Whittard of Chelsea

Hanging onto summer to post my final summery tea blend reviews. It’s currently in that in-between stage – sunny and bright like summer, but slightly too cool for shorts and tshirts.

Anyway, about the tea. It’s quite good but very light, unlike limoncello. It’s sweet and gentle with a lemongrass dominant flavour. Little notes of woody herbs pop up too, with a lingering sweetness in the aftertaste from the apple. It’s really pleasant and soothing… I just feel like maybe it’s missing that final ingredient to make it pop.

Speaking of apples, they’re popping up all over the place this week like a theme. The cooking apple tree by my house is starting to drop apples as they ripen – faster than we can eat them. They’re slowly rotting and creating this slightly sweet smell in the air that weirdly I love. It’s one of the first signs of autumn. I’ll collect them later this week for the compost heap.

https://www.immortalwordsmith.co.uk/whittard-limoncello-tea-review/

Picked this up in a boxed collection from T.J.Maxx. While I wouldn’t say it’s amazing, it’s pretty decent for bagged tea, and considering what a hodgepodge T.J.Maxx is, I think I lucked out.

Cold brewed a few teaspoons of this tea overnight. It smells nice but obviously artificially peachy. The flavour is quite nice too but it needs sweetening to taste really good. I didn’t sweeten this time to cut down a few calories. It’s astringent sencha with peach flavouring – not sweet, just peachy. Refreshing? Hell yeah.

Personal note:

It’s the hottest day of the year so far at 31c where I’m living. For me, that’s too hot. I can’t function well above 25c. Predicting this in advance, I had the good sense to make a pitcher of this tea the night before to cold brew in the fridge.

Of course, it all went wrong. I was drinking this outside in my smoothie cup because it has a built in straw and lid so the flies can’t get to it, when a cherry from the tree above me landed on my head. No joke. My head jarred forward in surprise and the hard plastic straw lodged itself in my gums. Blood went everywhere including down the straw into my tea. Now I’m sulking inside with a painful, bruised gum and only a small amount of blood-free tea left. I hope everyone else is having a better day!

Enjoyed this one more than I thought I would. I’m usually guilty of overbrewing this tea and then quickly gulping down the bitter liquor to finish it as quickly as possible. But, as this is review time, I made sure to time it perfectly. 1 minute 30 seconds was just right.

The aroma is tantalising. Dry, it has a lemon and lime zest aroma – like when you’re zesting a lemon and that fine spray goes everywhere. Pour over water, and suddenly it’s smoky and earthy which was completely unexpected but I love smoky so I was breathing that in deeply. About 2 or 3 minutes after removing the tea bag, the aroma switched back to bergamot, citrus and floral notes. The smokiness just evaporated but I’m certain I didn’t imagine it.

The flavour is delicate and refreshing. It’s a pretentious tea in my opinion. Supposed to be eaten with tiny sandwiches and cakes. The texture is silky smooth and I love how it glides over my palate – sometimes citrus sticks to my throat and gets a little tingly, but that didn’t happen here.

The body is medium-light but the floral and citrus notes are undeniably pungent – it’s a weird light/heavy combo that upsets my stomach if I drink it without food. It’s also weird that this tea contains a mix of black, green and oolong teas. It works!

The 70 score is accurate though. I’m not falling in love with this tea or craving another cup. A once-a-month tea when I have to be in the mood for it.

Full review with some nice pictures: https://www.immortalwordsmith.co.uk/whittard-afternoon-tea-review/

Love the aroma of this tea, it’s very fragrant and tropical. I get this really lush juicy aroma of mango and passion fruit, but there’s also something starchy about this tea that I don’t think anyone else has picked up on from the tasting notes I’ve read. It’s just a vague hint of sticky rice but it works so well. You have to really stick your nose in the cup to find it.

The flavour is also delicious, even though I slightly over-brewed it. I’ve had this tea many times, so I know what it’s capable of delivering when I get the timing just right. The green tea isn’t anything to shout about, it’s the fruity flavour with citrus kick that’s the highlight of this tea.

There’s a chemical/nail varnish tang that I’ve noticed as well – it’s not ruining the cup but I can’t ignore it either. It’s happened before when brewing these tea bags but not when brewing the loose leaf version. It’s still a good tea so I’ve rated it as such.

I also adore the new tea discoveries caddy it’s available in, so pretty.

https://www.immortalwordsmith.co.uk/whittard-mango-bergamot-tea-review/

A very pleasant, heavy black with the distinct flavor of a (light) lacing with a (light) whiskey. Excellent black. Also good with cream and a touch of honey.

