Jollybrew Tea: London Calling

(Photograph kindly provided by Jollybrew tea).

This week I was really fortunate to receive some samples from Jollybrew tea. I really love experiencing new blends and the companies behind them, too. So I was really excited to have chatted (via email) with Greg about their tea's.

I got sent two samples, and naturally, seeing that one tea had the words "Earl Grey" included in it's name - well, I just couldn't resist.

London Calling is a black tea with hints of Earl Grey and delicately flavoured with Jasmine. This was going to be a really interesting cup of tea.

Firstly, I really, really enjoyed the delicate aroma of this tea when I opened the sample packet. You can really detect the jasmine. Even though it's delicate, you can easily smell the special aroma you get with jasmine - and jasmine just happens to be a aroma that I love.

The tea is very pretty to look at too. The leaves are dark and the added ingredients of blue cornflowers add a dash of colour. It's gorgeous to look at.

(Of course the taste of a tea is important but when a tea looks pretty, it adds that extra element!).

So, what does this tea include? Well according to Jollybrew's website this interestingly named tea contains both black and green tea's, cornflowers and jasmine petals. Now, I found the mixture of both black tea and green tea interesting and certainly not something I've experienced much, if at all!

I took several generous scoops of the tea and loaded up the tea maker's basket with the tea and to be fair, added an extra to the pot! I altered the settings and custom brewed this for five minutes.

It was fun to watch this tea as it brewed from a amber colour, through to a copper colour to a dark brown.

(Over half way through the brewing process the tea reached a dark amber, copper like colour)

I think this is a really interesting tea, due to it's combination of tea's and it's name which is very original.

London Calling  is a very robust tea. On their own site Jollybrew describe the tea as "a mix between a English Breakfast and Earl Grey" and I think I would pretty much go along with that. It has the strength of English Breakfast (thankfully lacking the maltiness which I don't get along with) and will provide you with a brilliant cup of tea in the morning that will get you up and going for the day.

I love the strength of the tea, the robustness of it. It's full bodied and satisfying. And it's quite unusual to have a black tea (or partly black tea) infused with jasmine as jasmine normally goes with green tea.

The tea is of a high quality and extremely pleasant and has a mellow, chocolately taste.  Enjoyable and incredibly moreish.

But what I love most about London Calling is Jollybrew have successfully taken a quite strong tea and paired with the wonderful jasmine element. So you get the best of both worlds.

The jasmine element of the tea is light, floral and delicate but holds it's own against the strength of the tea. Jasmine is a wonderful flavour that only enhances any tea that it's blended with and that is no different with London Calling.

As some readers may know my Sage tea maker has the ability to keep tea warm for some time after initial infusion. During the time London Calling was kept warm, the jasmine flavoured developed further. So, on my second mug, it tasted slightly more of jasmine, which was gorgeous.

With this tea I feel as though I'm drinking something very traditional with something slightly exotic and luxurious.

London Calling is a tea that takes elements of established blends - through the English Breakfast elements - and something fairly modern to British tea drinkers - Jasmine. In essence this is a tea that contains flavours that are at the opposite ends of the spectrum, yet, come together to forge a tasty and elegant tea.

I am ashamed to admit that prior to tasting this tea I didn't know much about Jollybrew. However, it's a brand I will be exploring in more depth. It's great to see new (to me) brands and I'm always excited about what they have to offer and if all of their tea's are like London Calling then we are all in for a treat!

After drinking London Calling I felt relaxed, refreshed and just wonderful. The tea's jasmine flavour stayed in my mouth for some time which was lovely.

This tea is really different, yet, at the same time also familiar in some ways. I can't recommend this highly enough.

A big thumbs up to Jollybrew for providing us with a gorgeous, tasty and slightly addictive blend!