Delhaize

Ever since my childhood – when my mother more or less forced me to drink herbal teas she would blend herself – I kind of avoided these infusions. Did I have my fair share already, or do I just not like the taste of them? I prefer to think that most of the time both of explanations apply. Maybe there are exceptions like a sweet mint tea as you can get in a Maroccan restaurant, or a very fragrant thyme infusion to help digestion.
Delhaize´s “No Stress” is one of the infusions available in their “Well Being – Caring Moments” range and is built around some “lemony” herbs like lemongrass and lemonbalm. These are clearly present in the smell. I see on the packet other ingredients I cannot easily identify : apple (!), fennel and lemon as well as natural lemon aroma. Fortunately (for me) the resulting infusion isn´t at all citrusy, it stays herbal with a discrete lemony touch. Not exactly my cup of tea, but I can imagine a herbal tea fan liking this one. Personally I think it´s a nice cup to enjoy before going to bed.
Individually wrapped tea bags have the extra advantage you can easily take them with you, and they stay fresh longer. So I might use them before their “best before” date (8/2018) after all ;-)

Delhaize´s take on a green tea where the herbal notes are covered up with – very discrete – fruity notes. It stays very “easy drinking”, for the big public. Although I´m not too much into green teas, I quite like this “no nonsense” approach and I´m happy the coconut flavour is limited. No stuff for the green tea aficionados, I´m afraid : too little complexity comes from the green tea in this aromatised tea. The recommended steeping time on the pack is 3 minutes, which I find a bit on the short side.

English breakfast teas are not necessarily very fragrant nor distinctively tasty, but tend to be easy to enjoy in the morning, and especially combine well with a hearty breakfast. Delhaize´s English Breakfast is a tea that doesn´t turn bitter with (steeping) time, but it doesn´t thrill me either…I tried it a few times, changing steeping time and water temperature, but the resulting cup was always a rather neutrally tasting brew. I guess I will finish the box and find another English breakfast tea to enjoy!

Not too keen about green teas as in general they don´t seem to give me the necessary full flavour I get from black teas, but I like jasmine tea : not only how it smells, but also the rich taste of it. Delhaize offers a very decent jasmine/green tea in high quality tea pyramids, and I really enjoyed drinking it. Maybe not as good as the jasmine tea I once had in a tea house in one of the gardens of Suzhou, but when you just want to make yourself a quick cup, this is a sure pick!

Loose tea from Delhaize´s “So Dessert” collection. The spiced tea addition (cinnamon, orange peel etc) to this rooibos infusion makes it tastier than standard rooibos tea, as far as I am concerned. Cinnamon is not overwhelming, which is a good point. More than a dessert tea (indicated on tin) a winter tea, but it can also be used to add a taste to boiled milk or cream when making ice cream or a pudding (didn´t try this). Better than I had predicted.

I´m one of Delhaize´s tea ambassadors and got sent a few different teas from Delhaize´s new tea collection. This “White tea” is part of the “100% for tea lovers” subdivision.
As stated on the label, the tea has a wooden, soft character with subtle presence of licorice.

I´m not a huge Chai tea fan, to say the least : every single time I drink a Chai tea I seem to get fed up with the cinnamon taste after 2 sips, because I rather like cinnamon…in very small doses! I received these tea bags as a surprise gift over Christmas and although this Chai is quite “weak”, I think it might be enjoyable with a piece of chocolate cake, but that´s about it.