Bird & Blend Tea Co.

I have been drinking this tea a lot with fairytale of NY, well not with with xD, but i cycle between them and from all the teas i have i drink these two a lot, and honestly this one is truly lovely and sweet i love it so much, i always have a tea bag with me wherever I go, i am addicted to that shit damn it xD, even tho its not my favourite tea but i do enjoy it a lot, also i know it’s summer and its kinda inconvenient to drink hot tea right now and to be honest it’s kinda a hell of a thing to do but i am still drinking it and enjoying every sip.

I mean i don’t really drink every day and every evening cause if do it would have been over by the first week i got it knowing how much tea i consume on a daily basis, ok i don’t make too much sense and i am talking too much but hear me out GIVE IT A DAMN TRY its worth it

Ps: thank you for these amazing tea, i love you so much !

Was excited to try this one because I remember reviews that said it was a lot better than some of Bird & Blend’s other violet teas, and as someone who was let down by their interpretation of violet in the past I was cautiously optimistic! I have to say that I do think it’s a drastic improvement! I found that the violet was a lot more clearly violet and it reminded me heavily of the Parma Violet candies that have such a distinct sweet floral flavour. No awful hibiscus or other florals to mask that note, either!

I do wish there wasn’t chocolate in the blend because it’s distracting to me and feels unnecessary. However, I like the sort of boozier tasting chocolate liqueur kind of flavoring that’s used otherwise – it’s in some other B&B teas and I find it much more pleasant than the alternative of using chocolate drops/pieces.

Sipped on this one last night and it was… interesting?

The idea of mascarpone and tart cherry together kind of weirds me out a little bit because of the acidity and creaminess juxtaposition, but drinking the tea I totally could see where they were coming from and it wasn’t as peculiar as I had expected. Definitely that thick sort of buttery creaminess from the milk oolong along with some fairly floral undertones and a little green sharpness to the oolong. The cherry is thin in mouthfeel and flavour, but definitely discernible in the top notes and does have a tartness to it. I didn’t mind it with the milk oolong, I just wished the body hadn’t been so thin and the finish of the sip nearly as astringent as it was.

2022 Spring Tea Swap – Day 26 (Bonus Tea!)
From Emilie!

Emilie sent a couple of extra blends in our spring tea swap, this being one of them. Bird & Blend no longer has this one their website – I’m guessing it’s an Easter blend – but they did have a recipe for a cream egg latte so that’s what I used.

https://www.birdandblendtea.us/blogs/recipes/cream-egg-tea-latte

This was very chocolaty, more of a milk chocolate flavor. I enjoyed it, especially as a latte. I wouldn’t say it’s incredibly unique though, so I don’t think it’s one I’ll look for next spring. I did enjoy it though!

OHHHHHHH WHERE DO I START ! ok ok so i just opend this tea and omg the smell was just teasing me, it was soooo good and fruity just amazing, tbh i was kinda afraid cause sometimes when you unseal a new tea the smell then and after it’s infued is disappointing, but this one just got better, also i don’t know about you guys but the tea reminded me of LION cerals xD LOL just saying, ok ok so in breef this tea is perfect, not my all time best but perfect.

one more thing, i think this one would be amazing as a iced tea, gonna try it soon and see, i believe its going to good

2022 Spring Tea Swap – Day 17
From Emilie!

This has a very deep chocolate aroma and I do notice the fruity red cherry flavor as well. Once steeped, it tastes more of chocolate than fruit though. I do wish more of the cherry came through, but this was an enjoyable cup nonetheless.

2022 Spring Tea Swap – Day 14
From Emilie!

Mint black teas are a favorite of mine. The addition here of cardamom to the mint and pistachio is so unique and, honestly, pretty exciting. My first bottle of ground cardamom was a gift and so the spice has always been a bit of a treat to use and experience. I do wish there was more cardamom here, and more pistachio, as I am mostly tasting the peppermint. I have enough here for one more cup, so I’ll try again perhaps with less water to see if I can deepen the flavor. On the whole, this is an intriguing blend. I love the combination of flavors.

Geek Steep S2E25 – The Music of John Williams

So this was my selection for Marika’s final song selection which was the theme from Catch Me If You Can!

I had actually never heard this particular piece of music prior to the episode, but this is just another example of why I love doing this podcast so much because from the first few strings of notes I was immediately on board and in love with this song.

There’s such a distinctly different sort of feeling to this piece than any other of Williams’ compositions that we chose to cover. It’s very, very jazzy with this playful kind of “cat and mouse” feeling to the notes which of course makes a whole heap of sense given the context of the movie. However, I didn’t know anything about this movie before our recording so I really only had my untainted impression of the music to go on with my pairing.

