What’s in The Butler?

Remember The Pinup, a classic vanilla black tea with an alluring vanilla scent and flavour? It wasn’t only the quality black tea and vanilla pieces that made it so good. Calendula petals and jasmine flowers made it pretty, too. The Butler is following the same recipe – great Ceylon black tea leaves flavoured with natural bergamot flavour and a few carefully chosen ingredients – sunflower petals and lime leaves.  

It’s available in as loose tea in pyramid tea bags and pouches. Tea bags contain a very generous quantity of loose tea and enough space for tea leaves to expand. Although there’s a lot of difference between tea bags and loose tea, in this case, the only difference between loose tea and tea bags is the brewing method. Quality is the same for both.

This tea has a very intense bergamot scent and a deep black tea base. It’s sharp and aromatic with a touch of sweetness. Freshness comes from Ceylon black tea, which is typically brisker and brighter than many other black teas.

What does it taste like?

To make a cup of this tea, bring fresh water to a boil and steep 1 tea bag or 1 teaspoon of tea leaves in a cup of water for 3-4 minutes.

Even though the scent is very intense, it’s a very mellow tea. Bergamot is not overpowering, not dominant. It perfectly balances the black tea base and offers an unmistakable earl grey flavour. However, it may be good to pay attention to the brewing time, as over brewing may reveal some astringency.

Because of the fresher Sri Lankan black tea as the base, this tea is great for adding either milk or lemon. A splash of milk will mellow down any potential astringency and add a creamy touch, with an aromatic bergamot bottom note and a hint of lime leaves. This also makes it an excellent breakfast or afternoon tea. Honey is the best sweetener for this tea, especially if you add lemon. With milk, you could even avoid sweeteners as the milk itself will add enough natural sweetness. However, you don’t need to add any condiments, as this tea doesn’t really need any.

This earl grey would be an amazing iced milk tea, hot earl grey lattes including London Fog, and it would be equally great for making iced teas with lemon. It’s a perfect choice for making earl grey based drinks.

It has just the right balance of bergamot and black tea. If you love traditional earl grey, you’ll like this tea too.

Tea Recap

Water or milk? Water or milk

Day or night? Day

Hot or iced? Hot or cold

Sweetened or pure? Pure or sweetened

Caffeine? Yes

What’s the price? From £3.49 (different options available)

Where to buy? Get it from Tea and the Gang website or Amazon

The post The Butler – Earl Grey from Tea and the Gang appeared first on All That Tea.

What’s in Basilur Jasmine Green Tea

Classic jasmine green tea is made with Chinese green tea leaves, scented with fresh jasmine flowers. This process is repeated until the tea is fragrant enough, and all flowers are removed. Today, there are different ways of making jasmine green tea. Some blends may contain dried jasmin blossoms, other are flavoured with natural flavourings. Scenting and flavouring are different processes that result in different flavours as well.

So what’s in Basilur Jasmine green tea? First, it’s made with Ceylon (Sri Lankan) green tea, rather than Chinese tea. Next, this tea is flavoured with a natural jasmine flavour, rather than scented. And you’ll see both things immediately upon opening the pouch.

The first thing you’ll notice is an intense sweet jasmine scent. There’s no deep smokiness like with many other jasmine green teas. Instead, it’s very sweet and floral, on the verge of being perfumy. As it is extremely strong, this scent may not be for everyone. However, it’s also extremely pleasant and inviting.

How does it taste?

To make a cup of jasmine green tea, bring fresh water to a boil and let it cool down to 80-85 degrees Celsius. Use 1 heaped teaspoon or 1 tea bag per cup of water and steep for 2-3 minutes.

This tea has a very perfumy flavour that feels sweet. There’s absolutely no bitterness at all in this tea. It feels very delicate, which is quite uncommon for jasmine green tea, especially tea bags. Classic tea bags contain dust and small leaf particles and often result in a bitter and strong infusion.

Green tea in this blend is light, and the jasmine flavour is lighter than the scent might suggest. However, it’s strong enough to serve it iced. It would be a perfect treat for spring and summer afternoon tea parties.

If you love the scent of jasmine, especially jasmine essential oils, rather than classic jasmine teas, you will love this tea, too. In fact, even if you don’t like classic jasmine teas, you may find this tea inviting. This tea would appeal to those that like strong flavours, but don’t like the bitterness common in jasmine green teas. It’s quite surprising for a jasmine green tea in a traditional tea bag not to have any bitterness at all. However, if you don’t like perfumy blends, you won’t like Basilur’s jasmine green tea, either.

