Marks And Spencers: Christmas Spiced Tea

Yes readers. It's that time of year again. Christmas is fast approaching and the geese are getting fat! And so, in the tea world, we now have a plethora of Christmas tea's available on the market. (Oh so much tea, so little money!).

Today I thought I would review Marks and Spencer's Spiced tea. Now,  I cannot directly link to this product as M&S don't have a website for their food department but this tea will be available in every store on every high street.

A couple of Christmases ago I was really impressed with Marks and Spencer's Mulled Fruit tea and had nothing but praise for that product. It was a great alternative to black tea and perfect for those fruit tea lovers. Well, the product is back on sale this year at M&S though I haven't tried any so not sure if the recipe is the same, but, chatting to folk in the tea world I have been assured if it's not the same, then its certainly very similar!

But this year I decided to try a tea from M&S that I've not tried before - their Spice Tea.

As you can see this tea comes in a delightful little seasonal red caddy, and I'm well and truly a sucker for a lovely caddy that's for sure. It's really rather wonderful isn't it? And, as always with M&S, very tastefully done, too.

Within this caddy there are 50 circular teabags that are filled with a generous amount of tea. I actually found it a refreshing change that the tea is bagged and not loose. I suppose, the whole idea of a Christmas tea is you drink it with family and friends whilst celebrating the holidays, therefore, having the time to make the tea traditionally, in a pot. Due to this tea being bagged you can easily pop a bag into a cup, making it a more accessible tea.

Within the caddy the tea comes in a gold foil bag allowing you to keep the tea lovely and fresh - a practical thing to do which I think is a good idea.

Upon opening the tea I was really interested in the aroma. The tea lists nutmeg, cloves and all spice in it's list of ingredients (amongst other lovely things, too!). And the aroma is fabulous. Really inviting and delicious, and yes, it does sum up Christmas day. Spiced Christmas pudding, oranges, crisp aroma's hanging in the air. Just enticing.

To be fair to this tea, I have prepared this tea as I would any Christmas tea from Twinings or Whittard's or indeed any spiced tea at all. A small drop of milk and a teaspoon of sugar. As much as I'd love to, spiced tea is something I cannot drink black, so I know that this tea will be no different.

I infused the tea for four to five minutes and it infused to a rich colour.

I quickly settled down to drink this tea on a dark, grey, very wet November morning. My first impressions where not overly wowed but not let down by it either.

Despite it's promising aroma, I found the overly strong presence of all spice slightly off putting. Having taken a couple of cups of this tea, I've found that the blending must of been slightly off somewhere as with one bag all you get is all spice, another bag the nutmeg is the stronger flavour. A even blending would of been preferable.

And yet, oddly, despite the strong all spice the tea is slightly lack lustre. Perhaps, as a dedicated tea lover, I'm more used to the stronger Twining's Christmas tea's, maybe, but I found that as the tea cooled it lost it's flavour somewhat. It was all a bit lacking.

So, I threw a half dozen bags into a teapot and brewed it again and I did find that from the pot, it was a lot, lot better.  Perhaps it's because I used more bags and got a better mix of flavours, but from the pot it was evenly flavoured, far stronger and much, much nicer then simply dunking a teabag into a cup. So, despite what I said earlier about convenience, perhaps Christmas tea's are tea's that ought to have a little time invested in it so you can enjoy it's flavours fully, making a more rounded, and far happier experience.

I will be honest, if you are a true tea obsessive, who likes rich flavours, I'd honestly turn to places like Twinings and Whittard for that special Christmas tea. (Both shops have already released their Christmas tea and reviews will be appearing over the next few weeks on both brands). Let's face it they are the experts in tea.

However, if you just want something a little different from your normal all day tea or English breakfast, to make your Christmas  a little more extra special then this really isn't bad at all. If you have friends and family coming for Christmas, invest in a lovely pot (if you don't have one already!) and serve them this on Christmas afternoon.

Marks and Spencers haven't done too badly, but, perhaps next year they ought to look at their blending process so every tea bag tastes the same and is more evenly produced.

But, even after the tea has gone, you're left with a pretty little tea caddy. And that really cannot be bad!