The Romantic – Strawberry Champagne White Tea by Tea and the Gang

What to expect from beautiful tea leaves, but a beautiful cup of tea too. Strawberry Champagne white tea, a blend to win you over with its charm, and to be loved back, comes from Tea and a Gang, a UK based company with amazingly interesting blends.

Does The Romantic deserve its name?

What is Strawberry Champagne White Tea?

The Romantic or the Strawberry Champagne tea is a blend of many ingredients – Bai Mu Dan white tea, apple pieces rosehip, hibiscus, elderflowers, freeze-dried strawberries, orange blossoms, lime leaves and natural flavouring. It's a beautiful blend, with an equally beautiful scent – vibrantly fruity, perfectly zesty, and topped with strawberry notes.

What is Bai Mu Dan?

Bai Mu Dan is a Chinese white tea that contains leaves, silver tips and stalks. It's a pretty tea, and colours may range from green/grey to brown/grey, depending on the grade. Seeing a beautiful long green leaves in a Bai Mu Dan blend is a good sign the tea will be gentle. In fact, it's a great sign in general, as white tea blends sometimes lower quality white teas with a strong hay and stale flavour.

How to brew the Romantic?

We used 2 teaspoon of tea leaves per cup of water and steeped it for 3 minutes at 80 degrees Celsius.

Strawberry Champagne definitely deserves its name – it's light with a light slightly acidic finish, full but light floral body, a beautiful gentle strawberry scent and a light sweet aftertaste.

The colour of brewed tea may vary, from delicate light yellow (which shows that the Bai Mu Dan used for making this blend is a carefully chosen one) to dark crimson, depending on which ingredients you scoop out and how long you will brew it for. There's no bitterness or those strong hay notes often present in Bai Mu Dan blends.

This is a tea that doesn't need any condiments. It's delicious on its own. If you want to use it for making an iced tea, use 2 teaspoons of leaves and brew it for 5-7 minutes. It won't get bitter, but it will get stronger, with a darker crimson colour. Why crimson? This blend contains hibiscus too, which will always give an intense colour.

Although this is a white tea blend, white tea accounts for 30% of the ingredients. The Romantic would be great for tea drinkers that like flavoured and fruity, rather than pure white teas.

The Romantic is available as loose tea and in pyramid tea bags.