Whittard of Chelsea

Tea in the UK was a bit of an experience, though one I was surprisingly disappointed in certain ways. It’s weird because I know in general UK culture leans more towards coffee at the moment, and What-Cha with Alistair is easily the best loose leaf vendor in the UK, but I was expecting more loose leaf shops than there was. The cultural heritage/museum cafes in every undercroft in every cathedral and castle had amazing Earl Greys and Elderflower teas that were insanely good with a few good teas at some of the coffee shops like the Blueberry Matcha at the Black Sheep Coffee chain, but a lot of other places were mostly the same of what you’d see in the US.

I managed to go to Whittard of Chelsea and Bird and Blend, but Fortnum and Mason was really hard for me to reach since it was just off from the sites I was going to. It was also in a different terminal altogether at the airport, so I decided not to go.

Bird and Blend was hugely disappointing. I’ll go on a mini rant on that later.
I was pleasantly surprised with the teas from this company, beginning with this one. It was a round bagged tea in the Discovery collection box sampler that was a little overpriced, but this assam was exceptionally smooth for a round compostable tea bag. I’d easily rank it above Twinings, Numi and some Republic of Tea blends (though not all).

This was a straightforward assam, but not too astringent after 3 minutes. Had a really nice malt body that wasn’t overpowering, a little bit of a cocoa and toffee vibe in the aftertaste rather than flavor. It’s simple, but effective and easily better than most teabags and way smoother. I was surprised with how good it was for a teabag. Color me happy after a persnickety rant.

Well, Merry Christmas all, whether you’re pulling out all the celebrational stops or passing the day quietly—ours is leaning toward introspective and broody, and that’s OK. More time to rest, read, rock, and sip. (We did, however, hit the local Waffle House for breakfast this morning—it was busy, with all the wait staff in full blinky-light Rudolph regalia.)

The lovely and gracious ashmanra slipped a couple bags of this lovely tea into an envelope for me, and it was yesterday’s afternoon treat. I don’t see any notes about what kind of black tea is used for the base, but it’s beautifully balanced and smooth. Just enough rose for you to know it’s there; very elegant and understated. I steeped the cup in a plain old mug, but I’m sure a fancy teacup would’ve doubled the pleasure.

This single teabag was from Cameron B – thanks very much! Since it is in a teabag, I don’t think it has the “full rose buds” that the loose leaf description claims, but the cup was tasty anyway. Hints of rose, hints of fruit, but I really can’t tell what type. I would guess raspberry. It’s decent for a teabag, but I bet the loose leaf is much better.

Sipdown 7 – 2024

This just in’t very good. Super tannic and bitter.

Someone at work very kindly brought some of this back from their trip to London. It’s…okay. A little bit drying, some muscatel flavor going on, but overall too tannic for me.

Comforting, floral black tea. Strong rose scent. Astringency low enough to enjoy without milk, but stands up well to cow’s milk and coconut milk. Very easy drinker. First flavoured tea I ever tried.

Currently my favorite flavored tea. My brother bought this tea for me from his visit to London last year (tea gifts are the best gifts!).

It has an intense aroma of bergamot and citrus. Very tropical and perfumey. The bergamot is subtle here and nicely accents the sweet fruity mango. The flavor is true to label, very clean and refreshing especially when cold brewed.

Sipdown! (26 | 242)

Another swap sample! I used two teabags for one 16-ounce pot.

I’m quite enjoying this as an evening cuppa. It’s crisp and slightly tart apple, with a suggestion of red fruits from the hibiscus. The elderflower pokes its head out at the end of the sip and adds a mellow effervescent finish. I can maybe taste a tiny hint of creaminess from the vanilla? Not much though, and happily I can’t taste licorice root at all.

It’s nice to see an apple-based fruit tisane that doesn’t have any spices in it. I can imagine this being wonderful iced as well.

I was intrigued by the reviews of this tea and picked up a packet of it to try.
The tea’s scent was strongly of milk to me, but with a hint of sweetness. It was like drinking watered down White Rabbit Candy.
It made me yearn for milk or a drink with some body to it, but alas it was tea (I had it without additives). I brewed about four cups from a small teaspoon of leaves and it was flavourful till the end. I prefer fruity floral teas and I found this tea difficult to down after the first two cups. I might have also been saddened and weirded out by the taste of milk when drinking plain tea (I’m mildly lactose intolerant and am painfully avoiding milk).

I decided to offer some mates to smell the leaves/tea and they either found it delicious or gave it a hard no.

The ones who did try the tea absolutely loved it. One added milk and sugar and said it was like drinking liquified White Rabbit Candy.

I really like the aroma here. It;s a balanced, multilayered blend of cloves, orange peel, vanilla and cinnamon. Very warming and not at all artificial.
And the taste? Less impressive, that’s for sure. The spices don’t seem that evident here, they hover a bit in the back behind the slight maltiness of the base black tea. It’s not bad, though.

