It wouldn't be possible to talk about tea without mentioning Fortnum and Mason. While the classic blends don't need a special introduction and include famous teas, such as Earl Grey, Breakfast Blend and Royal Blend, Lemon Curd Tea is anything but classic. This one-of-a-kind blend is as unique as a dessert blend can be.
What is Lemon Curd Tea?
First, let's talk about lemon curd. Lemon curd is a dessert spread made with lemons, butter, sugar and egg. It's smooth and zesty and can be used for baking or enjoyed simply spread over bread. Lemon curd is so tasty that it really deserves a tea of its own. With the Lemon Curd Tea, Fortnum & Mason have made that a reality.
Lemon Curd Tea is made with green tea, white hibiscus, liquorice root, lemon peel and lemon curd flavouring. It comes in individually wrapped pyramid tea bags with loose tea. The packaging is pretty and cheerful and has a feel of a proper desert blend. In short, super pretty and exciting.
This tea has only a few ingredients, and all of them contribute to the flavour. Perhaps, the most interesting one is white hibiscus, not as common in tea as its red counterpart. Hibiscus is an amazing ingredient that gives a perfect amount of tartness and is not as sour as lemon. A big difference between red and white hibiscus is that the white one won't colour the tea. There's also liquorice, a natural sweetener that is perfect for balancing this blend.
How to make this tea?
Lemon Curd is a loose tea in pyramid tea bags. That means it's easier to brew than loose tea but offers a better flavour than a classic tea bag. Bring fresh water to a boil and let it cool down to 80 degrees Celsius. Steep one tea bag in 150-200 of water for 3 minutes.
It brews into a light-coloured tea with a delicate, but deep and rich scent of lemon. There's absolutely no astringency and green tea serves as a perfect base for this tea. It's not grassy, it's not smoky, it's just smooth and rich to carry all the flavours and combine them into a true dessert tea.
Lemon Curd tea has a surprisingly delicate and refreshing flavour with gentle sweetness, zesty and creamy mouthfeel and a gentle lingering tartness of white hibiscus. It's not overpowering, and yet it has a very rich flavour with incredible lightness.
This tea doesn't need any condiments, but both sugar and honey would be good for this tea.
Lemon Curd green tea would be perfect for tea drinkers that like the flavour of lemon and fruity teas. Although the base for this blend is a green tea, it's very far from a typical pure green tea flavour. It's delicate and light and would be great for tea drinkers that rarely drink green tea, because they don't enjoy grassy or smoky flavours or don't like the bitterness.
At £6.95, this tea has a lot of expectations to fulfil, and it fulfils all of them. It's a blend that's just perfect for special me-times, when you want to feel happy, relaxed and pampered. It's delicious, unique, and most importantly, it really tastes like lemon curd.
Tea Recap
Water or milk? Water
Day or night? Day
Hot or iced? Hot or cold
Sweetened or pure? Pure or sweetened.
Caffeine? Yes
What's the price? £6.95
Where to buy? Get it from the Fortnum & Mason website.