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Tasting this one for the first time since bringing it back from France! Since it promises marzipan and biscuit flavours I’m holding off on a treat on the side of this one in case it interferes with the tea ;D

The aroma is really complex, slightly fruity or floral but there’s a hint of something else in there— likely the poppy as I’ve never tried a tea with poppy in before. On the first sip it’s really quite floral. Cornflowers and peonies and what might be the poppy are wonderfully bold on the first sip, and beyond that… rich vanilla and a stubborn almond aftertaste on the tongue! The more you drink the more the floral flavours give way and settle into the cakiness instead, and with a touch of milk, it’s like a luxurious dessert.

The marzipan and biscuit aren’t as strong as the flowers, as advertised, but it’s a wonderful cup nonetheless! Next time I’ll try to get fewer flowers in the cup to see how it compares…

And speaking of strawberries and cream teas; here’s a new one from Whittards in the revamped range of herbal and fruit infusions.

I was expecting this to be strong, bold, fruity and sweet the way the loose Strawberry Rooibos I already have is. Rooibos tends to work well with wholesome red fruit like this, and it was pleasantly sweet, but this time round I think I may have oversteeped it (3~7 minutes on the packet is a little too wide a scope!).

Bizarrely the vanilla was what let down the overall harmony of strawberry and rooibos by making it sickly instead. It tastes artificial and pungent rather than natural and sweet, the way Twinings does it in their strawberry & vanilla rooibos— I even added milk to the brew to try to cancel it out, but no to avail. I think it might even have made the vanilla worse. More than a touch of vanilla, it’s an unfortunate swamping in an otherwise brilliant combination. Well, I gave it a go, but I’ll stick to the non-vanilla version!

It slipped my mind to review this the first however many times I tried this; so this last tasting’s from memory!

There’s a little bit of a story behind how I came across this. After I realised I could use my staff discount at /any/ Whittard store I came back to London, to the Covent Garden branch specifically, for some loose-leaf tea shopping (loose-leaf tea caddies aren’t available at our branch). A certain gentleman working the desk on the first floor named Adam served me as I was looking for the strawberries and cream pu-erh they have on the website— and don’t sell in the shops, unfortunately— but instead recommended me this oolong. Later he revealed he drinks it as his breakfast tea with a croissant.

Thing is, it’s called milky but it’s much more /buttery/, so it would complement a buttery croissant very well in my view— not that I’ve tried that combination yet! Brewed lightly, it runs thick and smooth and wholesome through the mouth, brewed more strongly, it’s more akin to green tea with notes of that creaminess in the fresh taste. The scent is incredible, too, plus the leaves are rolled up in such a way that they unfold spectacularly large when brewed and are good for a couple more top-ups.

Last time I had this it turned out more green-y— I have yet to perfect my brewing times for this one!

After having been through a variety of other companies’ teas, Whittard of Chelsea’s remains still one of the more well-rounded, delicate ones. Somehow I’d thought due to kickstarting my tea obsession with Twinings that I could only tolerate Earl Grey very, very strong— but even brewed strongly this tea tastes delicate, even flowery, and takes milk pretty well! Lightly with a little lemon is delightful, too, but there’s more to this tea than just its ‘light’ taste. It’s a distinctive bergamot flavour that accompanies the black base rather than becoming overpowering alongside it.

Tried this in a darling little tea salon in Perpignan of the Languedoc-Roussillon region of France. As I’ve been craving a green tea with peach flavour I went for this one, and was pleasantly surprised by the flavour! It isn’t strongly peachy, both for the fact it’s beautifully mixed with a mellow cantaloupe melon flavour that gives it a lot of depth, and it didn’t scald or go bitter quite as quickly as green tea tends to in the pot, for the amount I was served. Rather light, and the green base was still noticeable beneath the whole fruit notes.

Last time I tried this it was loose-leaf, brewed strong in a tearoom… Since my friend went to study in Calgary and brought me back a tin of this, however, I’ve been trying it from teabags.

My gf usually has this with milk and the idea is just /strange/ to me considering the white wine taste, but… I think she might have the right idea because black, it’s a little difficult to get to just the right strength and flavour! That’s for next time.

I always find Betty’s tea very light for the supposed amount of tea used per cup (the leaves are always rolled tightly, full orange pekoe) so in order to get the most out of the orange, lemon and cinnamon flavour, I brewed it with 1 and a half teaspoons for longer than usual and added soy milk… A real treat! The citrus doesn’t resist added milk at all and it’s an altogether warming, sweet flavour with the cinnamon softening the fruit.

First genmaicha I’d ever tasted, to be honest, in Orpington’s tearoom Mystic Brew. Since then I’ve tried other brands, like the Neal’s Yard Tea Emporium brand, but the bancha they used always seemed a bit lacking, a bit too sharp. This one comes out a beautiful green colour rather then the typical gold of green teas, the bancha is light and the rice really adds a kind of fullness to the flavour. Also, it seems to be a bit more hardy against boiling water and less easy to scald than most green tea blends! Always amazing.

Usually for breakfast I tend to have a green tea rather than a black English breakfast tea, and a 50-bag box lasts a long time (compared to 20 bags in Twinings boxes) but… this is really difficult to make in teabags.

I’ve tried everything from using water off the boil, adding cool water, taking the teabag out early, brewing it at a cooler temperature than usual, brewing it in a big mug; nothing seems to stop it tasting bitter, acrid and scalded. Even following the directions (“brewed lightly” for a pale gold colour— you have to take the teabag out after a few seconds or it’ll turn brown and bitter) doesn’t help. It might just be a dilemma concerning the teabag tea, since I haven’t tried the loose-leaf version, but it’s disappointing.

In previous experience of Whittard’s Earl Grey blend I found it rather weak, probably in comparison to the Earl Grey I usually drink (the old blend in Twinings teabags, which can get incredibly strong very quickly); but since I didn’t bring any Earl Grey to uni and the new Twinings blend doesn’t sit well with me, I thought I’d give it a shot.

It’s definitely not as weak as I’d remembered! It just needs a little while to brew fully, and takes milk very well. The balance between the black tea and the bergamot is great (and it smells divine; the temptation to just leave a box of it open in my room… XD)— a definite favourite.