What’s in Vicky’s Sponge Cake tea?

Bird and Blend are famous for their dessert teas and unique flavours, and Vicky’s Sponge Cake is certainly one of them. It’s crafted to offer the flavours of Victoria Sponge Cake. This famous and delicious British dessert is made with a simple vanilla sponge cake filled with strawberry or raspberry jam and whipped cream. It’s perfect as a daily treat or for afternoon tea times.

So, what’s in Vicky’s Sponge cake tea?

This loose leaf black tea blend is crafted with Sri Lankan black tea, freeze-dried raspberries, raspberry leaves, desiccated coconut, and natural flavouring. While it may sound strange to have coconut in a tea blend that should offer flavours of vanilla and cream, it’s actually a great ingredient to add a creamy touch. Sri Lankan teas are lighter and brisker than Assam teas, which is a great choice for making a whole blend lighter and fresher – just like a real sponge cake should be. And finally, there are freeze-dried raspberries that add a fruity jammy touch.

Dry leaves smell sweet and light, with dominant raspberry notes, like a raspberry sugar candy but lighter.

What does Vicky’s Sponge Cake taste like?

Vicky’s Sponge Cake tea is a black tea blend, so it’s quite easy to brew, but don’t over-steep it to prevent bitterness. Bring fresh water to a boil and steep 1 heaped teaspoon of tea leaves for 2-3 minutes.

Since this blend contains Ceylon tea as a base, it’s lighter and brisker, with dominant black tea notes, allowing fruity and creamy flavours to come through.

Although on a lighter side, this blend, indeed, has a sweet jammy sponge cake flavour. It’s a very light tea, though, with dominant brisk black tea notes and light coconut and berry notes. Coconut contributes to the buttery and cake feel, but it’s not overpowering the blend. While the flavour is light, it’s strong enough to serve it with some milk or cream and sugar. In fact, this tea goes really with milk that will bring out sweet buttery notes even more. It’s also suitable for making a latte. For a stronger flavour, use 1 ½ – 2 teaspoons of tea leaves per serving.

There’s also a light astringency that leaves a sweet aftertaste, so if you enjoy your tea with a sweetener, a teaspoon of raspberry or strawberry jam would go really well with this tea.

Vicky’s Sponge Cake is one of those blends you’d want to serve at afternoon tea parties with cakes and condiments. It’s great for tea lovers that like berry flavoured teas and want a blend that has a more oomph than a regular afternoon black tea blend. You’d also enjoy it if you love vanilla or coconut blends and don’t want overpowering flavours that completely cover the flavour of original base tea.

Tea Recap

Water or milk? Water or milk.

Day or night? Day.

Hot or iced? Hot.

Sweetened or Pure? Pure or sweetener with sugar or jam.

Caffeine? Yes.

What’s the price? Starting from 3.50 GBP.

Where to buy? Get it from the Bird and Blend website.

More Raspberry Tea Ideas:

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What’s in Nearly Nirvana?

Neary Nirvana is blended with green tea, jasmine scented silver needle tea, jasmine blossoms, spearmint and orange blossoms. Mint and jasmine are not a common combination, and it may even sound quite unusual. But spearmint, which is less often used in tea blends than peppermint, has a much lower content of menthol. Menthol is a compound that gives a strong and pungent minty flavour. That’s why spearmint is fresh but milder, so it won’t overpower other flavours.

Another interesting ingredient in this tea are orange blossoms. They are also not too common in tea blends and are mostly present in calming sleepy time teas. Interestingly, both orange blossoms and jasmine may help reduce anxiety.

Lightness, relaxation and delightful scent make Nearly Nirvana worthy of its name for sure. The scent of jasmine is beautiful and dominates over the scent of dry white and green tea leaves. Mint feels like a background base note only, giving freshness without turning this blend into a strong mint tea.

Since this is a blend of white and green tea, it contains caffeine. Both green and white tea may be higher in caffeine than black tea, so keep that in mind if caffeine content is important to you.

Nearly Nirvana is available as loose tea and in pyramid tea bags.

What does Nearly Nirvana taste like?

Nearly Nirvana is a blend of green and white tea, so lower water temperature is recommended. Steep it for 2-3 minutes at 80 degrees Celsius.

This mint and jasmine tea is light and delicate, with no bitterness. Mint and jasmine are perfectly balanced, with mint giving a refreshing lightness and jasmine adding a floral touch. Green tea serves as a wonderful base, giving depth to this blend. There are zero traces of bitterness. It really is light and heavenly and feels more like a white tea blend than green tea.

This is a very, very easy to drink tea. Mint and jasmine are not a common combination, but after trying this blend, you’ll think they definitely should be. They really go well together. You can re-steep the same tea bag at least once, depending on how long you steep it for.

Who would like this tea? This blend is great for tea drinkers that love jasmine teas but don’t like the bitterness that comes with some jasmine blends. It’s great for daily sipping and afternoon tea times.

