This afternoon (whilst watching Teen Wolf) I am partaking in a really rather wonderful cup of tea. A very light and airy but tasty brew. This afternoon I'm drinking Williamson Tea's Purple Blush.
Purple Blush is a Kenyan tea grown on Williamson's Tea's own Changoi Estate. The tea is rich in anti-oxidants which makes you feel extremely healthy when you drink it!
This tea though has a lovely little secret. I guess you're probably wondering why it's called Purple Blush, well I was. Upon looking at the leaves in the tea their isn't anything remotely purple about this tea! However, something rather magical happens when preparing your tea.
The advice is to add a couple of drops of lemon but I just cut a thin slice and added it to the tea for a few moments, and when I took the lemon out of the tea there was a very slight purple hue to the tea! It's not obvious when you look down onto the tea but looking from the side of the cup you can definitely see the purple colouring.
I will admit at first that trying two teabags I could not see the change in colour so I emailed the lovely Jade who works for Williamson and she said "it's rather subtle". Well, Laura doesn't really do subtle if I'm honest. Physically I'm clumsy and in other aspects of my life I need things spelt out rather clearly. I was expecting the whole cup of tea to turn a light purple colour. This does not happen, but if you're patient, and look closely, the tea really does take on a hint of purple. It's really pretty, but ever so hard for my phone to pick up on this element of the tea, sadly. But it's something really different.
Before I review the taste of Purple Blush I'd like to say that the mini cru set, which this tea comes from, comes in a metal caddy. What I really like though, as you can see in the picture below, the caddy comes with a inner lid that helps keep your tea nice and fresh!
With the colour changes aside, what does this tea actually taste like?
It's a really rather glorious tea. It's a light, refreshing, thirst quenching type of tea. It's like a slightly maltier version of Twining's Afternoon tea and reminds me of a fabulous tea I had once at Hever Castle in Kent.
Purple Blush is a soft tea. Gentle and easy to drink. Exceptionally delicate and almost lady like. This is a perfect summery type of tea because of it's lightness. Whilst being delicate, at the same time it's completely satisfying and incredibly moreish. Like several other blends that I enjoy the kettle is rarely even cool when I'm drinking this, and rather greedily, I have almost consumed the 15 teabags within a few days of regular drinking!
Due to the element of it slightly changing colour the drinker is advised to add lemon. I find it a far easier way was to cut a thin slice of lemon and add it to the drink rather then adding drops of lemon juice as advised on the tin. I left the lemon in only for a short while.
The added lemon adds a slight tartness to the tea. Once I saw the colour change I did try a cup without the lemon and it was lovely but I do feel that the added lemon adds something a bit extra to the cup so I would advise adding lemon to every cup that you drink.
As this is a light and delicate tea this would be a PERFECT blend to serve with afternoon tea.
There is no need to add any milk with this tea, it will only impair the tea and it's perfect without.
I was more the pleasantly surprised with Purple Blush tea. Not that I thought it was horrible because I've tried other tea's from Williamson and they were both lovely, rather, I was surprised that a Kenyan tea, which tend to be very robust, could be quite so charmingly delicate.
On a superficial level, Williamson's Tea are beautiful to look at as they come in the most gorgeous of caddies. However, beyond that, the tea is fantastic.
Purple Blush is almost addictive. I'm sure if you buy some, you'll find how true that statement is.
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