-like aroma, another awesome tea!

 


Shades of Grey – MDTEA

I think I might be the only tea lover that doesn’t love earl grey, I just can’t understand what the fuss is about! 😳 I like the malty tea flavour but the citrusy flavour really isn’t my favourite at all but obv I had to try it! 🙂

The floral notes of the rose petals are a really nice addition and definitely help to sweeten the flavour. I liked that the citrus flavours were a tad more refined in this blend and the black tea flavours were more evident. I’m not sure what a good or a bad Earl Grey is as I’m not a huge fan in general but this is one of the better ones I’ve tried and I’m sure you’ll love it if Earl Grey is your thing 🙂

 


Peppermint Tea – Maiservas

Although I don’t get particularly excited by mint tea it is always quite enjoyable and great for an upset stomach! This mint tea is made up of large nice quality leaves, with a fresh scent. It’s fantastic to wake you up in the morning, as soon as the water hits the leaves a minty aroma breathes a breath of fresh air in to the room.

This blend has a really nice sweetness to it, it’s not the overpowering menthol type of mint tea and has no bitterness. An all round good mint tea 🙂

 

Thieves’ Brew – Bev’s Tea Company

Thieves is the perfect tea for people who enjoy a more traditional cuppa! I adore flavoured tea, I love exciting blends with cool names but sometimes it’s nice to have a good quality natural tasting tea.

Thieves’ Brew has a deep dry malty flavour with a comforting fragrance that produces a nice golden liquid. I always invite my mum to try the more traditional blends as she’s in to natural tea with milk and she definitely enjoys this one!

 


Chocolate Ginger – Shibui Tea

I was really excited to try this tea as I love Shibui Tea and it’s not flavours I’ve seen combined before. I love finding new and exciting tea, it’s all part of being a TeaTourist! 😎

I knew this tea would be special as soon as I began steeping it. The chocolatey aroma with the warmth of the ginger smelt fantastic. Upon tasting it I was glad to find that chocolate was the dominant flavour and the ginger was a nice sweet cake-like ginger, I hate ginger teas that have more of a medicinal flavour which this doesn’t at all. This is without a doubt one of my favourites this month!

 

Conclusions

This month’s TeaTourist box has been another fantastic selection of tea with something for everyone. Banana Pumpkin was the biggest surprise for me and Chocolate Ginger and hibiscus were AMAZING.

If you’d like to try a TeaTourist subscription box for yourself you can get 30% off your first box using the code RUSSTEAS30 on their website. You really won’t regret it!

Thanks for taking the time to read this post and thanks to TeaTourist for making it possible! ❤️

Come find me on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook for more tea related fun! 😀

Join my newsletter below to keep up to date with all my posts, competitions and news.

Bye for now! xXx

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Black Tea Chai Fruit Tea Green Tea Herbal Tea Rooibos Tea Reviews

TeaTourist March Subscription Box Review

19th April 2017

I’ve been lucky enough to receive the March tea subscription box from the amazing people over at TeaTourist to try out and I obv had to share the experience with you guys! 😀

If you’d like to try exciting new tea each month then a tea subscription box is a good place to start and a TeaTourist tea subscription box is the BEST place to start! Each month you’ll receive a super exciting and varied selection of 6 teas with generous portions of each.

I especially love the TeaTourist service because I can find out about a new handful of tea companies each month without having to hunt them down myself, super convenient for tea bloggers!

Be sure to read on to find a voucher to get 30% off your first box!

Review Time!

Rose & Strawberry Red Bush – Spice Kitchen

First up is Rose Strawberry Red Bush, an exciting and unique rooibos based blend. The smell of this tea really blew me away, it literally smells like strawberry laces that I had as a kid, I knew straight away that this tea would be special.

It’s always nice to see flavours blended together that are a bit different, the rose and strawberry flavours in this tea are a fine example of this. The sweetness of the strawberry is immensely addictive and I really enjoyed the rose notes too. One of the best of this month’s box 😀

 

Mulled Apple – Nothing But Tea

I was immediately drawn to this tea by it’s candy apple fragrance and the warming spicy element. It’s always nice to see good quality, nicely sized apple pieces and the pretty yellow flowers are mighty inviting.