It’s late and I’ve been staring at this laptop screen all day, so this cup of chamomile is very welcome!

The dry flowers have a really beautiful fresh hay aroma that’s doused in a natural sweet honey high note. I’m kind of sad that the hay aroma didn’t stay after I brewed a cup. I was also a little worried at first, because it was a vibrant lemon yellow colour at the start of a brew. My experience with chamomile teas in the past has always been a dull but light gold colour. I double checked the label but there’s definitely no artificial colours added. After 2 minutes it was back to the gold colour I love.

The taste pales in comparison to the aroma, but still I had no trouble slurping it down. So good, so sweet.

Chamomile puts me to sleep fairly quickly, and it’s too dark to take pictures right now, so I’ll update this tasting note with a link to my full blog article tomorrow sometime. Goodnight!

https://www.immortalwordsmith.co.uk/whittard-chamomile-tea-review/

Decided to give this tea another go, I do have 3 more bulbs to get through and I can’t bear the thought of throwing tea away.

First steep was the same as before; disappointing. No rose flavour or aroma at all. The marigold has a nice warming flavour but it overpowers everything. I can get 3 small cups from my teapot, so by the third cup it was very bitter too from the green tea.

Instead of throwing it away, I decided to refill the teapot for a second infusion. It’s milder this time and quite calming. The marigold is still the dominant flavour but it’s somehow starting to become creamy. Distinctive nutty notes are coming through too. More palatable but no flavour from the green tea leaves.

It’s going back in the cupboard. Maybe I’ll try again in the summer. Might even try it iced, although I’m not sure how that will work with a blooming tea or if it will suit the warmth of the marigold.

Bought this as a Valentine’s gift for myself – it was disappointing. The name would suggest some sort of rose based tea… but actually, there was no hint of rose at all. The blooming tea ball expanded to reveal 2 very pretty marigold blooms and the tiniest rose bud I’ve ever seen.

It was delicious, but it wasn’t what I was expecting. If you’re still interested in trying this tea, check our my full review https://www.immortalwordsmith.co.uk/whittard-rose-bloom-flowering-tea-review/

I have this loose jasmine green tea in the new Whittard Tea Discoveries caddy. It’s quite good, I love the soothing aroma and flavour once brewed. I buy it online… for the quality, I think it’s a little overpriced but still worth it.

It has a clear, golden yellow colour when brewed and a light, slightly sweet flavour. I have noticed that some batches have a little musty taste to them – I would guess because they’re old stock.

I wrote a complete review on my blog here https://www.immortalwordsmith.co.uk/whittard-jasmine-green-tea-review/

A tea bag from Izzy, thank you!

Apparently, my third tasting note of this tea. Always with year difference.

Pretty much common black tea, mellow and hints of tannic; but missing bready or other interesting flavours. It’s okay.

I apparently got this tea before, but I can not recall it at all. But this time I had if of unknown age and it doesn’t aged well. It was just plain black tea, no maltiness, just some caffeined water with almost no tea taste.

Tea bag of unknown age, but in foil wrapper, so it should be still okay.

It was pleasant, bold black tea. No bad taste, stongly malt one. I can not find any downsides of this tea. It wasn´t much complex – but hey, it was a tea bag, right?

Colour was dark copper, as expected from black tea bag. I would prefer bit of sweetness, but it wasn´t bitter at all. Honestly I am really surprised of this one. Robust, malty, rich tea. And better than that Sebastea High Grown loose leaf I bought the other day.

This is wildly different from the loose leaf version of this Tea Discoveries line. The loose version is true to the rose flavor, complete with aroma, but this…this tastes like drinking black tea steeped in fruity candy. Not sure what happened here. It reminds me of artificial banana candies, like banana Now and Laters. Or strawberry banana candy. Neither milk nor sweetener helped.

Another sipdown! (168/397)

This was quite a nondescript fruity ‘red berries’ sort of tea, the cranberry more prominent than the raspberry. I’ve had several cups over the last few days trying to finish this off, and experiemented using different amounts of the instant tea. I found it to be quite one-dimensional, one flavour that was simply weaker or stronger depending on the amount used with no particular nuances or notes which presented themselves at different temperatures or such. That being said, it was pretty tasty and a comforting cup to sip on while playing chess with the beau. I like that it’s quick and easy to make up a cup, and you can even stir the crystals into cold water for instant iced tea, but it just wasn’t good enough to hold a candle to my stash of loose leaf. I’ve tried several instant teas now, and while this one was not the best – nor was it the worst – none of them have been able to convert me. On to the next one!

