Whittard of Chelsea

2025 Advent Calendar
A smidge to malty for my liking but English Breakfast style has historically not been my taste. I do think this is one the husband would like. Hopefully it’s caffiene will kick my sleepy head into action.

2025 Advent Calendar
I picked up this calendar last Autumn at a tea house in southern NH while a their Fox in the Woods tea event. I promise I did drink this during Advent but life was too busy to log the teas. Fortunately the calendar came with 2 tea bags per day to share, but I failed at sharing.

It’s a nice black tea with hints of spice and some cinnamon. The cinnamon is not strong but does give a woody, warmth to the mug. I enjoyed this one and remember it being a good start to the holiday season.

It’s been a bit since I’ve added a note. I was gifted a new tea tin this weekend and went to sort out some of the random tea bags to fill it. Unsure where this came from but it was the last on the table this morning.
Pretty good Earl Grey. The citrus and beragamot are well balanced. It was a nice start to a rainy day. I’m going to do a resteep to see how it stands up.

Herbal and Decaf TTB Summer 2025

I have had elderflower only once before and it was on its own, and I didn’t enjoy it very much so I was a little dubious about it, but the elderflower is a pretty small percentage so it’s just one piece of the overall effect. What this reminds me most of is hard cider which was pretty unexpected for a tea. I think it might be this particular ratio of apple to apple cider vinegar. Their is a hint of flowers in the end of the sip from the rose and probably the elderflower as well. This is quite a unique tea and I find myself enjoying it quite a bit!

Herbal and Decaf Traveling Tea Box, Summer 2025.
Elderflower & Apple. Whittard of Chelsea.
I steeped 2.5 grams of loose-leaf material for 5 min. in 8 oz. boiling spring water. I have studiously avoided any of the blends in the TTB containing rooibos, and this maker’s listing does not include it here. The aroma of the tisane was offputting to my nose, but I forged ahead. It is said to contain a lot of apple, and I suspect that, the vinegar, the rose, and the mystery flavoring may be the sources of most of the flavor notes I detected, which were sour, tannic, and very reminiscent of red rooibos, without being sweet. I did not detect any elderflower, which is a flavor I know well, as I use elderflower liqueurs in my cocktail repertoire. Nor did I get any licorice notes which I might have liked. I was happy to have had the opportunity to try this tea, even though it isn’t one I’ll be buying. I would recommend this to the many red rooibos fans here.

Rose black tea bags. Kenyan, 97% black tea with flavoring, I didn’t see visible petals in the tea bag. First impression was this is what a boba shop would serve if I ordered a rose boba, it tasted nice. The black tea base wasn’t particularly special, it’s slightly astringent.

I’m surprised by the amount of very negative reviews this tea has here, this isn’t a bad tea. I got mine for $6.99, I’m not upset by it at all.

sold for $ 9.95/ 25 tea bags

https://www.whittard.com/us/tea/how-do-you-brew/teabags/tea-discoveries-english-rose-25-individually-wrapped-teabags-358291.html

I visited around seven Whittards in the UK, and they always have like eight different samples, so I was able to try a ton of their teas, which was fun. They’ll also make you a sample of any tea in the shop if you ask! None of the ones I sampled wooed me (though one hot chocolate did), so I bought two fruity teas I thought would be nice cold! Unfortunately, this tastes really sour and rosey. There’s not supposed to be much rose in here, but I can really taste it, and unfortunately, that’s not a flavor I enjoy. Or maybe elderflower tastes similar to rose? I ended up giving this one to a friend who loves floral teas, and she really liked it.

I wanted to like this because the idea of a tropical Earl Grey is so fresh and summery feeling to me, but I made a cup of it today and in practice I found the flavours very muddy and lacking in clarity. Just vaguely fruity without enough of a distinct, crisp tropical mango note or the depth and high aromatics that I associate with bergamot. I have a few other bags to try later, but snap impression was a let down. So generic and forgettable.