With that in mind, what this made me think of was being at some kind of very trendy but still kind of jazzy and almost retro feeling cafe. The kind of cafe where people would go to drink really well made cups of coffee while listening to live music or really good slam poetry. People are probably sitting in the corners reading books of poetry or great literature, and there are maybe just as many couches and lounge chairs as there are little tables spread out throughout the space.

Like, it’s a distinct feeling.

This blend is a bit of a hodge podge of different tea types as it includes black tea, shou pu’erh, and hojicha as well! They all kind of just work perfectly together though, and create a very smooth full bodied cup with a gentle roasty quality and subtle earthiness. This foundation of tea bases is combined with what I believe is a gentle addition of coffee flavouring, and though I don’t usually mesh well with coffee flavoured teas I find the flavouring subtle and complimentary enough to be pretty enjoyable!

I really couldn’t think of a tea that fit better in the fictional coffee shop/cafe that this composition had painted in my head, so it was just the most obvious pairing for me.

Tea Photo: https://www.instagram.com/p/Cd_GUG0LimV/

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7nv2S_S9MlU&ab_channel=BadBrain

This was the last tea that I drank on that day this week where I just could not taste or smell anything and it was again really shocking because there are so many strong flavours in this tea that I should have been able to better taste. However, it wasn’t a total write off of a tea cup because I could still feel the eucalyptus and it still worked somewhat in terms of decongestion even if I was missing out on the flavour of the tea.

Cold Brew!

I had a bit of a panic-y kind of moment a few days ago where basically every single tea I drank in the tea and any food I consumed tasted like practically nothing. In the case of this tea, I got the absolute lightest hint of tartness on the sides of my tongue. Almost imperceptible. I thought that maybe I had lost my taste/smell since that’s a pretty common Covid-19 symptom. Since I hadn’t been affected by that with my first few days of heavy symptoms I assumed I would be fine in that regard – it was a massive relief because the idea of losing my taste/smell when so much of my job relies on it was…

Well, horrifying.

So yes – I drank this cold brew and it was panic inducing. Thankfully, I think I had just reached such an extreme level of congestion that that was what was causing my poor sense of taste because literally the next day, though definitely still stuffed up, I was able to taste just fine. It was a massive relief.

I does mean, however, that I definitely need to make this again on a day when I can actually taste it.

Phew, it’s been such a busy week that I finished off my bag of this making cold brew pitchers and now, as I’m sipping the last water bottle left, am finally getting around to writing about it.

There isn’t much to say, though. The description, which heavily implied meringue/cream flavors, oversold it, I think. The flavor doesn’t taste any different to me than any number of “strawberry forward” hibiscus fruit teas I’ve tried. I like strawberry-flavored hibiscus fruit teas, and especially enjoy their refreshing nature as a cold brew, but there really isn’t anything about this one that makes it stand out over any of the others. Perhaps I should’ve tried it hot just once, to see if the cream notes B&B boasted about where that prominent… shrugs

It has been a faithful companion for some sweat-inducing physical labor at work, and I was thankful for that. But I wouldn’t repurchase it when I can easily find substitutes that would taste the same and likely be cheaper.

2022 Spring Tea Swap – Day 5
From Emilie!

I’ve never had a Chocolate Digestives biscuit but I feel like I read once that they are a less-sweet version of a chocolate cookie. Is that right? The Publix near me has a very small section of British items/ingredients. I’ll have to check next time I get groceries to see if they have some of these there to try. Anyway, this tea is definitely chocolatey, but there is also this flavor that I can’t quite place. I’m guessing it’s the biscuit flavor? It’s almost like toast. Not bread and not cookie, but definitely something similar. The aroma is very rich, but there’s something about the tea after steeping that I don’t love. I can’t put my finger on it. It’s certainly not a bad cup of tea, but it’s not something I’d keep coming back to.

One of a bunch of new (to me) Bird & Blend samples I added into my last order to try…

The idea of a rooibos blend positioned as a “breakfast tea” really intrigues me since Breakfast Blends are generally straight black or very mildly flavoured black teas. I can’t quite wrap my head around it because there’s nothing caffeinated in the blend and I feel like caffeine is sort of equally important to the full bodied, brisk and well suited to milk profile that makes breakfast teas so appealing to start your day with…

As for the taste of the blend, it’s fine but a little underwhelming. It really just tasted like a slightly sweeter and more honey forward plain honeybush/rooibos. A little nutty and little woody. Simple. Classic tasting. I neither dislike it or love it, and I can see how an argument could be made that it has the full body and milk appropriate profile of a breakfast tea. I just couldn’t ever see myself opting for this in the morning over a black tea. The caffeine thing is really tripping me up.

