Tea Huggers: Skinny Fit

Now, I will admit from the get go, that Tea Huggers Skinny Fit infusion isn't the sort of tea that you'd serve in the afternoon with sandwiches and fairy cakes. When I picture afternoon tea, I see Edwardian ladies sitting in their garden talking about embroidery and drinking the finest Earl Grey available. With Skinny Fit infusion you're more likely to get the real essence of girl power at it's 1990's best - it's spicy, firery and it packs a mean punch.

Skinny Fit tea claims to be able to boost your metabolism via the chilli that it contains. Oolong tea is also said to be a slimming aid. I am no way qualified to say if these claim's are true or not, however, what I can talk about is the tea itself.

The ingredients are:

Chinese oolong
Lemon Verbana
Aniseed
Juniper Berries
.. and a kick of chilli

From the minute you take a teabag (well, a silky teabag with loose ingredients as contents) out of the bag, you can smell all the exotic ingredients, the most prominent being the aniseed.

The look of the tea is brilliant. There is such a wonderful mixture of colours and textures. Here is a photo. If you look at the top of the teabag you can see two bright red juniper berries!

The tea brews to a brown colour with a hint of orange, yet, rather strangely, when the tea is finished your cup is bright orange! I'm not sure where the orange colour comes from, but it's fabulous. You feel as though you're drinking something totally natural.

The instructions on how to brew this tea are quite strict and I'd advise you to follow them if you want to get the best out of this tea.  Boil the kettle and then leave for five minutes (don't be tempted to leave for any less, it really won't work!) and then brew for up to five minutes, though I tend to brew for about four.

I love how the exotic aroma of aniseed fills the kitchen whilst this tea is infusing!

Upon first sipping this tea bursts to life and your mouth really experiences about several tastes all at once. You have the spicy aniseed which really refreshes your mouth. Then the flavour of verbana comes through. It's hard to describe the taste of verbana, but if I'm honest it always has a rather oily texture to it, (and that's the same in all the tea's I've had with verbana added to it) and I've found it hard to get used to in the past but it doesn't seem to worry me in this tea as there is so much going on.

I will admit that because of the power of the other flavours, and probably because I'm inexperienced with oolong tea, I didn't really pick up the taste of oolong. However, that is probably a fault on my part.

What is totally amazing about this tea is how hot the chilli is ... and I've had other chilli tea's and they are not a patch on this! It really dances around in your mouth and you can feel it on your tongue. In fact the first couple of cups I had of Skinny Fit infusion my tongue was slightly burning, as if I had had a hot curry or chilli pizza!  This is a tea unlike any other!

But, despite the hot chilli and the spicy aniseed, I felt totally refreshed, energised and awake. I tend to take a couple of mugs of this tea mid afternoon when I feel like I'm slightly flagging, it spurs me on for the last couple of hours of work. A cup on the morning spurs me on to start the day. It's a great "get up and go" tonic, and a tasty, enjoyable one at that, too!

Drinking this tea is a total experience in itself. Do I like this tea? .... no .... I LOVED it! It's so different it's very hard to describe.

As for the weight loss element, I cannot comment. But for a tasty, energising drink it's perfect. I feel more awake and positive after drinking a cup of this tea.

Well done, Tea Huggers - your tea is inspirational!