Festive Round Up - BRUU Tea Advent Calendar

Hello there,

Welcome back to Tea With Me and Friends.

If you love tea as much as we do here at Tea With Me and Friends Towers then we might have found something you'll love this December.......the BRUU Tea Advent Calendar which is filled with their  gourmet loose teas!

BRUU Tea advent calendar

You’ll get a mix of different teas in your advent calendar, which might include black, green, oolong, white, chai, fruit, herbal, mate and rooibos. If you’re lucky you may even find some of BRUU's most popular teas like:- If Terry’s Did Rooibos, Festive Warmer, Biscotti Black, The Earl of Winter, Mango Loves Yogurt, Lemon Meets Ginger Green, Lullaby Dreamcatcher, Liquorice Dream, Emperors Seven Treasures, Jasmine Green…

What you'll get?

25 fresh gourmet loose teas in number packs, with enough tea in each for 2-4 cups.

Twine and mini pegs (to hang your calendar!)

Surprises along the way

Stainless steel tea egg infuser

Tea coaster

Tea guide

Our teas

BRUU pride themselves on creating unique loose tea packed with only the finest natural ingredients. So, expect to find things like whole raspberries, orange segments, rose petals and fresh liquorice in their teas!

To find out more about the advent calendar pop by the BRUU tea website.

Thank you for popping by today,

Rachel & Lorna

Festive Round Up - Bluebird Tea Co

Hello there,

We hope you're feeling tea-riffic today! Here at Tea With Me and Friends towers we've been sampling more festive tea from the latest Bluebird Tea Co collection....plus pulling a rather special cracker!

 Let's start with the tea....which is called Snowball...

Yes....you've read the box right.....there is marshmallows in there! And cacao and coconut....all blended with black tea! 

Bluebird Tea's most famous Christmas tea blend even scooped a Great Taste Award this year, so I knew I was in for a treat!

This blend includes Ceylon black tea, coconut pieces, cacao bean, cocoa shells, desiccated coconut, mini marshmallows, chocolate chips and red cornflowers and it looks sooooo cute....

Bluebird Tea Co - Snowball teabag

Just look at those mini marshmallows!!!

This tea is brewed for up to four minutes and can be enjoyed with or without milk. I went for it without milk and enjoyed a really lovely cuppa! The tea when brewed has a lovely warm amber colour and smells sweet.

The tea also has a sweet and coconutty flavour, but not too sweet....in fact it's quite hard to describe the flavour. So hard that I took some teabags into my colleagues for them to try too....they also enjoyed the tea, but couldn't describe the flavour properly either! 

It's a bit like a party in your mouth when you drink this tea....it's a bit sweet with a spark of coconut and a hint of chocolate. More than anything it's warming and makes me smile!

Bluebird Tea Co - a cup of snowmall and a dinky mince pie

Bluebird Tea Co also has a creamy Snowball latte recipe on their website at the moment, take a peek here!

This week we've also been getting ready for Christmas by pulling a tea-riffic Christmas cracker....a cracker that contains tea!

Bluebird Tea Co Cracker......yes, there is tea in there!

Each box contains six of these tea-riffic crackers - inside the crackers you'll find a paper hat, an individually sealed Bluebird tea bag and a tea related joke. Perfect for tea lovers everywhere!

Now for the important bit......the snap is great! When you pull the cracker it makes a lovely, satisfying "snap"! I was also impressed with the contents....yep....more lovely Bluebird Tea....

For more information about the crackers pop by the Bluebird Tea Co website.

We'd like to thank Bluebird Tea Co for sending us their festive tea collection - pop back soon to see more festive teas!

Thank you for popping by today,

Rachel

Time for a little festive cheer!

Hello there,

Welcome back to Tea With Me and Friends - we're feeling a bit festive over here at Tea With Me Towers!  Mainly because we've received some quite tea-riffic post recently.....

Festive tea from Bluebird Tea Co

Christmas cake in a jar from Angel's Kitchen

Yep, that's a box of Christmas tea from the Bluebird Tea Co and a scrummy little Christmas cake in a jar from Angel's Kitchen. I love post days like these!

Over the weekend I decided to sample mt first Bluebird tea from their festive range......and to tuck into that Christmas cake too (don't worry I resisted putting the Christmas music on!). I opted for the Mulled Cider tea first, as I've had a bit of a cold recently and wanted something comforting.

Tea & Cake the perfect combination!

This fruit infusion includes apple pieces, ginger, rosehip, hibiscus, cinnamon, cloves, lemon peel, flavour. The blend smells just like Christmas - it's warm and spicy and looks really pretty...

Mulled Cider tea from Bluebird Tea Co

You need to allow this blend to brew for four minutes, but it's worth the wait. Once brewed you have a really pretty cup of red tea (perfect for the festive season!), which has a wonderful cinnamon aroma.

The taste is slightly fruity, with hints of cinnamon. Its a lovely, warming cuppa - definitely perfect for the colder months. A bit like a hug in a mug! 

And I can confirm it went really well with the cake from Angel's Kitchen...

Mulled cider tea from Bluebird Tea Co and
Christmas cake from Angel's Kitchen!

