Tea | Bird & Blend Ginger Beer

Company: Bird & Blend

Name: Ginger Beer 

Tea Type: Herbal Tisane 

Loose or Bagged: Loose Leaf

Rating: 4*

Best Served: Hot w/o Milk

Water Temperature: 100° 

Brew For: 4+ minutes 

Buy: Bird & Blend

Price: £3.20 for 20g. £5.45 for 50g. £14.72 for 150g pouch. £16.35 for 150g tin. 

Description: This Caribbean classic is here to set your taste buds on fire! Packed with flavour, punch + fruity freshness but with a cooling creamy lime finish. Perfect hot or iced, with a splash of spiced rum and a lime wedge!  

Insider secret: Chief Mixologist and Co-founder Krisi says this might just be her favourite EVER cold brewed tea! 

Ingredients: Rooibos, ginger, lime leaves, lemon peel, calendula petals, natural flavouring.

*My packaging does state Bluebird Tea, this is due to being purchased before a name change by Bird and Blend. 

*REVIEW* 

I love this tea cold brewed and honestly there is a reason Krisi says this too. it is honestly one of the bets cold brewed teas from Bird and Blend. So I' going to review it cold and hot separately. 

Cold: 

This tea I feel, was just made to be cold brewed. Not hot brewed then poured over ice, no no! Sacrilege. Cold brewed, overnight in a Cold Brew Bottle. This works perfectly for me. The taste of ginger is so predominant in this brew it's just amazing. I drink this pretty much through the whole of Summer and always stock up when I'm running low to make sure I've got enough to see me through. It's like a still ginger beer without the added fake ginger flavour. It truly tastes homemade! The Rooibos tea just blends perfectly with the ginger and stops it tasting bitter or overwhelming which Ginger does have a tendency to do. The lime leaves and lemon peel also add a slight zing to the brew making it a very rejuvenating drink. Perfect for cooling down! 

I do also recommend cold brewing it in lemonade too just for an extra bit of flavour if you like. its delicious cold brewed in lemonade, poured over ice on a hot day. Daaaaayum! 

Hot:

I'm not the biggest fan of this tea hot. Maybe because of how much I like it cold? The heat of the boiling water just doesn't bring out the flavours the same way as cold brewing it does. Which I don't like to be honest. I mean I'm not saying I don't like it hot, I do. It's tasty and delicious it's just nicer cold. 

The Rooibos is a little stronger when it's hot bringing out that creamier, slightly sweeter flavour to it. But the ginger comes into something else when it's hot! It's so much stronger and is definitely the strongest flavour in this blend when it's hot. Perfect for an upset stomach or an IBS flare up too. 

Will you be giving this spicy brew a try this Summer?

Tea | Very Craftea Coffee Truffle

Company: Very Craftea

Name: Coffee Truffle

Tea Type: Pu'erh Tea 

Loose or Bagged: Loose Leaf

Rating: 4.5*

Best Served: Hot w/o Milk

Water Temperature: 95° - 100° 

Brew For: 3 - 4 Minutes 

Buy: Very Craftea

Price: 70p for 10g. £5.95 for 100g.  

Description: The best of three worlds combine in a cup to bring you a coffee-chocolate flavoured black tea.

Ingredients: Black tea, Puh Erh tea, cocoa bits(14%), coffee beans(7,5%), flavouring

*Approx between 27- 35mg of caffeine per cup

*REVIEW* 

This tea is quite nice. I picked up a 10g sample at The Great British Tea Festival I went to at the end of last year because as a lover of coffee and tea I always try any blend that merges the two together and it's never failed me before. 

I never really drink Pu'erh tea, mainly because it's usually so expensive. For the price of this blend I think it's really good. Especially the sample size at only 70p! I mean you can't really go wrong for 70p can you. (I also picked up two other samples so expect them soon!). 

The Pu'erh tea is quite a strong taste, and is a much better flavour than if this was a regular black tea. It's isn't as bold but is strong enough to stand against the flavour of the coffee beans. The flavour of the coffee s really strong in this blend and I love that. There are loads of coffee beans amongst the leaves so it's nice to see this isn't a secondary flavour to the tea. They are really blended well together. The addition of the Cocoa Bits to adds a nice sweetness and creaminess to the blend which mellows the flavour to become more soft and soothing on the palette. 

Very Craftea are a company that sell loose leaf teas along with craft kits to complete whilst you're sipping on your brew. So whilst stocking blends such as Coffee Truffle to Divine Elixir and craft kits from Crochet Kits to Cross Stitch. I think this is a brilliant idea and a merge of the perfect Sunday afternoon. Plus it's heat if you want to get your kids into crafting too! 

If you want to check out Very Creaftea then you can check out all their blends here and their Cross Stitch and Chill kits sound BRILLIANT which you can check out here.

Bird & Blend | Milk Oolong Chai

Company: Bird & Blend

Name: Milk Oolong Chai 

Tea Type: Oolong Tea 

Loose or Bagged: Loose Leaf

Rating: 4.5*

Best Served: Hot w/o Milk

Water Temperature: 90° 

Brew For: 3 minutes 

Buy: Bird & Blend

Price: £8.90 for 50g. £24.03 for 150g pouch. £26.70 for 150g tin. 

Description: We've been waiting oolong time for this blend... Another milk oolong blend to add to the collection! This time the hypnotic aromas in this smooth cozy chai will certainly light your fire! You gotta chai this one!

Ingredients: Taiwanese oolong, ginger, cinnamon, cardamon, cocoa shells, chilli.

*This is also part of their Autumn Collection 

*REVIEW* 

This tea is pretty delicious. I have tried very little Oolong tea, and that is purely down to price. It's a costly brew but usually always worth it. My favourite are Peppermint Cream from B&B and Berry Oolong from T2 Tea. But alas, I received this the in the Bird and Blend Subscription Box (which I no longer subscribe to). 

The flavour of the oolong tea is really delicious. It's slight sweetness paired with the silky smooth flavour is just ultimately unique. It's like no other tea out there. It is quite a high quality leaf and you can really tell. The little pearls of tasty tea unfurl while you brew and not only does it taste delicious but it looks so pretty too. 

The flavours of the chai I didn't expect to work. Chai is a spicy bold flavour and milk oolong is softer and soothing. But surprisingly it really really works. The cinnamon is definitely the strongest flavour in the tea rather than the cloves or ginger which blend for a softer flavour chai, less harsh than normal more standard chai's. The kick of the chilli is more prominent than I thought it would be too, it's a nice surprise as an aftertaste of this brew. 

This is definitely a whole leaf tea and I received this loose rather than in bags (I don't think they do bags of this?!). Just look how pretty this tea actually is. Those big chunky pieces and little balls of tea leaves. It's just lovely. 

BUT Milk Oolong Chai is only around now for a very limited time. It's still available online but I HIGHLY recommend you stock up fast if this is the brew for you.