The apple flavours are most noticeable but the slight spicyness makes this tea perfect to cuddle up with on a cool Spring evening and dream of the warmer weather of the summer ahead. Another fantastic find!

 

Chocolate Orange – Nelson & Norfolk Tea Co.

I was ecstatic to see this blend in this months box, who doesn’t love a chocolate-orange combo!?

I’ve found in the past that chocolate teas can be a bit of a let down, the promise of chocolate heaven often doesn’t carry across well. Thanks to the overload of chocolate goodness added to this blend it doesn’t at all suffer from a lack of chocolate flavour.

The ingredients include cacao beans, cocoa nibs, cocoa shells AND chocolate chips, it couldn’t get any more chocolatey if it tried! The addition of the orange flavour alongside the chocolate is superb, an all round delight 🙂

 

Wilderness Honeybush – Leopard Friendly

I looked forward to trying this blend as it’s pretty unique, as can be expected from nearly all of TeaTourist’s picks. I hadn’t had honeybush tea before so I wasn’t sure what to expect but it was pretty awesome! It didn’t have the standout flavours of some of the other teas in this months box but I still thoroughly enjoyed it, it reminded me of rooibos but a little less nutty and more earthy.

A good choice if you’re looking for something you haven’t tried before and tend to not be a fan of crazily flavoured tea, preferring more wholesome and natural blends instead.

 

Tumeric Chai – Chai Kai Tea Co.

I’m a big chai fan, I adore chai lattes either from Starbucks or made at home with A LOT less sugar! 😉 I’ve been enjoying turmeric matcha the last few months which I love so I was excited to see what this tea had to offer.

I was a bit hesitant when first smelling this tea but the flavour was awesome! It has a really nice chai spiced flavour to it with a sweet turmeric and coconut combo that had me coming back for more time after time 😀

The turmeric twist ensures this is a tea that’s always at the front of your tea cupboard!

Turmeric is also being hailed as a cure-all at the moment (it’s like matcha a year ago :p) so the health benefits are an added bonus!

 

Honey Lemon – Teagime

Honey and lemon is a road well travelled in the tea world but that doesn’t mean it can’t be awesome! This tea smells almost medicinal before it’s steeped but it’s watered down (literally :p) when you brew it, causing a beautiful honey lemon fragrance to waft through the kitchen.

The flavour is smooth with a rich honey taste blended with just the right amount of lemon, without it being too citrusy. I feel like this tea would be perfect to cuddle up with and soothe a cold but that doesn’t mean you can’t cuddle up with it if you don’t have a cold! Overall a really good blend that I’ve definitely found myself drinking a lot of.

Thanks for reading!

Thanks for taking the time to read my review of this months TeaTourist subscription box. A massive thanks to the guys and girls at TeaTourist for sending me this box to review.

If you’d like to read more posts from my blog you can join my mailing list below and be sure to follow me on Instagram, Twitter & Facebook. I’ve got some amazing competitions coming up that you won’t want to miss! 😉

To get 30% off your first TeaTourist subscription box and go on a tea adventure yourself use code Russteas30 on the TeaTourist website.

Bye for now! xXx

 

 

 

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Black Tea Chai Green Tea Rooibos Tea Reviews

Bluebird Tea Co. Spring & Easter Teas Reviewed!

28th March 2017

This week I’ve been lucky enough to have a delivery of some of the Spring teas from Bluebird! 😀

I’m really excited by the inventive packaging Bluebird have used for their spring line up, it’s always nice to see tea packaged in unique and different ways. There’s a carrot filled with teabags and an egg box with plastic eggs filled with tea that you’re gonna love!

The range includes Carrot Cake, Hot Cross Buns and Easter Eggs Nests, along with favourites MojiTEA and Earl Grey Creme.

The weather has been unusually nice the last couple of weeks so I decided to take my camera and Bluebird’s products outside and take some sunny Spring photos 😀

Review Time!

Easter Egg Nests

First up is Easter Egg Nests, which I aboslutely adore! These teabags smell insanely chocolate, I could literally smell them all day!