Sipdown (1547)!

Another sample gifted from TeaWithJann! I didn’t like this one quite as much as the Christmas Morning from Stash and I do think that’s interesting because the flavour of this tea actually was closer to being in line with what I’d expected from the Stash blend. It was a full bodied black tea and pretty straight forward cinnamon (a mix of woody/barky and red hot style) with just a HINT of vanilla…

Thank you my IG friend Sewwie for this sample!

I haven’t looked up the ingredients for this one, but it sort of just tasted like a simple “breakfast style” black tea with a bit of rose and maybe bergamot? The floral rose was the strongest note for me, and I enjoyed it it with this kind of classic feeling base tea. Smooth, simple, and consistent throughout the cup!

I think it doesn’t taste so whisky? It’s more of heather, maybe toddy like what they have in their description. It’s actually nice, the tea has a sweet taste and good aroma

This is really good, bold taste of Assam. Only if it can have a stronger aroma it would be perfect
Also better to brew it stronger for more oof

I got the teabag version.
Not much aroma, maybe a hint of malt? Tastes somewhat plain, with a little bit of tannin, tbh I hoped for more, this is not quite amusing to me, drinkable but there are better things outside. It might be better if I brew it stronger..

Update:
It tastes much better if you leave the mug open (I covered it like how I did to my usual black teas last time, my dumb!) to air and steep for 2:15min or so.
The tea tastes milder and sweeter , much less encounter to sourness and no tannin, mild sweet aroma, guess white tea brewing is difficult to master. Now definitely want more of this.

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First time having white tea, worked hard on the steeping temperature.
It tastes a bit mild to my taste (I usually drink black), with slight greeny tannin, hint of rosy flavour and bursting sweet rose in aroma. I got it in teabags, the smell is so strong I think it can be used as perfume in boxes. Generally it’s a good experience and I’m willing to drink it again.

Trying to get this tea sipped down quickly as the Whittard mini tea tins aren’t stackable. They take up sooo much shelf space when you have too many.

This is a rich and extravagant chocolate tea. The aroma is just like dark cocoa powder with notes of dried ginger root. It brews into a fairly watery tea (at least, it seems watery because you can’t help but compare it to thick milky hot chocolate) that takes a few sips to really build up.

Once the flavour has fully saturated your taste buds, it’s rich and intensely chocolatey. Like Bourneville dark chocolate – slightly bitter, very rich, too much to eat more than a few squares at a time.

I’m glad that it’s not artificial tasting though!

The orange is subtler but it does come into play for a little while at the beginning of the cup. Once you’re over halfway down, the ginger and chocolate overtakes everything. This tea has got some fire in it.

I’ve tried brewing with 1tsp plain black tea and 1tsp of this tea, instead of the recommended 2tsp. But it was still no match for the chocolate ginger combo.

Next up, I’m going to try simmering it with milk on the stove, like a chai.

Pre-Christmas photos on the blog: https://www.immortalwordsmith.co.uk/whittard-spiced-chocolate-orange-tea-review/

Sipdown.

This was my go-to cold brew and/or iced tea this summer. It’s a lovely blend of rose and strawberry, and the more I drank it the more I fell in love with it. I do prefer it cold rather than hot. The floral is too intense for me as a hot cuppa.

I’m going to miss this one. It’s so very summer-y. ❤️

Happy Boxing Day, lovely people! Hope everyone is having a safe and peaceful holiday.

I picked this tea up a few weeks ago, but today is the first time I’ve been able to try it. It’s a very nice rose and strawberry blend. The fragrance of the dry leaves is highly perfumed, so much so that I didn’t think I would be able to enjoy this. Once steeped the smell is softer. It’s discernibly rose with a sweet general fruity note mixed in. There’s also a bit of an earthy note which made me hopeful since I like being able to taste the base tea in flavored blends. The taste is delicious. The mix of rose and strawberry is well balanced. There’s also a dried hay note and the slightest touch of astringency, which I found pleasant. I drank the first half of the cup without adding anything and found it enjoyable. I added a touch of monk fruit sweetener to the second half to bring out the strawberry flavor a bit more. It was also nice, but I think going forward I’ll drink it sans additives.

This one was a nice surprise. It’s like a bit of summer in a cup, and I’m here for it.

This tea I received from Izzy in our first swap? Thanks. Anyway use by 5-2021 is quite soon. And rhubarb tea was something to enjoy today I guess.

Nope. I got only hibiscus flavoured tea and as it was white instead of classic red; it wasn’t even tart. It was pretty much meh; no rhubarb, though it should be in, and not in small amount.

Just nothing from expected flavour profile. I wonder if it is because it’s old, or it wasn’t flavourful at all.