The cake can be delivered to friends or family (or yourself!) as a cute little Christmas gift! It arrives at your home, well packed in a jar with a little spoon so you can tuck in straight away! 

Angel's Bakery uses local, natural and organic ingredients in all their baking. Want to know what's inside the cake....the jar comes complete with an ingredients label and best before date (just look at that date....mine will be gone long before next July!)

The cake has a generous layer of icing on top, as well as a layer of marzipan....

The fruit cake itself is lovely - it's light and moist and full of fruit. A really lovely Christmas cake! There is also plenty of cake in that little jar - definitely plenty to share if you are feeling nice!

The jars are available at £8.95 each plus £3.50 P&P from the Angel's Kitchen Facebook page

The team at Bluebird Tea Co also suggest adding a slug of dark rum to your mulled cider tea if you fancy something a little more warming.....I can also confirm that this is a very good suggestion! 

To find out more about the festive range at Bluebird Tea Co pop by their website......we'll be sharing more of the teas with you over the coming weeks as we work our way through that box!

We'd like to than both the Bluebird Tea Co and Angel's Kitchen for sending us their Christmas goodies! 

Thank you for popping by today,

Rachel

Time for a Cup of Christmas Tea....

Hello there,

Welcome back to another post from Tea With Me and Friends - I'm sorry that we've been a little slow to post articles this month, time is escaping us at the moment....we're really pleased that the Christmas break is just around the corner!

Today I wanted to share with you a festive cup of tea that was given to me by the lovely Claire from The Secret Tea Society. If you haven't heard about the Society before, we are a bunch of tea loving ladies who meet up to enjoy a spot of afternoon tea and a good natter. Take a peek at one of our recent afternoon tea trips here.

The tea that Claire gave me was a little Christmas gift....

Kent & Sussex Christmas Tea

Now as regularly readers will know, we love trying new teas here at Tea With Me and Friends and we're also a rather festive bunch....so we could wait to try this tea! I took a peek at the Kent & Sussex Tea & Coffee Company to find out a little more about this festive blend. The words "exotic Fruit Tisane" feature, as do "wonderful aroma with a powerful spicy taste". It certainly smelt wonderful when we first opened the bag.....like Christmas had been trapped in that bag!

The tisane reminded me of a pretty pot pourri...

the instructions suggests leaving this blend to brew for 10-12 minutes, but to be honest we poured a little sooner than that....

The result was a beautiful red tea, which smelt like Christmas and tasted quite wonderful. The flavour is spicy, I could tastes cloves mainly, but it wasn't overpowering or artificial. In fact it made a rather lovely cup of Christmas tea.

I did try it cold as well as hot (but accident) and can confirm that it better enjoyed hot!

If you would like to try this tea for yourself pop by the Kent & Sussex Tea & Coffee Company website for more details.

As it's the festive season, Claire and some of the Secret Tea Society ladies have a little festive treat for you.... we hope it puts you in the festive mood!

If you'd like to find out more about the Secret Tea Society pop by their website.

Thank you for popping by today,

Rachel & Lorna

Time for a cup of Christmas tea!

Hello there,

Welcome back to another tried and tested tea article from Tea With Me and Friends. Since it's the festive season, I thought I would try a little Christmas tea this time!

A little while ago when I was wandering around a gift shop in Rye, I discovered this particular brand of Christmas inspired tea and was intrigued to try it (yes the fab packaging tempted me!) ....

Brewhoho Christmas Tea

Now with such claims as it's like “Mulled Wine in a tea cup”....I had to give it a go! Although I have to admit, at this time of year I reach for slightly more festive cups than my usual teacups....

Christmas tea

Yes, I do agree that it seems a bit mean to make hot drinks in a cute little snowman like this....but I have to put him to good use! 

So, what makes this a Christmas tea I hear you cry....well the ingredients include... Pure Ceylon Black Tea, Cinnamon, Ginger, Peppermint, Cardamom, Pepper, Vanilla flavour and Chai flavour. Is your mouth watering yet??

Now, I'm not sure if you have heard of Brewhaha, the company responsible for this tea, but you have probably seen their quirky packaging. Brewhaha Tea was launched in 2004 after founder Joanne McLeod was tired of seeing tea marketed in dowdy grey and brown boxes and decided to create a fun loving brand with a retro style.

Brewhaha teas are made using Sri Lankan tea, which is also packaged in Sri Lanka which adds to it's freshness.

Brewhaha have an extensive range of teas on offer through stockists and in their online shop...including teas such as the "Super Happiness Tea" which is a Green Tea with vanilla & cherry marigold, which sounds scrummy! To find out more pop by their website.

Now back to the reason we are here....the Christmas tea....

Brewhaha Tea with a Christmas twist

This brew was actually really refreshing and not at all over powering (which thought it might be). The flavours are balanced well and really remind me of the festive season....a lovely cup of tea.

Looking on the website today, unfortunately all the Christmas tea has already sold...but keep your eyes peeled as you might find it in one of their stockists!

Have you tried this Christmas tea....or do you already have a personal favourite? If so we'd love to hear from you...and we'd love to give your favourite a try! Please leave us a comment below!

Thanks for popping by today,

Rachel & Lorna