I love that this tea really captures the flavours of Easter egg nests, it really took me back to being a child and making them with my mum! I’m usually a bit disappointed with chocolate teas but this is one amazing tea! I love the sweet chocolatey goodness, so much that I’ve nearly run out :O

The green and black tea combo works perfectly and the toasted rice is fantastic. All round one of my favourite Bluebird teas of all time!

 

Hot Cross Bun

This is another tea I was really excited to try, I’m a big fan of hot cross buns so I was looking forward to seeing if Bluebird managed to recreate the flavour in their tea. These teabags also came in a super cute carrot package which I loved finding when I opened the delivery 🙂

This tea has a really nice sweet spicyness to it that really embodies the essence of Easter and Spring time. It has a beautiful cinnamon flavour, which is paired perfectly with the sweet Rooibos base to create that sweet glazed fruity flavour of a good hot crossed bun.

It’s quite similar to Bluebird’s gingerbread chai but less spicy so if that’s one of your favourites you’ll love hot cross bun too.

 

Carrot Cake

Carrot cake is another Rooibos base that’s quite similar to Hot Cross Bun but has a sweeter flavouring that reminds me of Carrot Cake frosting. I love baking carrot cake at home and actually made a carrot cake a while back using Bluebird’s matcha honey, you can find the recipe here if you fancied baking it yourself 🙂

This tea produces a beautiful amber coloured tea with a slight spiced flavour and hints of cinnamon. I particularly like the subtle vanilla aftertaste which is immensely addictive!

 

Earl Grey Creme

Earl Grey Creme was one of the teabags in the egg box, each teabag even came in a little plastic egg!:D

I’m not a huge fan of Earl Grey, it’s one of those teas I’ve just never found that exciting and some earl grey I’ve had has been real bad! I knew if I was going to enjoy anyone’s Earl Grey it would probably be Bluebird’s, I don’t think I’ve ever had one of their teas I didn’t like!

I began steeping this tea and was hesitant as I usually find the bergamot too overpowering in most Earl Grey and can usually tell from the smell. The fragrance of this Earl Grey definitely had a sweeter note to it and I was excited to see if this carried over in to the flavour. It definitely did! The bergamot flavouring was just the right strength and didn’t overpower the black tea flavour like a lot of Earl Grey I’ve had in the past.

All round I’d say this is a really good Earl Grey, although Earl Grey isn’t my favourite tea, I did enjoy this a lot more than others. If you’re an Earl Grey fan I’m sure you’ll absolutely love it! 🙂

MojiTEA
MojiTEA was another one of the teabags included in the purple egg box! The egg box with the tea filled eggs inside was probably the highlight of this collection, it’s definitely the most inventive tea packaging I’ve seen.

I loved the refreshing mint flavour and I was pleasantly surprised by a sweeter aftertaste than a lot of mint tea. MojiTEA isthe perfect tea for anyone who struggles to get going in the morning, it instantly wakes you up with it’s cool mintyness. You’ll get several infusions from one teabag and it’s even more refreshing cold. If you’re a mint tea lover you’ll love this exciting blend Bluebird blend!

Finishing Up

That pretty much rounds up my review of these Bluebird Tea Co. Spring/Easter teas. A huge thanks to Bluebird for sending me these teas to review, I really enjoyed them!

The egg box and carrot are two of my firm favourites in Bluebird’s Spring/Easter teas. If you’re looking for an alternative to chocolate as an Easter gift for someone these would be absolutely perfect (and much healthier!).

If you’d like to try any of Bluebird’s products you can find their website here.

Thanks for taking the time to read my review, I hope you’ve enjoyed it. Please share it with the tea lovers in your life and come find me on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook.

Bye for now! xXx


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TeaTourist February Subscription Box Review

27th March 2017

Lately much of my tea drinking has been tea from my TeaTourist subscription boxes, it’s so exciting to have a varied and well selected set of teas arrive each month.

A Tea subscription box is perfect for anyone that would like to be more adventurous with their choice of tea, especially if you don’t have time to find the different teas yourself. The box fits straight through your letterbox and includes 6 different teas, with a very generous serving of each.

Be sure to read to the bottom for a voucher code to get 30% off your first TeaTourist subscription box.

This is my third subscription box from TeaTourist and all three have been fantastic, if you want to read my other two reviews you’ll find them here and here.

