Saturday 1 February 2014

The Kensington Tea Company: Christmas Spice - A Truly Scrumptious Blend

I was recently very lucky to receive, through the post, some lovely samples of tea from a Norwich based company called The Kensington Tea Company. (Thank you Lorraine!).

The Kensington Tea Company specialise in rare and green teas (although they do sell black tea, white tea, herbal teas and fruit infusions also) and have a wonderful selection available on their online shop. http://www.kensingtontea.com/shop/

I have to admit, I'm not very experienced at all with green tea. The only time I have ever taken it was in St Bart's hospital in London, where I was waiting for my Dad to have some treatment. There is a very small cafe there, run by very friendly volunteers, but I had picked the wrong tea and it was quite simply - foul. Furthermore, many of my friends are currently on post-Christmas health kicks, and are drinking it by the bucket load, and I'm only hearing one thing from them - YUCK!

So it was with interest, when the samples arrived, that I discovered most of them were green teas. But, I'm never put off when it comes to tea, and am willing to try whatever comes my way. You never know, you could be missing out on something lovely!

The first tea I have decided to try was Christmas Spice. The samples arrived in individual pouches.


When I opened the pouch, the sweet aroma of marzipan sprang instantly to mind. It was very sweet, but at the same time a very delicate smell. Peering into the pouch, I noticed some really lovely looking ingredients, so decided to pour some onto a plate to get a closer look.


Christmas Tea is made up of green tea (obviously) but has some special and surprising ingredients, too. As well as having a infusion of Christmas Spices, it also includes pink peppercorns, pieces of milk chocolate, cloves and the sweetest little sugar snowflakes. It really was very lovely to look at, but how would it taste?

I filled my trusty one cup pot with one teaspoon of the tea. I had previously boiled the kettle and left it to cool for two minutes. I poured the cooling water onto the tea, and left it to brew for three minutes (though, according to the instructions anything up to five is fine!).

Pouring the tea I found it to be very similar to white tea, in as much as it brews to a very light, amber colour. It almost looks like pure water. I had taken a photo but the light was just so poor it did the tea no justice.

Due to the water cooling somewhat, it was easy to drink this tea straight away. I carefully took a sip and was pleasantly surprised. Not only did it smell like marzipan, it tasted like it too. Memories instantly came back of eating birthday cake at friends party's. The sweet richness of this tea is radically different to what I had been led to believe green tea would taste like. I assumed that it would be very similar to herbal tea in taste and texture but I was very wrong indeed.

The spices used in the tea are very subtle, and not too obvious, but they do make a gentle appearance. I couldn't pick up the chocolate taste, but along with the sugar snowflakes, I think it added to the sweetness of the tea. I did enjoy the taste of cloves too, which I like, and all of these flavours work together to form a very enjoyable tea.

You do get a very pleasant aftertaste with this tea. But you also get a ever so gentle kick from it too, which I think comes from the cloves. It's such a smooth blend, very easy to drink, with a lovely texture.

This is a extremely pleasant tea to look at, smell and taste. It's light and refreshing, and although it's a Christmas blend, it can be taken any time of the year. It is a tea that would be worthy of serving to your very best friends. But do make sure you show them the blend before you brew it, as the sugar snowflakes are really quite impressive.

Green tea is considered to be very good for your health, and it has also been suggested that it is good for helping people who are dieting, which is probably why the green tea section of a lot of supermarkets is virtually empty this time of year. But, from what I'm picking up pure green tea is a little hard to get used to, so perhaps a blend like Christmas Spice, which is flavoursome, but at the the same time, has the healthy benefits of green tea, is the first blend to try.

I was really impressed with the Christmas Spice blend. It wasn't nearly as strong and overpowering as I thought it would be. It was a delicious, light brew. I'd highly recommend giving it a go. You'll be pleasantly surprised.

Summary Of Christmas Spice Green Tea

- Brew for 3-5 minutes. Tea leaves can be reused up to three times.
- No milk or sugar needed.
- The tea is available from the online shop (follow link posted earlier on in this blog).
- Prices are: 50g £3.95, 125g £6.50, 250g £11,25, 500g £16.70

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