Tea | Bluebird Mulled Cider

One of my main goals is to make both of my blogs run smoothly and be as active as I can make them! Now I was going to merge both into one, but I feel like maybe the Coffee/Tea/Food aspects of this blog wont work well on The Brunettes Bookshelf now further down the line I *may* just merge them together, I'm still thinking about it as I write the post... 

Anyway on 24-26th of November me and Mum travelled down to Birmingham from Manchester for the BBC Good Food Show and I was so excited guys! literally, I'd be looking forward to it ever since I booked the tickets in October! What I was most excited for was knowing that Bluebird Tea Company were there! And I bought rather a lot. 

One of the teas I purchased was Mulled Cider. Now this is pegged as a warming, fruity and spicy blend perfectly suited to the Festive Months. 

Source; Bluebird Website

Aromatic winter spices, cinnamon, cloves + ginger, steeped with apple chunks to create this mellow + comforting hot tea toddy. Brew up a fruit infusion or use to create Mulled Cider, serve steaming with a splash of dark rum and snuggle up on a chilly winter's eve!

I never managed to try any of the Bluebird Christmas Teas last year, but I was so happy to get my hands on this blend this year. it's a newbie for 2016, and I'm definitely hoping it's back next year! 

The tea definitely gives off a very Festive/Christmas aroma, with the cinnamon and coves front and centre. I think the smell of a tea is as important as the flavor. The spices are the main scent from the tea, with an underlying fruitiness from the apple. 

The taste of the tea is just incredible! It's hands down probably one of the nicest fruit teas I've ever tasted. The apple pieces give the fruit tea the nice balance of sweetness, that tones down the slightly tart flavour from the hibiscus and ginger. The lemon peel and Rosehip give the tea a well rounded flavour. The cinnamon and clove make the tea festive. Without it's a really good fruity and summery tea but with them it blends the tea perfectly to a cold winter night, whilst the snow falls outside whilst you get costs with a book! 

Mulled Cider Tea from Bluebird Tea is the ultimate festive fruit blend, and by far the nicest tea I've tried this year. It's definitely up there with some of my all time favourites from Bluebird. They've really outdone themselves with Mulled Cider. A 5* tea!

Bluebird Website | Buy Mulled Cider 

Twitter | Facebook | Instagram 

Review | Nudey Tea Fruity TeaTox

Source

DISCLAIMER - So sorry to Nudey Tea for this review being so late! Nudey Tea did offer me a discount code in exchange for an honest review.

Hi guys! So I have tried a few teatoxes before and if you follow me on Twitter they failed, miserably. I've also done juice detoxes, water cleanses, lemon water binges. Tried them all failed at them all. When I started to notice Nudey Tea on Twitter they really stood out as a brand that was happy, considerate and connected with people daily, even those who weren't customers. Without ever forcing you to buy anything from them, they don't even push it on you.

So after months of debating when Pay Day rolled around I finally decided to take the plunge and buy a Nudey Tea Teatox for this month! I really need to get everything back on track and I thought this would be a great place to start.

How Did It Go?

Morning Tea; Apart from the first morning (where I had hot water and lemon!) I skipped my morning coffee. For the first few days, something just didn't feel right, I'd been getting up and having my morning coffee for like ever and I didn't feel like I'd started my day off properly. But as a few days went on I started to feel more awake in a morning and became non reliant on the caffeine. Good start.
The morning tea is a fruity pineapple and strawberry blend which is delicious! I really enjoyed drinking it, I'll include a list of ingredients at the end. This is the first time doing a teatox where the teas don't taste like a mouthful of grass with a side of earthy flavours. Ugh. So I was pleasantly surprised and this when down a treat. It was really pleasant tea, which I enjoyed. I spent the rest of the day drinking 2/3 litres of water.

The Night Time Tea - The night tea tea is cocoa and vanilla which might I add is just so so heavenly! I'm really not a chocolate tea fan to be honest, so I was a little sceptical. It's slightly sweet with an unbelievable creaminess and a slightly chocolatey flavour. It's so much better than desert! Honestly the chocolate notes pair perfectly with the vanilla, making for a luxurious and guilt free night time tea.

