The Friday Review....Harrods Spiced Black Tea

Hello there,

We hope you've had a tea-riffic week!

Today is Friday yet again.....so here on the Friday Review we are sharing another tea with you. This week it's the turn of the Harrods Christmas tea, which is a spiced black tea.

Recently I was extremely lucky to receive The Christmas Carol hamper from Harrods as a rather wonderful gift (I am so lucky - the sheer delight of unpacking the hamper was immense!). The hamper comes in a large hat box and contains rather a lot of goodies....

Harrods Christmas Carol Hamper

Once I had wrestled the lid off the box I discovered the scrummy treats inside included:

Spiced Omni-Grind Coffee

Spiced Black Loose Leaf Tea

Honey & Clementine Biscuits with Golden Sparkle

Winter Spiced Biscuits with Golden Sparkle

Clementine & Sweet Orange Marmalade

Spiced Pear & Madagascan Vanilla Jam

Brandy Butter with Courvoisier VS Cognac

Classic Christmas Pudding

......and a fabulous glossy Harrods red Christmas Bauble!

Harrods Christmas Carol Hamper

I got quite excited when I saw the Christmas inspired tea and decided I would try it straight away!

This is a black tea black tea from Sri Lanka which has been mixed with spices including cinnamon, cloves, orange and ginger, to create a truly festive blend. 

I decided this needed to be drunk in my Spode Christmas teacup with a mince pie (or two) to really appreciate the experience.....

Harrods Christmas Spiced Black Tea

I have to say I love this tea!

As you probably all know by now I LOVE Christmas! I love the food, the music, the films, the drinks....everything! But sometimes the Christmas teas I have enjoyed haven't been the best, the balance of spice isn't quite right or sometimes the spice is overpower. 

This cup of tea however was perfect - the black tea is bright and lively, strong enough to balance out the spices. And the spices in the blend have been well picked - this really is a fab cup of Christmas tea....I am slightly disappointed at how small the tin is....I think a trip into London might be required!

And just in case there weren't enough sweet treats in this post....take another peek at the homemade mince pies I enjoyed with my tea.....

Homemade mince pies from Tea With Me and Friends

For more information about this festive tea pop by the Harrods website.

Do you have a favourite Christmas tea? Why not leave us a comment and tell us all about it!

Thank you for popping by today,

Rachel

Tried and Tested....Homemade Cold Brewed Tea with a little help from Whittard

Hello there,

Welcome back to another tried and tested tea article from Tea With Me and Friends. Recently I was invited to try out the Cold Brew T Bottle from Whittard which has been designed to make cold brewed loose leaf tea to be enjoyed at home.

Cold brewing at home!

Having not tried cold brewed tea before I was rather intrigued by the end results. On reading more about the process I found out that a cold, slow infusion produces a brew with reduced tannins and therefore a smoother, less bitter taste. Perfect for summer picnics, but also enjoyable with meals at anytime during the year as the tea tends to be really refreshing.

The Whittard Cold Brew T Bottle makes the whole process of cold brewing at home incredibly simple, with five simple steps....

1) Add 15g (5-7 teaspoons) of your favourite loose leaf tea to the bottle (fruit and herbal infusions are not suitable for use with cold brew)

2) Fill the bottle to the mark with cold water.

3) Add the lid/spout

4) Let the tea brew in the fridge for 3-6 hours

5) Serve and enjoy 

As well as the bottle Whittard also sent me some Mango & Bergamot loose leaf tea to try as a cold brew. This was a blend that I haven't tried before, but have become a huge fan of. It's a naturally sweet green tea, blended with mango and a hint of bergamot. 

Cold Brew T Bottle - Whittard

I followed the simple instructions above, putting 6 teaspoons of the leaves into my bottle before adding cold water. I then left the bottle in the fridge for about four hours to infuse before trying the brew. There is a clever filter in the lid which allows you to pour directly from the bottle into your teacup of choice.

The Whittard Cold Brew T Bottle

Not really knowing what to expect from a cold tea brew (and not being a huge fan of iced coffee) I was pleasantly surprised by the end results. The tea was a bright, clear green-yellow colour when poured out of the bottle, and no tea leaves made it into the cup. The flavour of the Mango & Bergamot blend was clear and smooth and very refreshing...definitely something I would drink again.

I am looking forward to trying more tea varieties from my cupboard in the future.

The bottle itself is elegant in design and sits neatly in my fridge. I think this would make a lovely present for the tea-lover in your life who already has lots of tea accessories and is looking for something a little different.

To find out more about the Cold Brew T Bottle visit the Whittard website. I'd like to thank Whittard for sending me the Cold Brew T Bottle. Please note that although I have received this product all opinions expressed are my own.

