Tea haul

Time for tea. Apart from a nice alliteration, the colder weather has instigated my generous intake of tea. Add a nice discount at my local health store and a trip to London (= a trip to the Twinings store) and you have the right mixture for a nicely sized tea haul. Still a haul, but a bit different from the usual.

source: weheartit.com

Green tea: pomegranate, cranberry, jasmine

My favorite tea brand is Twinings. Whenever I’m in London I go to their tiny store (it’s the only one in the world!) where they sell the entire selection currently on offer. Unfortunately my favorite tea, the Eucalyptus & Menthol tea from the Revive and Revitalize line has been discontinued, but I found plenty of other teas to keep me going. First up some green tea. I drink green tea like water, so I had to stock up on my favorite flavors. All of these are fruity but not too sweet, which is what I prefer. The cranberry one is my favorite by far, but the other two make nice variations.

Clipper Organic white tea with raspberry, Twinings Peppermint & Nettle

On to two different types of tea: white tea and a herbal infusion. I love the Clipper white tea with mint (it’s my latest tea obsession) so I’m curious about their other flavors. White tea is generally a bit more gentle on the taste buds than green tea, which can be quite bitter. I love having it as my morning tea. The Peppermint & Nettle infusion is one I’ve never tried before, yet mint teas are some of my favorites so I just had to pick it up to try.

Twinings Butter Mint Sensation and Camomile & Honey

These teas I had to pick up again as they are two of my favorite late night teas. Butter Mint Sensation is a perfect after dinner type of tea. Camomile & Honey (with a hint of vanilla) is one of the best ‘right before bed’ kind of teas. I generally dislike camomile tea, but the sweetness of the honey & vanilla lifts it up just enough to make it a very enjoyable tea.

Yunnan black tea

‘Mellow & toasty’ and that’s exactly what this black tea tastes like. I am not too keen on black tea anymore, though I will never refuse a good, old fashioned Earl Grey, but I try to stay away from it because of the caffeine and slightly dehydrating abilities it has. I gladly make an exception for Twinings Yunnan tea though! It’s flavor is on the nutty side given a very warm undertone to the tea and much more smooth and enjoyable than other black teas. Great if you need a late afternoon pick me up.

Specialty teas: Wittard of Chelsea Spice Imperial, Gingersnap Peach, Mint Humbug

I always buy some special teas as well. Spice Imperial smells absolutely divine, so I had to have it despite it being a black tea. It’s a loose leaf tea from Wittard of Chelsea, a British tea brand which I haven’t tried before. it combines cinnamon, cardemon, cloves and vanilla which makes for a spicy mix with a hint of sweetness. Gingersnap Peach will forever be associated with London as I had a few cups of this during my trip as they are serving this tea at Costa Coffee. It’s the sweetness of peaches (my favorite fruit!) with a bit of the zinginess of ginger. I have yet to try Mint Humbug, but with a name like that, I’m sure I’ll like it.

Higher Living organic tea in Licorice and Sweet Chilli

I’ve been trying out organic teas quite a bit lately. This brand I hadn’t seen before and the teas sound interesting enough. Especially the Sweet Chilli! It includes black pepper and chilli amongst a whole arrange of different spices. I am usually not too keen on straight up licorice tea, but this one has an interesting blend of ingredients as well so I’m curious to try.

Celestial Seasonings Sleepy Time, Twinings Lime & Ginger Sensation

Another bed time tea. I’ve been drinking Sleepy Time for years. In fact, I first discovered this brand when I was an exchange student in the US and that was 8 years ago. So go figure. Great for cold summer evenings and stressy periods, plus the bear in the sleeping hat is just too cute. Twinings does/ used to do a Lemon & Ginger tea and I’m guessing this is the follow up on that. I generally prefer the taste of lime over lemon so I think I may like this even more.

As you can see a good helping of tea. This haul will provide me with enough tea for the next 6 months or so. And that’s what I tend to do: buy in bulk, enjoy all the different flavors and then buy in bulk again once the stock pile needs replenishing. I can’t wait to try these!

What’s your favorite tea?