Teapot | Russtea's

Top 10's

Gifts for Tea Lovers Birthday Special!

9th March 2017

Recently I had my birthday and received an amazing haul of tea related Birthday presents. My boyfriend was lovely enough to give me 30 presents as it was my 30th birthday, so I’ve got quite a few things for this post!

As I hadn’t seen a lot of them before I thought it would be fun to put together a birthday gift post, hopefully it will give you some ideas for gifts for the tea lover in your life 😊

Paper and Tea Humpty Dumpty Sipping Cups

I love visiting Paper and Tea in Berlin, it’s one of my favourite places in the world. It has teaware fit for kings, the quality is incredible and I haven’t really owned anything from there before as a lot of the prices are fit for kings as well! So I was thrilled when I opened these tea cups from my boyfriend, he also included a 50 Euro gift card too 😃 They come in a few finishes and colours but the blue and white crackle have always been the ones I’ve looked at.

Gourmet Flower Kit

I’ve been planning to grow my own edible flowers for a while now, I think they’d be perfect to finish off my tea photos. My mum took note and found this kit, I’m really excited to try it out! You get everything you need to grow 6 different edible flowers, which really takes the hassle out of buying the stuff separately.

Rick and Morty Mug

Me and my boyfriend have been loving Rick and Morty recently and I hadn’t seen any merchandise for it before so this mug was an exciting surprise. It has Rick and Morty on the front coming out of the portal and then on the back they’re going in to the portal.

Tsum Tsum Stackable Cups

Our Tsum Tsum collection is taking over our house at the moment, we’re probably approaching the 200 mark. So this was an obvious choice as a present but one I hadn’t seen before, I definitely would of bought it if I had! Each cup has a different picture, it’s gonna be an exciting addition to our kitchen!

PlayStation Coasters

I’ve been looking at these coasters while out with my boyfriend for months, my Pokemon ones I got for Christmas have soaked up water so they’re due to be replaced. I’ve always loved gaming so these coasters with the PlayStation buttons on them are perfect 😃

Rainbow Bakes Book

I really love baking but haven’t done any for a while now, I’ve been so busy with uni and my business and just haven’t had the time. When I was baking on a regular basis I used to just add matcha to every recipe, you can’t go wrong combining anything cakey with matcha. This Rainbow Bakes book features 40 recipes that are all rainbow coloured, it’s camp, fun and will definitely leave me struggling to resist the urge to add matcha so I don’t turn everything Green! 😊

LSA International Circle Tea for One

I’ve been wanting a nice convenient tea for one set for every day use, that can basically live on my desk. This is the perfect product to fulfil those needs, because it only has the footprint of a cup so it will conveniently sit anywhere where space is limited (I should probably just tidy my huge desk!😳)

Star Wars Lightsaber Heat Changing Mug

We’re huge Star Wars fans,mainly the original three, so I often receive Star Wars presents. I’ve been wanting this mug for aaages, because it has special powers! When it’s empty the mug shows the handles of all of the lightsabers but when you add hot water they all light up! These mugs often don’t work very well as you can often see the outline of what will appear before you’ve added the water but you can’t at all with this mug. My mum thought this would be the perfect present for a geeky tea lover, she sure was right!:D

T2 Pearly White Ink Teapot

I adore T2 Tea! Their tea is phenomenal, as is there teaware. Recently I caved and bought a new T2 teacup and saucer that I’ve been wanting for months, it’s perfect for photos and a joy to use. As it was my 30th birthday my mum went all out and surprised me with the teapot to go with the cup and saucer! The quality is outstanding, blue’s my favourite colour so it’s a great choice, the finish on the pattern is stunning. It’s pretty much my dream teapot, looking forward to many tea sessions with this beauty!

Whittard of Chelsea Lucy Yellow Fluted Mug

Last up is this super cute Whittard of Chelsea mug. It’s fine bone china and finished to such a high standard, the whole cup is insanely smooth and glossy. It’s also dishwasher safe which is rarely the case with higher end teaware so it will definitely be in regular use, I tend to shy away from teaware I can’t dishwasher 😛

Thanks for Reading!

I hope this post gives you some inspiration to help you find the perfect gift for someone special or for yourself 😉

If you’d like to keep in touch with all the latest news from Russtea’s, you can find me on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook or join my mailing list below.

Bye for now! 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 Tea Infuser – £5.99

Darjeeling Tea Sticks from Vahdam Teas – £9.95

Bredemeijer Glass Tea Warmer – £9.95

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

Two Time Tea Timer – £10.00

£10 – £25

DK Tea Book – £13.48

Whittard of Chelsea Tea Discovery Collection – £20

MIU COLOR Tea Infusing Bottle – £20.99– My Full Review

White & Green Tea Blending Kit – £25.00

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

£25 – £50

Tea for One Japanese Kokeshi Tea Pot and Tea Cup Set – £29.60

Ufengke Japanese Tea Service Set – £32.44

T2 Tea Big Chill – £38

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

MAOCI Chawan Matcha Gift Set – £49.20

£50 or More

Matchæologist Matcha Brewing Kit – £50.00 My Review

ZENS Tall Chinese Travel Tea Set – £54.99

Bosch Multi-Temperature Kettle – £56.45 My Review

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 )

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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Green Tea Iced Tea Rooibos Tea Reviews

New Bluebird Tea Co. Summer Blends Reviewed!

1st June 2016

Not much beats waking up to a surprise delivery from Bluebird! They’ve launched their new summer blends this week and were nice enough to drop some in the post for me 😃

So the first thing I wanted to do, apart from drink them, was get a review written up for you guys!