Do you have a favourite tea gadget that you think we should know about? Is your infuser the best? We'd love to hear about how you blend your teas at home and whether you've tried a cold brew before!

Thanks for popping by today,

Rachel

Tried and Tested.....Williamson Tea - Traditional Afternoon

Hello there,

Welcome back to another tried and tested tea article from Tea With Me and Friends, today we'd like to share with you a lovely Traditional Afternoon tea from Williamson Tea.

Now I first discovered Williamson Tea when wandering the tea aisle in a Supermarket, I was approached by a lady who couldn't reach the tea on the top shelf and she asked if I could reach a box for her. It turned out to be Williamson Tea, which she heartily recommended. The tea was on offer at the time and I thought "why not!", so I bought my first box of Traditional Afternoon tea! I am so pleased that the lady passed on this recommendation, as this is definitely one of my "go to" teas!

Williamson Tea are a family owned business who grow, select and blend their teas in Kenya on four different family owned farms. They tea comes in lovely silver cartons, loose leaf caddies and also fabulous elephant tea caddies.

Traditional Afternoon tea from
Williamson Tea

Their range includes a breakfast tea, an afternoon tea, a green tea, an earl grey and some of their own blends to name a few. My favourite has to be their Traditional Afternoon tea, as its easy to drink with a good flavour. The website calls it a classic afternoon tea, with good body. I love the golden colour that it has.

A nice cup of tea with Tea With Me and Friends!

In regards to cost, the tea bags are £2.49 for 50 bags or you can buy 100g of loose leaf tea for £4.05. You can also buy wonderful elephant tea caddies which start from just under £7 for a medium caddie.

Find out more about the range on the Williamson Tea website.

If you have any teas you think we should try, please get in touch!

Thanks for popping by today,

Rachel

Tried and Tested Tea....Bellevue Tea

Hello there,

Welcome to a new series of articles from Tea With Me and Friends - since it's tea month in March we thought we'd start sharing some tried and tested articles with you. If you read our resolutions post at the beginning of the year you'll know that I wanted to spend some time in 2014 learning about tea and trying out different types of tea.

In these "tried and tested" articles I will be sharing with you some of the teas I have tried and what I thought about them!

I'm kicking off with several different teas from bellevue Tea, which is an independently owned family business based in London. Bellevue was founded by Clare Jones and her tea trader husband Mike...both have a love of tea a an extensive knowledge which helps them source high quality tea.

Clare and Mike very kindly got in touch with me and sent us some lovely tea to try out......

A selection of Bellevue Tea

We were really spoilt by bellevue who sent us Ceylon black tea bags, Rooibos tea bags and a pouch of the bellevue belter (a strong, loose leaf blend). The teabags all come neatly packed in a box, each is stringed and has a tag - there are 25 individually wrapped bags in each box. The bellevue belter comes in pouches of either 100g or 500g.

Nicely packaged bellevue tea

I decided to start my tea tasting with a cup of Rooibos tea......which proved to be a lovely, rich and smooth "red bush" tea. The tea had a gorgeous mahogany-red colour, and a slightly sweet flavour. I drank my cup without milk or sugar/honey...but you can add all of these to taste.

A tasty cup of bellevue tea rooibos tea

This tea costs £2.50 for 25 individually wrapped teabags.

The next tea I tried was the Ceylon black tea, which was also in teabag form. Now, I am a bit of a fan of  Ceylon tea, I love the refreshing flavour and its often my default choice when I am out for a spot of tea!

A Tea With Me and Friends favourite - a nice cup of Ceylon tea!

bellevue tea's Ceylon tea is hand-picked in Sri Lanka and has a lovely, fresh taste. Again, I enjoyed my cup black without any sweetener. This tea is also £2.50 for 25 individually wrapped teabags.

That just left me the bellevue belter to try, which is the bellevue house blend tea. This tea got its unusual name when a friend of bellevue tea was drinking it on holiday declared that it was ‘a real early morning belter’. This is a good strong blend, including teas from India and Africa.

A belter of a cup! May I introduce the bellevue belter!

Now I read all about this tea on the bellevue website and decided I would enjoy this tea first thing in the morning as an alternate to the cup of the coffee that I sometimes require to kick start my day! The tea had a wonderful aroma to it and was a lovely dark colour. It turns out that I'm quite a fan of stronger teas and this was a lovely cup of tea! Not too overpowering, I really enjoyed my cup of belter!

The bellevue belter is available as a loose leaf tea at £3.00 for 100g and £12.60 for 500g.

I really enjoyed my tea adventures with bellevue teas (thank you again for spoiling us!) - if you'd like to know more about the teas available pop by the bellevue tea website.

If you have tried any of these teas we'd love to know what you thought!

Thank you for popping by today,

Rachel