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This is another fruit tisane from Kent&Sussex : I bought a pouch of 50g to try this as an alternative ice tea. First, I give it a try hot following K&S´s steeping indications.

From K&S website : “Cherry Compote Fruit Tea is a strong, full-bodied infusion packed with an unmistakably fruity punch. It blends the indulgent aromas and flavours of cherries with those of raspberries and bananas to create a match made in heaven.
Other ingredients include apple pieces, sultanas, elderberries, coconut pieces and rose petals, all of which have something unique, indeed extraordinary, to offer.”

Already strong in nose, which is confirmed in mouth at the very first sip : as no flavourings figure in the list of ingredients, I guess the elderberry is to blame. This even overwhelms the kirsh-y cherry (I love cherries but the kirsh-like smell and taste come through, I sort of lose interest)! Needless to say, the rest (raspberry, apple…) is lost in the hot brew.
But then I put my cup aside, and had half of it when it had already cooled down quite a bit…and then the volatiles of the strong kirsh-like cherries had gone, and the blend showed more harmony! So, I guess I will like this tisane much better as an ice tea, hurray.

I´ve been brewing this tea for ice tea about twice a week for the last month, and I think the subtleties of the rhubarb get through better when drunk hot. The ice tea is nice, but it seems it´s already diluted even when I make a point to cooling the brew overnight instead of adding ice cubes… imagine doing it the latter way! It would end up as water with a slight taste and a light colour.

As I just finished one tisane (for iced tea preparation), I decided to look through my tea cupboard and I still had this tisane unopened.
I first have it hot according to the instructions by K&S T&C co (steeping time of 10-12´), and although it takes me a while to find the rhubarb, I like the colour – like the liquid when making rhubarb compote, just less viscous – at once. Hibiscus and rose hip define the aroma´s, but the rhubarb comes through at the end with a not so subtle ;-) acid touch, which I really like. In a couple of days, I´ll test the tisane for iced tea, and I´ll decide which preparation I prefer from now on.

Iced tea season has started once and for all now (a bit late this year, but for other reasons that´s quite OK), and I still had enough of this tisane left for 2 batches of iced tea.
By the method I use to make iced tea (brew a pot, leave it infuse quietly – I honestly don´t count the minutes, or even hours ;-) – and cool it overnight in the fridge), this tisane is fresh and tastes more of peaches than the nose detects at first. Definitely a good pick but I think the blood orange tisane I used before (and I ordered more of) I like even better.

We spent last weekend in León, Spain. Apart from a small but really interesting market (at least for those who like meat and charcuterie), we tend to shop at a local tea shop whenever we visit the town. However, since Covid the tea shop only opens Monday-Friday and I hadn´t been able to go there last time we stayed in León in 2021. This time, we would be leaving on Monday afternoon, so a visit was long due.
The shop owner is very knowledgeable and I really like the pu erh blends she sells, but this time I wanted something different, with a black tea base. And I picked this blend, where lavender doesn´t stand out too much, where the lime doesn´t make it too citrusy, and where the mint gives a fresh touch to balance it all. Refreshing and elegant, to be enjoyed also by people who are normally not into black tea.

I have no clue where I got this teabag from, maybe from one of my husband´s professional trips to Norway? I didn´t have a clue either about the contents of this teabag, other than it including some kind of berry. As the nordic languages are germanic of origen I managed to understand from the company page (in danish) that this is a 97% black tea + 3% berry aroma blend which gives a typical Nordic taste. I wouldn´t be able to confirm the latter, but it sure is primarily a black tea, subtly aromatised with a natural berry flavour. The berry flavour isn´t sweet at all (more a subtle tartness, because of cassis or elderberry???), which is a detail I can only applaud.

Although I´m not a huge fan of ginger or ginseng (both are easily too overwhelming, in my opinion), it´s useful having a pack of these teabags around, to drink when you´re having a sore throat or feel under the weather. Not overly aromatic, not too strong, simply a nice drink to sooth the throat.

This is a Peruvian teabag, something I must have received from a friend who´d been there (My holidays there are too far back, the last one in 2010). I remember from our first trip to Perú that we chewed coca leaves to help us overcome possible problems related to the high altitude in the Andes, whereas the coca leaf tea (or mate de coca, cf mate used in Argentina por instance) was a herbal tea all hotels offered together with coffee at breakfast. Even then I thought chewing the leaves had an effect, while the tea was rather flavourless. Having a cup of this tea at home confirms this even more, if that´s at all possible ;-)

The second of the free Easter treats from Bird&Blend with my ohh deer order.
It´s nice to try teas I´ve never tried before, but the name of this blend refers to the Cadbury cream eggs and the smell alone of these cream eggs already makes me sick. Needless to say, I wasn´t really hopeful to discover a tea I would be convinced to buy ;-) …and no, it wasn´t a success, although I feared it to be worse.
In nose the typical Cadbury drinking chocolate powder – I used to like when doing my PhD in UK in the ´90s – with a pseudo boozy touch to it. This could result in a nice after-dinner drink, but an infusion in water is just too thin IMHO. I used to prepare the Cadbury chocolate drink powders in hot milk for the exact same reason, to add density and body. Although I´m not so fond of chocolate drinks anymore, I would advise fans of these drinks to use the chocolate powder with milk instead of paying far more for a tea blend like this. BTW, I didn´t even notice the black tea backbone here, nor the jasmine blossom indicated in the list of ingredients.

Isn´t it wonderful to receive an unexpected present? Like a couple of individually wrapped tea pyramids from Bird&Blend?
I had ordered from a fun stationary site (ohh deer) in UK, and my husband brought me the order when he returned from a visit to his team in UK (a colleague was so friendly to receive and store my order), and this was a special treat for Easter.
Chocolate Digestives is the right name for this tea where cacao is well present in nose and mouth, but the sweetness is controlled (by the liquorice and fenugreek, which I cannot detect separately?) so one feels like having a chocolate biscuit (digestive), more than a chocolate cookie or a hot chocolate. Nice