How did I feel? At the start of the teatox I felt a little sluggish only for the first few days, I was used to 3 or 4 cups of coffee a day, and my only other drink was Diet Coke. So I did have the usual headaches, slightly sick feeling for the first day or two. This is where the teatox will make or break you, you really do have to persist on through this stage!
After those few days I started to have a clearer head, I was more alert and generally felt better than I had done in months! My skin started to look brighter, my stomach problems eased slightly and I all-in-all just generally felt a little bit better. More energised, more revived.

Nudey Tea also offer; 

The HeTox

The 14 Day Teatox

14 Day Boost Tea 

14 Day Bedtime Teatox

I'd say Nudey Tea TeaTox is the best teatox I've ever tried. it really does do everything it claims to do. Which is a rarity when it comes to products like this. I can imagine people being sceptical, trust me I was in your shoes! But give this one a go, if you give any a go at all make it this one! 

Nudey Tea also offer a great Eating Plan to go alongside the Teatox which I didn't follow, so I can't comment on it. I ate healthy throughout the teatox and I only had one or two treats, because everything in moderation guys! I ate clean, I drank water and kept as many chemicals out of my body that I could. I really recommend you stick to a healthy eating plan! There is no point paying out for a teatox and totally disregarding the food you're putting in there too! 

Exercise! I didn't get many workouts in I'll admit, but I do, do about half hour walk to work every morning and I did some walking on the weekends too, so more than you normally do is enough if you don't want to do more. 

Follow Nudey Tea on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram for lots of healthy hints and tips and tonnes of motivational pictures, if they don#t spur you on I don't know what will! The Nudey Team are the nicest people and if you're curious, they're more than happy to answer your questions! 

Tea | Jimmy Bean - Elderflower and Lemon

Company: Jimmy Bean

Flavour: Elderflower and Lemon 

Tea: Fruit Tea

Brew Time: 3 - 5 Minutes

Water Temp: 100'c

Teabags / Loose: Loose 

Filled with Apple Pieces, Lemon Peel, Elderberry, Sweet Blackberry Leaves, Citric Acid, Roasted Chicory Root and Lemongrass Flavouring. This tea blends together to give a soft and subtle lemony flavour, with a refreshing aftertaste. 

I picked this tea up at Bolton Food and Drink Fest, and as soon as I saw a tea with Elderflower I grabbed it! I love Elderflower in anything, The tea itself is quite chunky, with big pieces of apple and lemongrass. 

This tea smells really clean and crisp. The lemon definitely sticks out the most in this blend and gives it that inviting scent. The scent of the tea is long lasting, in the fact that once brewed the scent gets stronger, and almost changes into a fruiter and deeper smell. 

The tea brews to become a dark yellow/orange brew, and doesn't brew perfectly clear it does have a slightly cloudy finish if brewed for longer than 5 minutes. 

Now the taste, I tried this tea hot, warm and cold. the tea was my favourite when it was hot. The flavours stood out more and were able to hold up against each other and mellow perfectly on the palette. The lemon is strong, yet not over powering of the softer ingredients like blackberry leaves and elderberries. The lemon taste was fresh, clean and very pleasant without tasting chemical, which can happens ith a lot of teas. The apple gave a nice sweetness to the tea and stopped the sharpness of the lemon peel coming through. I really didn't like the tea in that luke warm mid stage, but I rarely ever do! As a cold tea I think this would suit being a cold brew perfectly, it had a strong enough flavour to last for the long cold brewing times, and the citrus notes would be perfect for the summer. 

My only criticism of this tea is, I was really looking forward to that punchy, slightly floral notes of the Elderflower and I really couldn't taste it, it was apparent but not strong enough for me. If there was more though it would probably be too much for some as it can be floral.

Jimmy Bean tea was a fabulous blend with clean and rich flavours that enhanced the tea. The blend was well balanced, the aroma gave a perfect finish and the tea on a whole was very pleasant. With a spruce up of the website to give more detailing and images, Jimmy Bean could become a good independent tea brand. I would re-purchase this tea and I would repurchase some other teas and flavoured coffees from Jimmy Bean! 

4 / 5 Teacups!

Website | Twitter

Tea Time | Taylor's of Harrogate Rose Lemonade

Company: Taylor's of Harrogate

Tea: Fruit

Brew Time: 3 - 5 Minutes

Water Temp: 100'c

Teabags / Loose: Teabags

Rose Lemonade is our love letter to sunshine and summer. We’ve blended tangy lemon peel and zingy lemongrass with fragrant, organic rose petals and a posy of English country garden ingredients – like sweet blackberry leaves, rosehip, apple and hibiscus. It’s a seriously refreshing infusion with elegant floral notes.