Sipped on a mug of this while watching the sequel series to Amazon’s Jury Duty. Company Retreat, or something like that. I keep wanting to call it Corporate Retreat even though I know that’s not right. It’s very funny and a total masterclass in improv.

The tea really hit the spot, too. Bright, sweet and tangy notes of rhubarb rounded out by a gentle earthiness and heat from the ginger. If there is one flavour that I can always count on Europe to do well, it’s rhubarb. So good!

Made this a few nights ago, but I feel like I maybe over steeped it a little. It didn’t taste unpleasant or anything, but the cup was pretty bold and intense and I think because of that I potentially may have lost some nuance that would have benefited the flavour clarity. Instead this really just tasted like a punchy red fruit blend. Nice, but not unique. I’ve had many strong, tart, and sweet red fruit black teas before and I bought this one because I specifically wanted to try the combo of rhubarb and ginger…

Earl grey tea bags. Package says this was made in Sri Lanka and the black tea base is very delicate, heavy cream completely overpowered it. Personally I would say this is one of the best earl greys I’ve had because I really like the floral bergamot, on the flip side some people might really not like this tea because of how strong the bergamot is. The blue package is beautiful.

Bought mine on sale and I think even for the full price this is still worth it.

sold for $ 9.95/ 25 tea bags

https://www.whittard.com/us/gifts-and-confectionary/gift-type/tea-gifts/tea-discoveries-earl-grey-25-individually-wrapped-teabags-350421.html

Had a mug of this with a nice splash of milk on Monday.

I do very much enjoy a simple black tea with rose, and that’s kind of what I thought I was getting with this. It was rich, full bodied and definitely floral. Personally, I would have still enjoyed twice the amount of rose, but I understand that most people would likely disagree. The mug through for a loop though because it was also pretty fruity. I even went back to double check the ingredients because I was seriously tasting something like strawberry as I was sipping. I did like that berry-ish flavour with the florals, but it just doesn’t seem like it’s intentional.

I have more teabags of this one though, so I’m curious to see if I still get those fruity notes if I try this without the milk addition.

Tea Pop!

We saw so little matcha during our trip because most shops we visited were sold out, so when we saw Whittard had a flavoured but unsweetened matcha we were excited to pick it up and give it a try. It was vacuum sealed in the smaller 30g tin it was purchased in with one of those pull tab/pop tops. So, I was INCREDIBLY disappointed to open it up this morning and be met with a super, super dull and chalky looking powder. Not very fresh seeming at all!

Unfortunately it didn’t taste very high quality either. The vanilla flavour was totally fine, but the matcha itself was very dull, bitter and grassy. I ended up pouring most of the matcha I’d made into a cup with ice and then topping with a coconut flavoured La Croix, which definitely saved the drink big time. You could still taste the matcha a little, though the vanilla note was heavily masked by the coconut. Better overall that the matcha on its own, though…

I guess it was a Whittard day because I also drank this one today along with two other Whittard blends. I didn’t love this one though. It was very oily and fatty in mouthfeel from all the coconut shreds in the blend, and even though I intellectually know this is just a result of using real coconut that doesn’t mean it makes the experience much better for me. The coconut flavour itself was very mid to me, but I did like the cream flavouring that was paired with it a lot. Between that and the slightly nuttier taste of the oolong base I kept thinking a lot of coconut cream pie.

In the end I left what was probably the last half of my mug sitting at my desk for most of the day, only coming back to it as I was wrapping up my work. At that point it was very cold and a lot of the coconut fat had solidified around the walls of the mug. That was gross, but I actually liked the taste of the tea much better when it was cold. Maybe iced latte would be a good brew method for this tea next time…

I don’t know why but I really just assumed that the oolong in this blend would be a lot more green and floral leaning. So, I was pretty surprised when I took my first few sips and was greeted with a more nutty and mineral-leaning oolong base. Nothing super dark and roasted, but just not that pop of fresh green I’d anticipated given the name. I thought it was very smooth though, and the oolong chosen did work nicely with the milder strawberry flavour I was picking up. A little floral still, but really felt like the floral notes were coming from the flavourings and not the tea itself.