Review Time!

Ben Shan Oolong – Tea in the City

I’m a huuuuge Tea in the City fan! I’ve reviewed their Yunnan Gold and Wuyi Black, followed by their Cranberry Leaf and Rosebay Willowherb. I’m also a big Oolong fan so I knew this tea would be pretty special as soon as I saw it, and I was right!

Ben Shan Oolong is a deep green with a pleasant vegetal aroma, with leaves that really open up when you steep them. This is a great tea if you like to infuse your tea multiple times and it’s really satisfying to observe the change in flavours as you reinfuse.

The first infusion creates a smooth buttery flavour with a pleasant sweet aftertaste. The second and third infusions are less sweet and more vegetal but equally enjoyable. Once this tea goes in my teapot I can reinfuse and drink it happily all afternoon, which is exactly what I like in an Oolong 😀


Cherry Sencha – Cheshire Tea

The smell of this tea blew me away! As soon as the packet opens a super sweet cherry aroma bursts in to the room, it reminds me of cherryade but much much healthier! Alongside the cherry fragrance there’s a slight rose hint too, creating a perfectly paired smell.

When I steeped the tea the cherry aroma became even more incredible, I found myself hovering over the mug inhaling! I love the classic sencha flavour of this tea, which is the perfect match for the beautiful cherry sweetness. The hint of rose is also noticeable in the flavour but I like that the cherry flavouring takes centre stage.


Brockley Breakfast -Good & Proper Tea Co.

Breakfast blends aren’t really the blends I reach for when I’m looking for new tea but my mum loves them so I do keep some in the house, she’s more of a traditional tea and milk kind of lady.

The leaf in this blend is very evidently high quality, which can be seen in the rich amber tea it produces once steeped. Brockley Breakfast has a deeply satisfying malty flavour with a subtle sweetness that I really enjoy. I left the traditional tea and milk test up to my mum (I don’t drink milk) and she was thoroughly impressed, I’m trying to convert her to a loose leaf lifestyle so this is a step in the right direction!


Blend No 45 – Edgcumbes Tea Blenders

Next up is the smokey blend no. 45 from Edgcumbes Tea Blenders. This tea is a combination of Lapsang Souchong, Assam, Keemum and Darjeeling. I’ll be honest, I usually hate smokey tea, it always feels like I’m licking a bonfire but I was excited to find out how it tasted when combined with unsmoked black tea.

Although it did still have the smokey smell I was pleasantly surprised by the flavour! The black tea blended with the lapsang Souchong worked perfectly to ‘water down’ the smokey flavour, creating a good quality black tea with a warming smokeyness. This tea really lends itself to curling up with a mug in the winter and enjoying a Netflix session, I’ll definitely be keeping some for the winter, although it’s always winter in the UK! :p


Black Tea & Dandelion – Oteas

I was a little unsure about this tea when I first opened my TeaTourist box but I trust their judgement!:)

It has a wholesome earthy fragrance with nice high quality leaf, the dandelion fragrance isn’t overpowering and I was pleased to find the same with the taste. It’s nice to have a traditional black tea but with a little excitement on the side. The traditional vibe of this tea makes it perfect to share with the less adventurous tea drinkers in your life, the kind that tend to run for the hills if you mention matcha or oolong! 😛


Gunpowder – The UK Loose Leaf Tea Company

I’m always excited by gunpowder tea, I love to watch the small deep green pellets open up as you steep them and I’m addicted to the vegetal flavour and zingy aftertaste.

This is a high quality gunpowder tea that does have more of a zing than a lot of gunpowder tea to the point that it’s ever so slightly metallic, more than others I’ve tried but that’s fine with me and thoroughly enjoyable! 🙂

Thanks for reading!

Thanks for taking the time to read my review of the February TeaTourist subscription box and I hope it’s helped you decide if a tea subscription is right for you!

If you’d like to try a box you can use a voucher code TeaTourist were awesome enough to give me for you guys. Simply use RUSSTEAS30 to get 30% off your first box, you won’t be disappointed!

A huge thanks to TeaTourist for sending me this month’s box to review, it’s been amazing as always! <3

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Bye for now xXx







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