Sipdown!
As others have said, this a pretty nice strawberry chocolate tea. Sadly, not much hazelnut and no pancakes at all.

So Bird & Blend recently redid their whole core tea wall and as part of that they brought back a bunch of past seasonal/limited edition teas including several blends that I’m a big fan of, and several I’ve wanted to try for a long time. I couldn’t resist making an order!

This tea falls into the later of those two camps in that I’ve always regretted not trying this Hitchhiker’s Guide inspired tea blend when it was first released. Sure enough, when I cracked open all the newly received bags this morning this was the tea that more than any other smelled the most intriguing to me! It’s deeply minty with an almost cooling sensation even just from smell alone, with a very bright black currant aroma that reminds me of Ribena!

Steeped up it’s fascinating! I could see a lot of people finding this combination of flavours really weird and maybe off putting, especially because folk in North America tend to not love black currant – it’s just never picked up here, and many people associate the taste with medicine. I love how strange this is though! The peppermint is more subtle than expected, but still pretty present with a definitely cooling undertone/finish. The black currant is sweet and juicy with both a lively bright acidic pop to it and a jammy denseness. I feel like it gives me loose berry mojito kind of vibes and I’m definitely here for it!

My only criticism is that the butterfly pea flower inclusion feels superfluous. I get that it makes it steep a pretty deep blue colour, but I feel like it’s not needed. People excited about this geeky tea would be excited regardless of the colour and people who don’t get the reference who maybe would be pulled in by the blue colour might find the flavour combination really strange. I would just think it would be smarter to use the more gimmicky butterfly pea flower with a safer/more commercial flavour profile.

I’m a total sucker for anything peach, so I was looking forward to this one! The dry leaf definitely smells very cobbler-y, with creamy pastry notes layered on top of the peach.

The brewed cup is a bit of a letdown, though. Hot, I’m just not getting much of anything beyond the Ceylon base. Once it cools, it reads as more of a peaches and cream flavor than peach cobbler. That base is super astringent, though! It nearly overwhelms all the other flavors.

Reading through the other reviews, it seems like this might be a fairly temperamental tea—others seem to have coaxed more flavor out of it. I could see it being quite tasty cold-brewed.

I won’t be keeping this from the TTB, but I’m glad I tried it.

(Side note: Up until now I have stupidly been trying new teas in my huge 16 oz tumbler and wondering how on earth I will ever make it through all of the samples I’ve acquired…. today it hit me, DUH, make a smaller cup!)

Thanks to Shae for leaving a bit of this in the TTB for me to try! This is my first soda flavored tea and it’s quite interesting. It has a beautiful red color and tastes quite like, well, cherry cola! The cola flavor does come out a bit more once it’s cooled down and there’s a hint of spice as an after taste.

Overall I’m really grateful I got to try this one as I can’t drink cola due to dietary restrictions so I’m enjoying the novelty of having a cherry cola flavored tea. Even more than the taste I really love the aroma of this one!

This is so unexpectedly delicious! I mean, I thought it would be good with a name like Birthday Cake, but it doesn’t taste or smell at all like I anticipated. Instead of cake or batter or frosting, I’m tasting amaretto/cherry. It’s so good! Even though it doesn’t quite fit the name for me, I’ll be ordering more of this one next time I buy from Bird & Blend.

This tea is just pure good memories i wish i could have more, also it was my first tea ever from B&B, its so creamy and smells amazing i don’t have enough word to explain my emotions for this tea, but it was an unforgettable hit

Pulled from TTB 2022, shared by Martin Bednář.

Another cold brew from the TTB. This one was my favorite of the two. I didn’t taste the pomegranate, but the strawberry came through loud and clear. I’ll probably be keeping what’s left of this one. Yum!

Pulled from TTB 2022, shared by Martin Bednář.

James loved this one when he tried it hot, but I knew with the hibiscus that I would probably only really like it cold. It smelled so good that I definitely wanted to taste it as a cold brew. I mixed it together this morning and let it steep all day before pouring a glass with dinner tonight. It certainly tastes like cherry, but it’s a medicinal cherry. Very reminiscent of cough syrup. Not my favorite but not bad by any means.

Pulled from TTB 2022, shared by Martin Bednář.

Enjoying this beautiful day with lots of tea! Started some new medicine yesterday that makes me lightheaded after taking it, so I thought it might be best to switch to something without caffeine. I don’t want to make things worse, though I really wanted to keep going with my black teas today.

This is a nice chai, lightly spiced, and I can taste the rooibos. It’s not the best rooibos chai I’ve had, so I won’t be keeping it, but it’s been enjoyable for the afternoon.