I hate Rose. I'm just going to throw that out there right at the beginning of this review. So why the hell did I pick this tea up I hear you ask? Honestly... I have no idea why! I'm a sucker for pretty packaging and was craving some ice tea. I assumed it would make a nice pink lemonade kinda thing. 

I first of all made this tea hot because I really wanted to give it a try. When the tea is hot the flavour you get is a hot lemon tea with a subtle undertone. I really really loved the tea at this beautifully piping hot temperature. I should imagine it'll be a nice hot drink in the summery weather. Yes I drink tea when it's hot outside. But the issues evolved when it started to cool down, the rose flavour really started to take hold, even after I'd taken the tea bag out. I really don't like rose stuff and when it got quite tepid it had become too much for me. I much preferred the stronger lemon and subtle rose. Than an overpowering rose and hint of lemon. 

I then brewed 3 teabags in one cup of water and a half teaspoon of agave syrup. Left to cool and tried over ice. It was pleasantly quite nice, maybe it was the agave! This was lush and will definitely be a staple for me in summer. The packaging is super cute don't you agree? 

So pretty. 10/10 Taylors for packaging!

The last thing I wanted to mention about this tea was the aroma. The smell of this tea really was very pleasant, it didn't smell like your grans old perfume like I expected. It smelt kinda sweet from the rose and tart from the lemon. Very inviting. It brews to a lovely pink colour. I brew it for 4 minute, getting the best from the lemon. I'd suggest if you prefer the stronger lemon taste add a slice of lemon with the tea and then add hot water. 

Source: tailors of Harrogate website. I had to include, it's such a gorgeous picture!

All in all I really enjoyed this tea at it's hottest and over ice with a little sweetener. I would buy it again definitely! You get 20 enveloped teabag in a box for £2. 

Taylor's Website | Taylor's Twitter | Buy on Amazon UK | Sainsburys 

Tea Time | Kensington Super Berry Green Tea

Company: Kensington Tea Company

Tea: Green

Brew Time: 3 - 5 Minutes

Water Temp: 80'c

Teabags / Loose: Loose Leaf

A delicious blend of our Sencha Green Tea with Hibiscus, Rosehip, Apple Pieces and Orange Peel. The liquor is bright with a beautiful bouquet and superb fruity flavour. It is extremely refreshing and full of super berry goodness!

This tea was absolutely delicious! The lovely Laura from Love Tea, Love Blogging was the person who introduced me to Kensington Tea and got me on the flavoured green tea wagon! I was dubious going into this tea, I'm not going to lie. I am a very hesitant green tea drinker. It's not my favourite. 

The tea smells really delightful, a light fragrant undertone of green tea leaves with a more prominent fruity smell. You can really smell the hibiscus and apple! Flavour wise? It's gorgeous! It's hands down the nicest green tea i have ever tried. Green tea wise, the flavour is quite delicate and subtle, but you can notice it there. If you don't like green eta I'd still try it because that bitterness isn't there. It's just clean and crisp kind of flavour. The fruity side is obviously my favourite bit. The tangy hibiscus settles perfectly with the crisp green tea leaves and the sweet apple pieces. It's definitely perfectly blended. I would add a tsp of natural honey if I was to ice it though. 

This tea is a whole leaf loose leaf tea. It's super chunky and thats why this tea packs a fruity punch of flavour.

Source: Kensington Tea Website

All in all I really enjoyed drinking this tea, and I did actually re-purchase it! Kensington is quite mildly priced for a specialised loose leaf tea company. 

50g - £.350

125g - £7.74

250g - £13.50

500g - £23.70

I would to be honest re-purchase but in the 125g bags. I love it, but it's not nice when it goes stale! I have too much tea to drink to justify buying in bigger bags. But I definitely would do if I didn't have as much tea as I do!

Kensington Super Berry Tea | Kensington Twitter | Kensington Facebook

Tea Review | Ayurveda Ginger Fresh Tea - Kent and Sussex Tea & Coffee Co.*

Company: The Kent & Sussex Tea & Coffee Company

Tea: Herbal

Brew Time: 5 - 10 Minutes

Water Temp: 100'c

Teabags / Loose: Loose Leaf

Our Ginger Fresh Tea is a fresh and fruity herbal blend combining ginger lemongrass and liquorice root. This tea combines some Ayurvedic principles and European ideas of wellness tisanes. Ingredients: lemon grass liquorice root ginger pieces peppermint lemon peel and black pepper. Brew using boiling water and infuse for 5 to 10 minutes. Makes and excellent iced tea!