Tea Recap

Water or milk? Water

Day or night? Day

Hot or iced? Hot or iced

Sweetened or pure? Pure or with honey

Caffeine? Yes

Where to buy? Get it from Amazon.

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What is Strawberry Velvet Cake tea?

Strawberry Velvet Cake tea from Ahmad Tea is a black tea blend of Assam and Sri Lankan teas, rose petals and strawberry and vanilla sponge cake flavouring. Two different black teas make sure this blend is both full-bodied and bright. Assam in India is famous for black teas that are typically malty and strong and are often served with a splash of milk. Sri Lankan teas, on the other hand, are brisk and fresh, with less body but more floral and fruity notes. Together, they make a wonderful pair that brews into a cup that’s substantial, but with specific lightness. Sounds like a perfectly baked cake, doesn’t it?

Strawberry Velvet Cake is a loose tea in pyramid tea bags that allow enough space for tea leaves to fully expand. Dry leaves have a beautiful gentle strawberry and buttery notes over stronger black tea base, and that’s what you’ll notice immediately upon opening the box.  

Pyramid tea bags are a great option if you want to enjoy loose tea but don’t have a teapot or want to make a cup of tea instantly.

What does it taste like?

Since Strawberry Velvet Cake tea is a black tea blend, brew it using freshly boiled and steep no more than 5 minutes. This tea may become bitter if over-brewed. 3 minutes will accentuate the delicate fruity and buttery notes, without making it astringent or bitter.

The first thing you will notice is an intense strawberry scent immediately as you start steeping it. This will develop into a lighter flavour, predominantly a malty and brisk black tea, with gentle strawberry and buttery notes. It brews into a stronger cuppa with red-brown colour.

Before you even take that first sip, the colour of the tea will tell you if it will go well with milk. Teas with darker red-brown colour will usually (but not always) be better for adding milk than those with bright orange or orange-brown colour.

Strawberry Velvet Cake is not an overpowering or sweet tea, but it doesn’t need any condiments either. However, it’s a full-bodied and rich tea that is perfect for adding some milk and sugar. Even better, serve it with half a teaspoon of coffee creamer and sweeten with some strawberry jam.

If you love lightly flavoured black teas, where black tea is still a dominant flavour, but elevated with additional flavour notes, you will like this tea too. It’s not a fruity blend, it’s a delicate, full-bodied afternoon tea blend that you can enjoy with different condiments or pure. It’s a great tea for tea drinkers that want to replace their regular afternoon cuppa with a light dessert blend that is not too overpowering and has a really interesting scent and flavour. Because of the strength, this tea would be great for breakfast teatime as well.

Tea Recap

Water or milk? Water or milk.

Day or night? Day.

Hot or iced? Hot or latte.

Sweetened or Pure? Pure or with a teaspoon of strawberry jam or honey.

Caffeine? Yes

What’s the price? Starting from 4.00 GBP.

Where to buy? Get Strawberry Velvet Cake from Ahmad Tea website or Ahmad Tea Amazon store.

The post Strawberry Velvet Cake Dessert Tea from Ahmad Tea appeared first on All That Tea.

What is Brewdolph?

What makes Christmas tea a Christmas tea are spices, berries, nuts and citruses blended with a tea base. By looking at the ingredients, Brewdolph is not just a simple spiced black tea Christmas blend. First, it contains an interesting black tea pair, Ceylon and Yunnan black tea, and some quite uncommon ingredients (at least in tea blends) such as lime leaves and pomegranate flowers. And then, there are classic festive ingredients – cloves, cinnamon, red peppercorns and orange peel. In this blend, a lighter and brighter Ceylon black tea is blended with stronger and maltier chocolaty Yunnan tea. Pomegranate flowers can be used for making a pure herbal tea but are far less common than a pomegranate fruit tea. Lime leaves are common in savoury dishes and they add a refreshing citrusy flavour. If you’re looking for lightness, they are a great alternative to regular citruses.

With these ingredients, Brewdolph promises lightness, sweetness, freshness, zestiness, and spiciness – all important flavours (and more) a proper Christmas blend should have. This tea is available in different packagings and sizes, including loose leaves in pyramid tea bags and regular loose leaves in pouches or caddies.

How to brew Brewdolph tea?

Brewdolph tea has a deep, slightly spicy scent with hints of orange and cinnamon. It’s a very easy to brew tea – use one teaspoon of tea leaves or one tea bag per cup of boiling water and steep for 3-5 minutes. Pyramid tea bags are easy to brew and contain loose leaves of the same quality as loose tea in pouches. They are a perfect choice is you want a cheerful office blend to get you into the festive mood at work, too. This blend brews into a warming, sweet, just delicately spicy and very Christmas cuppa. The first thought? It’s a beautiful snowy afternoon blend for a cheerful Christmas afternoon tea party. It’s a lightly spicy tea, with no bitterness and a buttery mouthfeel. Brewdolph tea tastes great without milk and it feels like there’s an invisible milky ingredient already hiding in the blend. There are orange after notes too, and an incredible lightness and festiveness.