In general, as I work my way through this LARGE tea haul from London, one thing I’m heavily noticing is how much more floral-leaning most teas tend to me – either overtly in ingredient inclusion or in the under/overtones of the tea based or just in the types of flavourings used. It’s a fun little quirk of the UK palate – florals are so much more polarizing here.

This was really enjoyable! The tea steeped up a pale, rosy sorta pink which was a nice visual cue for the dragonfruit. Of course, it is that more fruit punch sorta tasting dragonfruit flavour, but I can get into that when I know it’s coming. I do appreciate that it wasn’t very syrupy or heavy here, which to me is at least a little more reflective of the qualities of the actual fruit. Especially since this is a bit floral in its undertones, which the oolong itself supports.

The star, however, was really the fresh and natural tasting pineapple notes! It had a bit of twang to it, and the good kind of tropical fruit funk that comes alongside ripe tropical fruits like passion fruit, mango, or, well… pineapple. Duh. Like slicing into the real thing! Definitely also goes with those flowery oolong and dragonfruit notes too.

I had this as a hot cuppa over the weekend, and it was very nice! Medium-bodied and smooth with a lot of distinct floral character from the oolong itself, which I thought played really nicely with the fresh, bright and tropical flavours. I’d call this more of a pineapple tea, but in that sweet and juicy way and less the tangy, acidic qualities of pineapple. A few sips sent me back a decade to drinking Butiki’s Flowery Pineapple Oolong and wow what a trip of nostalgia! The dragonfruit does the pretty predictable thing of tasting more like a fruit punch than real dragonfruit, but that’s to be expected with a commercial blend.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: the average person simply doesn’t know what dragonfruit tastes like so the flavouring industry has basically created a generic and pleasant enough flavour that could be attributed to dragonfruit without feeling offensively out of place. It’s a nice flavour, but anyone looking for real dragonfruit is bound to be disappointed. At least it’s not too saturated, and just sort of rounds out the sip following those fresh florals and gentle pineapple notes.

Probably this would have been better iced or cold brewed. Arguably more juicy made that way. However, I think potentially less oolong forward too – and I like that I’m not losing the base in this blend.

Cold Brew!

This cold brew was so incredibly delicious, but also deeply familiar and it’s really bothering me that I can’t figure out what other tea it’s specifically reminding me of. Very lush, sweet and tropical flavour profile that leans a lot more in the direction of dragonfruit than I expected it to. That kind of candy-esque “fruit punch” style of dragonfruit that I associate with drinks such as the Starbucks pink drink. Not too cloying/syrupy though, and quickly followed by a mix of fresh, sweet pineapple and floral oolong. Really refreshing and summery feeling!

Tea Pop!

Really feeling lychee this week, so I decided to turn this instant tea into a tea pop. I’m struggling a little to find the right balance of powder to use when I make this. Sometimes it comes off rather thin/watered down without nearly enough of the juicy lychee or lush rose, but it’s also a slippery slope into becoming REALLY saccharine and cloying very quickly. Unfortunately, I think this tea pop was that case where the flavours were just sooo strong. But I’ll like to take another stab at it in the future because I do think this could be really, really refreshing and good.

Chugged a big glass of this down when I got home from the airport because I had no groceries in the house, and the one cold drink I’d left myself in the fridge wasn’t really enough. Unfortunately I did whisk this with cold water, so the sugar crystals didn’t fully dissolve even though the fresh and lush notes of rosy lychees were pleasant still. My last sip ended up being pretty gritty and overwhelmingly sweet.

Iced!

This was nice and very quickly slurped back, but I did find myself a little frustrated because the sweet, lush and floral profile between the juicy lychee and rose is so nice that I find myself really, really wanting it outside of this instant format. Like, it’s kind of too sweet to drink regularly but the balance and those flavourings are soooo good that I would drink it more regularly were it not for the sweetness.

Kinda a bummer in that way.