Tea Recap

Water or milk? Water.

Day or night? Day.

Hot or iced? Hot or cold.

Sweetened or Pure? Pure.

Caffeine? Yes.

What’s the price? Starting from 3.50 GBP.

Where to buy? Get it from the Bird and Blend website.

The post Nearly Nirvana Mint and Jasmine Tea – Bird and Blend appeared first on All That Tea.

What’s in Cherry Bakewell Tea?

Cherry Bakewell tea is a tea crafted to pay respect to a famous British treat – heavenly cherry and almond tarts. This pastry has been around for quite some time, and is always a pure joy to enjoy.

Cherry Bakewell tea is, unexpectedly, a white tea blend, not a cherry fruit blend. It contains Chinese white tea, apple pieces, rosehips, hibiscus, sliced almonds, freeze-dried cranberries and LOTS of red cornflowers.

This tea smells delicious, with intense cherry notes and hints of frangipane. But it’s not only the scent that’s inviting. Cherry Bakewell pastries are yummy, but also incredibly pretty. This tea took its mission to offer a Cherry Bakewell experience seriously, and it looks stunning too. Red cornflowers look absolutely beautiful in this blend.

What’s quite surprising is the blending of so many red/purple ingredients with white tea. Any blend containing hibiscus will turn purple, and so does this blend. However, white tea is an absolutely great choice for this liquid dessert, as it’s lighter and more neutral than other tea types, but still offers lighter tea notes and caffeine.

What does it taste like?

Since there are quite a lot of ingredients in this blend and lots of red cornflowers to get the most out of white tea, use two teaspoons rather than one and steep at around 80 degrees Celsius for 2-3 for 3 minutes.

This tea brews into a light tea, with a transparent purple colour. It’s not quite like hibiscus tea, and it’s not like white tea either. This tea has a slight hibiscus zestiness, and a really interesting aroma. White tea is most noticeable from the slightly smoky aroma, rather than the flavour. Cherry notes with hints of almonds wrap the whole blend into a light and refreshing tea that doesn’t need any condiments.

Although this tea is light, don’t overstep it. It contains white tea, and it may get a light bitter note if you leave the tea leaves to infuse for too long. However, regardless of the lightness, it’s flavourful and cheerful. If you like hibiscus and cherry flavour, you will like this tea too. Even though it smells sweet, it’s not a sweet tea, so you can add half a teaspoon of white sugar or some other neutral sweetener.

Who else would like this tea? This blend would be a splendid choice for tea drinkers that enjoy flavoured teas with fruity notes but prefer lighter daily blends that aren’t overpowering and that don’t need any condiments.

Tea Recap

Water or milk? Water.

Day or night? Day.

Hot or iced? Hot or iced.

Sweetened or Pure? Pure or with a teaspoon of white sugar.

Caffeine? Yes

Where to buy? Get it from Bird and Blend website.

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Does it take like Eton Mess?

What is Eton Mess?

If something can scream summer, it’s Eton Mess. Eton Mess is a delicious, simple British summer dessert. It’s made with fresh strawberries, sugar, whipped cream and meringues. In fact, Eton Mess without meringue would not be an Eton Mess.

This strawberry tea blend from Bird and Blend contains apple pieces, rosehip, hibiscus, elderberries, strawberries, liquorice root and natural flavouring. It’s a fruit tea with no caffeine, which makes it great for making loads of refreshing iced tea. It’s also a bulky blend, so do use more, especially if you are making an iced tea. Also, use it within the recommended time. Loose fruit teas have a shorter shelf life than real teas or most flavoured blends.

Bird and Blend suggest trying it with milk, which would be more than fun to try. We tried it the “regular” way and hot brewed it first. And to be super fair, we tried it side by side with a proper Eton Mess.

How to brew this tea?

To make a flavourful cup of Eton Mess tea, add 2 teaspoons of loose tea per cup of water. Brew it at 100 degrees Celsius for about 5 minutes. This tea contains liquorice which is naturally sweet, so it doesn’t really need an additional sweetener.

Does it taste like Eton Mess? It has the sweetness, it has the creaminess, and it has a tanginess… However, hibiscus is more pronounced than strawberries. Nevertheless, the scent is full of strawberries and cream. To get the most faithful version of the real deal, add freshly cut ripe strawberries when brewing or even cold brew it with fresh fruits.

There’s more tartness as it cools down, and liquorice is actually adding a great “meringue” note. With a little bit of fresh strawberries, this could be a great liquid Eton Mess for summer garden parties.

Who would like this blend? This is a proper fruity tea, so tea drinkers that enjoy tangy fruit and hibiscus teas would like it both cold and hot.

The post Can You Liquify Eton Mess? Eton Mess Tea Dedicated to the Favourite British Dessert appeared first on All That Tea.