This is a bright and merry blend, rather than a heavily spiced tea. It’s very easy to drink, that would make a perfect festive daily tea too. What would be a great condiment for this tea? A slice of fresh orange would blend really well with all other flavour notes.

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What is Choffee Mint tea?

Choffee Mint tea is a beautiful blend crafted with Sri Lankan black tea, whole coffee beans, cocoa husks, cocoa nibs, roasted dandelion root, peppermint and flavouring. It smells delicious – deep and chocolaty, with minty note and hints of coffee. Think of dark mint chocolate but without sugary sweetness, and that’s exactly what this tea smells like.

Mint and black tea are a less common pair than mint and green tea, but they complement each other really well. The ingredients in Choffee Mint tea make it a brilliant afternoon (or after lunch) tea. Mint may help aid digestion and promote relaxation (Source: ScienceDirect) and both tea and coffee contain caffeine and may help boost energy. This makes it a perfect blend for afternoons when all you want to do is take a nap but you can’t affor it. What’s great about this tea is that it’s blended exceptionally well – all ingredients have their purpose and contribute to the flavour without being overpowering. Roasted dandelion root is often used as a coffee alternative because of its toasty and deep flavour. And then, there are also cocoa husks and cocoa nibs that give a delicate chocolate note, without extreme sweetness. Choffee Mint doesn’t contain added sugar and is suitable for vegetarians.

How to brew Choffee Mint tea?

This tea is available as loose tea in pyramid tea bags, refill pouches and caddies. Steep one teaspoon of one pyramid tea bag in a cup of water (150-200 ml) for 3-5 minutes with boiling water. Choffee Mint has an incredibly deep flavour, with only a slight astringency, dominant dark chocolate note and minty aftertaste. Coffee adds depth, but even if you are not a coffee drinker, this tea will win you over. What’s surprising is that all the ingredients in this Choffee Mint tea have a natural light bitterness, but brewed tea is not bitter at all. It tastes great with no condiments, but you can drink it with some milk and brown sugar, too. Depending on how long you steep it for, you can re-use the same tea leaves one more time. Choffee Mint is both an office blend and a dessert blend for an afternoon tea. It offers refreshment, an energy boost, a very delicious flavour, and it’s easy to brew.

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What is Toffee Apple tea?

Toffee Apple tea is a flavoured black tea blend inspired by the ultimate autumn treat – toffee, candy or caramelised apples. The traditional toffee apples are fresh apples coated in caramelised sugar often mixed with red food colouring. They are so popular that they even have their own national day – October 31st. Toffee Apples are usually available in autumn, but they are easy to make at home too. However, making a cup of toffee apple flavoured tea and adding the right condiments may be just as delicious.

Toffee Apple black tea blend from The Tea Crew is a pretty and deliciously smelling blend of Ceylon black tea, apple pieces, cherries, coriander seeds, almonds and natural flavourings. It smells sweet and fresh, with deep sweet apple base notes. Since a good apple needs not only to be sweet, but fresh and crispy too, smooth and crisp Ceylon black tea is a brilliant choice for this blend.

The best thing about liquified autumn treats is that while they are full of flavour, they are also virtually calorie free. This tea doesn’t contain any added sugar, but since it’s a black tea, it contains caffeine.

How to brew this tea?

Use 1 heaped teaspoon of tea leaves per cup of water and steep for 3-5 minutes at 100 degrees Celsius. First and foremost, this is a Ceylon black tea. It’s not an intensely flavoured blend, and the scent is lightly sweet, with deeper black tea notes. Toffee Apple is highly aromatic, but still light autumnal tea with hints of apples and sweetness. It’s not astringent or bitter and is great with no condiments.

For the ultimate experience, the best possible way to drink it is with 1 teaspoon of unsweetened condensed milk and ½ teaspoon of brown sugar. With a bit of creaminess and nutty sweetness, the result is a real liquified autumnal treat. It will still be low in calories, as adding ½ teaspoon of sugar and 1 teaspoon of condensed milk will add approximately 30 calories to this tea.

Toffee Apple is a very easy to drink tea great for tea drinkers that prefer lightly flavoured or pure teas, rather than strong flavours. It has a truly warm autumn feeling, but it’s not overpowering or heavy.

More autumnal flavours.

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