Welp, I caved and opened another new instant tea. I figure it’s only a small sampler and I’ve had them all entirely too long, so I should try to get through them the same as I am with my other ‘proper’ teas. I’ll save a proper review for later since I have to go to bed now – I’ve got to get up early in the morning for my first driving lesson since I failed my test over a year ago, and I don’t want to be tired for it. It’s fruity, but I’m not sure I’d say cranberry and raspberry specifically, and quite sour too. I think I’ll use less tea crystals next time.

Beautifully balanced, aromatic bergamot. It is my favorite classic earl grey thus far. Smooth, lovely with a splash of milk.

Sipdown 127/395

Okay so this is a bit of an atypical one. For a start, I am like 80% sure I wrote a tasting note on this tea a couple of years ago when I had a big tub of it. Not only is that not showing up, but the tasting note section is entirely blank, yet it says ‘10 tasting notes’ at the top of the page. When I click the shortcut to view the 10 tasting notes, it just takes me right back to the bottom of the page where it states that there are no notes on this tea as of yet. Super bizarre… Another thing is that this is an instant tea. High in sugar, and sure it contains black tea, but it’s dehydrated and granulated and not exactly what most people think of when they hear ‘tea’. Still, that’s what it’s called and it does – at least in my mind – qualify as tea enough to be written up on Steepster. It’s pretty tasty! Don’t judge me, guys. So here’s the thing; I had a lovely day trip to Durham today with my boyfriend and his mam. It was lovely but freezing, and on the way back we stopped into a pub and I had a glass of mulled wine. It got me into the Christmas spirit and warmed me up, and when I got back home I wanted a similar drink to keep up my internal warm fuzzies, but I also wanted tea. So here we are. It fits the bill. The sugar is enough to temper the tart fruits, but not overpowering and there is some sourness which I don’t mind. I don’t know that I can pick out the individual fruit flavours – I probably would have just said ‘berry’, but the box says apple and strawberry. It’s nice!

I finally finished this tea. I hoarded for so long that I was afraid it was a goner, especially with the big strips of coconut in it.

GMathis mentioned scones a few days ago and I could not get them out of my mind, so Monday morning I made a batch of cranberry/white chocolate chip/pecan scones to serve as breakfast for the week. This was what I chose to pair with it.

The smell of the dry leaf is so sweet but the tea itself is not. I think it is the combination of black and green tea that gives this tea a little smoky edge that keeps the macaron part from being cloying. It was just hefty enough for breakfast but I love it as an afternoon tea, also. It is one of my favorites from Whittards of Chelsea. The coconut was not in the least rancid, thank goodness.

So this was a sipdown, but I don’t get any extra room on the actual shelf because the tin is too pretty to throw away. Eventually I will probably part with it but not today.

One year ago I said I was going to quit hoarding this, and never drank it again. I have been working so hard on sipdowns! I had enough leaf left for about four cups of tea and used half of it this morning. This is way out of date but it is still SO GOOD. It doesn’t have that sharp metallic edge I get in some flavored teas.

This is warm, sweet, creamy, and delicious. I will probably not remove it from my cupboard because I think this may have achieved desert island list status.

Another tea that I had failed to list in my cupboard….I guess I am not as far into decluttering my stash as I thought. On a happy note – someone stopped by my youngest daughter’s dorm this morning just to get their travel mug filled with the Teavivre jasmine tea I took her last weekend. Apparently it was a big hit!

This one is so delicious that I have hoarded it, saving it for only the most special occasions, and now it is past the use by date. It tastes fantastic, but I have to get serious and finish because it would be a huge waste to let it truly go bad.

It is so coconut-y and vry easy going even though it is a blend of black tea and green tea, which can sometimes be a lttle difficult to work with as the green can get “burned” or the black may not give up its best flavor at a lower temp. Nope, I really didn’t give it special treatment but it turned out awesome.

Hubby and I had his and hers teas this evening in front of the fire. He had puerh while I had this, served with garlic and herb goat cheese, crackers, and Woodstock organic bread and butter pickles.

And only AFTER I was all done handling food did I open the book that GGMathis sent for me to read – Mycroft Holmes by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar! I also got the CUTEST Thanksgiving…ahem…HENSgiving card that she made! I should show it to the chickens tomorrow. They will be so pleased! They will be so excited for Thanksgiving as they always get to enjoy some of the bounty.