Tea

I love tea.  Anyone who knows me knows that I love tea.  The stronger the better.

I take my tea black, no sugar, and please leave the tea bag in, coz you just can't get it strong enough when you squash it about on the side of the mug.

I drink Nambarrie tea, it's my favourite, probably due to the fact that it's one of the strongest I have found.

I can only buy it in my local Morrisons, Asda don't seem to stock it at all.

So, when I read Pratttle and Froth's blog about FREE TEA I just had to order some.

I popped along to the Twinings website and chose a "Fresh & Fruity Cranberry & Sanguinello Orange"  (never heard of a Sanguinello Orange, have you?) and an "Assam (Strong & Mighty)"


This floated through my letterbox and landed on my doormat  (actually it missed, skidded across the laminate floor and frightened the life out of the dog, but that doesn't sound so good!)

I ripped it open to find my chosen teas attached inside.  What a cute little package.

Let's try the fruity one first.   The smell as the hot water hit the bag was really juicy and tangy and the water turned the most beautiful deep pink colour. I expected it to be paler I think, more of an orangy tan colour.

That's where the enjoyment ended, with the colour.  The taste wasn't nice at all.  Sorry Twinings but it really was quite rank, there was a nasty bitter after-taste, almost sour.  Definitely not something I will be purchasing in the future.  In fact, I couldn't even finish the mug, I poured a good half down the sink.

A few days later I tried the Assam, on the back of the little pack it tells you that Elephants live in the Assam region and do a lot of the lifting and carrying (presumably of the tea).  It also tells you to sit down, have a brew and think about elephants. Random.

I had it in my lovely new tea cup that I bought from a wonderful local shop, newly opened, called Ashbridge and Brown, situated in Treasury Court, Carlisle.  (Do visit, it has some wonderful things in there.)

I quite liked this tea, I usually leave the tea bag in my brew, but I brewed this one up properly as instructed on the packet.  It wasn't quite strong enough for me, but presumably if I did leave the bag in it would be.

I might buy this one, if there was no Nambarrie on the shelf  :)

ps - I just Googled the Sanguinello Orange and it seems we know it as a blood orange. I HAVE heard of one of those  :)