My Top 5 – Teapigs Tea

I did it. I tasted every tea by teapigs in my cupboard. All 19 teas!

If you have been following ‘Operation Tea-rrific’ you’ll know by now that the aim of the project wasn’t just to drink lots of tea, but to choose the top 5 teas that teapigs have to offer (in my humble opinion). I rated seven out of nineteen teas 5/5, making this final decision trickier than I had first imagined. The first four were easy, clear winners in my mind, but choosing between the three teas remaining was so difficult, I had to try them both again – oh the anguish!

Operation Tea-riffic Day 7

I’d originally calculated eight days of tea tasting, but it seems that I have come to the last of my teas today (and yes, I’m rubbish at maths). Here we are then, my very last tea from the cupboard, the lowdown on teapigs’ silver tips white tea:

Operation Tea-rrific Day 6

As you might have guessed I didn’t write my usual post first thing this morning, I was busy putting together a healthy, stuff we don’t usually eat, menu for the coming fortnight and it took forever! So I’m tea drinking this evening instead. It’s OK though, because I’m drinking Rooibos teas and they’re naturally caffeine free, phew.

Operation Tea-rrific Day 5

Chilis - Delhi, India

The three teas up for tasting this morning are: teapigs’ chai tea, organic dragon well green tea (can’t seem to find on website) and chilli chai.

Operation Tea-riffic Day 4

I have decided to taste three ‘black’ teas today, all by teapigs again, we have: chocolate flake tea, tung ting oolong and darjeeling earl grey.

I started off with:

Chocolate Flake tea

Chocolate Flake Tea

I have a couple of chocolate teas in my cupboard and this is the only one I haven’t tried to date.  I’m intrigued to see how the real chocolate flakes will taste with the tea – I tend to steer clear of the choccy biscuits with tea, preferring instead to stick to malted milk or original hobnobs – because I don’t like the way the chocolate does that strange half-melting thing at the bottom of the cup.

Operation Tea-rrific Day 3

Operation Tea-riffic

At 8 o’clock this morning, I got up to begin ‘Operation Tea-riffic’ – for those of you who don’t already know, Operation Tea-riffic is a challenge whereby I am attempting to taste all of the tea in my cupboard (there’s a lot), review it and decide on my top 5 teas.

 

 

Teapigs Tea Contenders I'm going to go for reviewing three teas a day. In theory that should take me eight days of non-stop tea drinking, sounds good to me.To kick things off, I've decided to go for the following three teas, by Teapigs: Chamomile, Yerba Mate & English Breakfast Tea.First up:Chamomile FlowersChamomile Flowers

I feel a little bit of bias towards this tea, because I’ve been drinking it for ages and it’s the best chamomile tea i’ve ever got my hands on. As you probably know, Chamomile is renowned for alleviating stress and anxiety and this tea does its job. It’s always the tea I turn to for a spot of calming down.

The tea temples look undeniably beautiful, filled with whole, yellow chamomile flowers and they smell delicious too. When brewed, it’s a delightful, clear lemony colour. When drunk, this tea is firstly mellow, then flowery and sweet, whilst all at once being surprisingly clean and fresh tasting.

My verdict: 5/5

Next up, we have:

‘Morning Glory’ English Breakfast Tea

Again, another tea I drink regularly – every morning in-fact. It’s made up of Rwandan, Assam and Ceylon teas and seems to disappear rather quickly in this house.

A deep golden coloured mellow tea, that is suave and refreshing.  It’s full-bodied and yet still gorgeously smooth (not like ‘regular’ tea that can sometimes have that tang to it). When drank black, or with lemon, it’s untainted complexion leaves a clean cup. When drank with milk, it doesn’t greatly alter the flavour or texture, whereas many other teas need the milk, this tea simply befriends it.

I give it: 5/5

Oh dear, this is going to be incredibly tricky if every tea scores 5/5.  So, moving on swiftly, we have:

Yerba Mate

Now this is a tea I haven’t had before. It’s native to South America, where apparently it’s drank to increase focus and alertness. It isn’t the prettiest of teas, but I shan’t judge it on appearance alone.

The tea temples smell distinctly like a tobacconist’s: sweet and smokey. When drunk, it has a slight taste that I can only describe as what it would be like to lick a tobacconist’s counter (when it’s been polished, so you don’t get any bits in your mouth). Despite that, I quite like it. It’s… different. 

Did it make me feel more alert? Yes, slightly.

I give this Amazonian tea: 3/5

So that’s todays three teas brewed, drunk and reviewed. Did any one notice the absence of my ‘special tea cup’? I didn’t think it would make for good pictures, but it’s still here, with me.  I’ll be back here drinking tea at the same time tomorrow.

Images: Natalie Basnett

Tea.

After all that cake yesterday, I thought we’d settle down with a nice cup of tea this afternoon. 

That's me, having a cup of tea

Tea plays a big part in my life. It’s detrimental to getting things done, like getting dressed in the morning and thinking. It goes with all the best food too, like sandwiches and cake, scones, biscuits, fish and chips, maltloaf, crumpets, toast and even curry (which actually makes sense, when you think about it).