Strawberry Split

First up is strawberry split, a wonderfully fruity, pretty pink blend. It’s green tea that’s absolutely packed with freeze dried strawberries with a fruity but slightly floral scent, it’s literally summer in a packet!

The tea is so pretty to look at before it’s even steeped, it’s full of floral summer colours that will wow your guests. Once the tea’s steeped it produces an equally pretty pink liquid that also smells fantastic, another plus for entertaining with this tea.

It’s incredible iced with a little bit of honey or agave to sweeten it. I find a lot of teas aren’t that great iced, they always seem not sweet enough and I feel like I want to put way too much sugar in. This is the place this tea really excels beyond it’s competition, it so damn good iced! 😃

Jelly & Ice Cream

This is a rooibos based blend which is great for night time drinking and just avoiding caffeine in general, if that’s your thing 😉 The smell is really sweet and took me right back to jelly when I was a kid, I actually always hated adding the ice cream so I’d just eat the jelly but with this tea I welcome both flavours 😊

One of the things I love about Bluebird Tea Co. is their ability to capture a non-tea flavour in their tea. You’d think jelly and ice cream tea would be a fad and you’d get it and find it tastes nothing like it pretends to, but this is different. It really does taste of jelly and ice cream, the sweet flavours combine with the rooibos base perfectly.

This is another blend that’s great iced and will probably be my drinking buddy on the rare days it’s too hot in the UK to drink tea.

Review Complete!

So that’s my review of these two new teas from Bluebird Tea Co. There are another two summer blends from Bluebird; Red Velvet and Sangria. Both look fantastic but Red Velvet is definitely on my list of teas I need in my life!

You can find these summer blends on the Bluebird Tea Co. website here, or roll in to one of their stores in Brighton, Tunbridge Wells or their new Bristol store!

I’d like to say a big thanks to Bluebird Tea Co. for sending me these teas, it was an awesome surprise to wake up to and very much appreciated😊

Bye for now xXx

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Reviews Teaphernalia

Bosch TWK8633GB Multi Temperature Styline Kettle Review

10th August 2015

I’ve been sampling and writing notes for a ton of reviews I’ve got coming up and one thing I always found tiresome to get right was the correct temperature for each kind of tea. I felt that if I’m going to write reviews I should get something that reliably controls the temperature of the water, after all I’d hate to give a company a bad review because I burnt their tea without realising. I’d been using an olden days thermometer to check the temperature but I decided it was time for modern technology to lend a helping hand!

Enter the Bosch Styline Collection Kettle TWK8631GB. It can reliably heat water to 70°, 80°, 90° 0r 100° celsius, so you get perfectly steeped tea every time and switches between different temperatures for green, white, fruit or black tea with ease.

The other features that are worth noting are:

Removable Anti limescale filter
Easy opening
Acoustic signal (beeps when ready)
Stainless steel interior
Rubberised soft grip handle
Double walled to remain cool when touched
360° cordless base
economical 1 cup boiling mode
Keep warm function retains the water at the required temperature for up to 30 minutes
Litres and cup measurements, one on each side
3KW heating element for rapid boil

The removable limescale filter is super convenient and a large button on the lid smoothly pops the lid open, the acoustic signal is also quite helpful, especially if you’re in another room. The quality is phenomenal as you would expect from Bosch, the kettle features solid robust construction throughout. Everything just feels so sturdy and bulletproof, the hinge on the lid is solid and whisper quiet and the handle offers a reassuring grip thanks to it’s seductively soft rubberised handle. Surprisingly the Bosch Styline Collection Kettle TWK8631GB, is still light enough to be easy to use, impressive with build quality of this standard.

1 cup boiling is fantastic, I often used to return to my kettle the following day to find wasted water in the kettle, this is now a thing of the past and this kettle heats the water FAST!

The kettle is simply stunning to look at, I love the gloss black finish of the kettle and base combined with the brushed steel and sturdy handle. The kettle is also available in gloss white with brushed steel but I’ve gotta say the black wins, especially as the white will get diiirty in the kitchen. The base is also beautiful and features the controls to choose the required temperature, which is as easy as pressing 1 button. The base matches well with the kettle and together with the red illuminated display it’s perfect throughout.

I did a lot of research before ordering this kettle and priced at £59.99 (at the time of writing) I was debating whether it would be worth it, after all how much can a higher priced kettle offer? But I was wrong, this kettle has changed the way I drink tea, making it easier to prepare, now the white and green teas I have which are my favourite are being drunk more often (some would say relentlessly!).

This kettle has won a Which? best buy award as well as having nearly 1000 Amazon reviews across both colours (at the time of writing), with a rating of slightly below 5 stars.

That just about rounds it up, please take a look at the pictures, I hope they convey the overall quality and beauty of the Bosch TWK8633 kettle. If you have a similar kettle I’d love to hear about it and how it compares to my new baby! Also if you’d like to ask any questions I can answer from an owners point of view, you can reach me on Twitter or by Email, I’d love to help.

Thanks for reading and I hope this has helped you to make an informed decision! 🙂 xXx

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Hi there, welcome to my blog about my biggest passion, tea!

My name’s Russell, my lifetime nickname has always been Rusty or Russtea as my friends now call me (my surname even begins with T!).

Not much beats the feeling of taking a moment at the end of a busy day and relaxing with your favourite mug, filled with sweet fruit tea, or waking up with black tea infused with vanilla shortbread.

Why not take a moment now, make your favourite tea and join me as I share my tea related experiences?