The Ritz London Book of Afternoon Tea

As the name suggests, it's full of lovely tea related goodies! Seriously. Recipies, etiquette, interesting and witty quotations...Can't wait to review this properly for you!

This was just a quick post to let blog-watchers know that I haven't gone away forever; I've just taken a brief unplanned break from blogging BUT I promise I am here and have lots of hot drink tidbits to share with you...

Till next entry,

CBC

xx

Organic White Peony

This tea was unusual at first glance. I was very excited to try it as I have not tried much white tea apart from Whittard's Cherry Blossom Tea. It was brewed for 4 minutes as per the brewing guidelines on the sachet and gave off a smooth floral aroma. After I tasted it I thought that the smooth aroma must have come from some form of honey/caramel element. The colour also was light yellowy brown, almost caramel like.



I must add that it was quite an unusual tasting tea but not in a negative sense. I don't often have honey in any of my hot drinks apart from the rare intake of honey&lemon tea when I have a sore throat, so the smooth honey note was a bit of a surprise. The light floral taste combined with the honey makes for an interesting and delicious combination. This would be a nice tea to have either first thing in the morning or during a break in a long stressful day at work...methinks! It felt like it would relax

Overall rating: 4/5

I know that there probably isn't ACTUAL honey in the tea but it was the closest flavour I could use to compare what I was tasting...

Alpine Berry Herbal Tea

I tried this tea from Two Leaves and a Bud a while ago but because I've been swotting up for my Professional Conduct exam (next Tuesday) I hadn't quite got around to it until now. This tea from the outset was amazing! Firstly, it reminded me a little, in aroma, of blackcurrant/blackberry and I thought it smelt a little Ribena-esque but with a hint of citrus. It had a deep purple colour which quickly developed, (so quickly that I was worried that I had steeped it for too long). I followed the guidance on the sachet of 3 minutes and found that it really did not need any longer to release the flavour. I did try however, to use it again as I thought that it looked as though it could have taken a second brewing. Oops! It really did not react as I had anticipated as it turned a light blue/indigo colour...very entertaining!

Overall this tea had a very pleasant sweet berry/citrus flavour and smelt heavenly.

Rating: 4/5 (because I might be slightly biased towards berry flavours stemming from a childhood of Hot Ribenas!)

p.s. you can see the blue colour the tea turned on second brewing on the paper 'dipper' at the end of the string!