First of all can I say a massive thank you to Kent & Sussex Tea & Coffee Co. for this wonderful sample for me to review. I was really excited to try this tea when I saw some of the ingredients on the packet. Ginger, liquorice and peppermint. It was definitely right up my street. On smelling this tea the predominant smell is the peppermint, so I was assuming this would be the over powering flavour, the smell also has undertones of sweetness which comes from the liquorice and a spicy note form the ginger. 

The tea brews to a light golden colour. Almost like a well brewed green tea. I did brew it for around 7 minutes, right in the middle of the ideal brew time. Purely because I didn't want the ginger too harsh or the liquorice too strong. I wanted to be able to pull through the peppermint flavours too. The brew time was perfect for me,  the ginger and peppermint are the flavours you taste first and the liquorice follows nicely afterwards with a gentle sweetness. The sweetness of the liquorice pairs nicely and subtly with the sharpness of the ginger and the cooling of the peppermint. 

I really did love this tea, the sachet that I got has 20g in it and I used up half of the sachet in a 4 cup pot of tea. I used 1 tsp per cup and an extra tsp for the pot. So around 10 cups in the sachet. I don\t like teas with ginger or liquorice too strong. So I didn't use a 'perfect teaspoon' you can buy from tea companies. I used a bog standard teaspoon so possibly a little less. 

All in all I loved this tea and I would buy it again. I'd really recommend picking this tea up if you like any of the three prominent ingredients in the tea and just brew to how you like it. This tea has a range of health benefits which include Anti Oxidants, Detox, Hydration, Refreshing, Relaxing and Weight Loss.

If you're wondering about price Ginger Fresh retails at -

50g - £3.00

125g - £5.84

250g - £10.51

500g - £19.12

1kg - 35.95

I would give Ginger Fresh 4/5 Teacups! 

Ayurveda Ginger Fresh

Kent & Sussex Twitter

Kent & Sussex Facebook

Millionaires Sticky Golden Flapjack

Servings: 12 Squares 

You Will Need:

Flapjack

250g Porridge Oats

125g Butter (Vegan butter would work too!)

125g of Brown Sugar (light)

2-3tbps of Golden Syrup 

Topping

250g of Chocolate (Dark, Milk, White any will work)

A tin of Caramel

Hundreds and Thousands

Method: 

- Pre-heat oven to 180c.

- Using a ceramic pan (any pan will do a but a ceramic one will be less likely to stick!) heat together the butter, sugar and golden syrup until it has all melted together. Try not to bio it, slow and steady with this!

- In a separate heat proof bowl weigh out 250g of your Porridge Oats. At this stage add any extra ingredients you want to add such as chocolate chips (if adding chocolate remember it WILL melt!), any spices such as cinnamon or ginger, coconut would work nicely too. Mix together to ensure they're all combined.

- When your butter, sugar and syrup mixture is fully melted pour half of the mixture into the oats and mix well. Then add the second half. This will need a really good mix to make sure the oats soak u the liquids.

- Line a square baking tin and pour in the flapjack mixture. Pressing it down as you go to make a firm flapjack which wont fall apart once it's cooked.

- Bake until golden brown, this will take around 20 minutes.

- Take the flapjack out of the oven and leave to cool. Do not remove the flapjack before it is fully cooled. It'll just fall apart.

- Pour the tin of caramel into a small sauce pan and heat gently until runny and smooth. Once this has become thinner pour on top of the flapjack  and spread to the edged ensuring the flapjack is fully covered and pop in the fridge for 10 minutes.

- Melt the chocolate in a heat proof bowl over a pan of slightly simmering water. Once the chocolate is fully melted. Pour of top of the caramel layer, throw some hundreds and thousands at it because it looks pretty and leave to set at room temperature. If you put it in the fridge you'll get a grey mottled effect on your chocolate.

- When the chocolate it half set score out your pieces. This will just make it easier to slice later on. Once fully set and hard, slice into 12 even squares. Then eat! Again sharing is always optional ;)