Tab Tries: Posh Tea

DISCLAIMER: Turns out it is impossible to review tea without sounding like a pretentious wanker. You have been warned.

Tea: it’s every student’s favourite non-alcoholic drink. However, most tea-makers don’t seem to realise this.

Names like PG Tips and Earl Grey hardly seem designed to appeal to “the kids”. Thankfully, Teaple are here to re-claim tea as a young person’s drink. They’re even working on a range of alcoholic teas, which might just be the greatest idea ever (tea-lash anyone?).

Unfortunately, these weren’t ready to try yet so our tester had to make do with a selection of Teaple’s non-alcoholic teas. Would self-proclaimed tea expert Greg Wolfman be impressed?

Tea is for mugs

As an avowed patron of Twinings Earl Grey, that was always the standard from which I was going to judge anything infused with bergamot.

Can it compare to Twinings?

This was a much more subtle and refined taste than a lot of similar teas I’ve experienced, perhaps due to the presence of Darjeeling. The combination of the teas left a longer, slightly bitter and woody taste in my mouth, which was not at all a bad thing.

It was bitter without being acrid; a lovely blend, refined and gentle and at the same time richly flavoured.

Teaple’s standard English breakfast tea was next, recommended with a splash of milk in the morning. Choosing not to bastardise it with sugar, it had the familiar robustness it should have without the same attack of flavour of many big name brands.

Perfect with a fry-up

It felt good and comforting, though there was nothing staggering to mark it out from other blends of English breakfast. Despite this, the colour was good, and the flavour was full.

A particularly good accompaniment to a fried breakfast on a Sunday morning, the subtlety of Teaple’s Rosy Lee is a fine contribution to the vast range of English breakfast teas on offer.

As a huge fan of the absurdly sweet gunpowder tea served in North Africa, I was rather looking forward to this one blended with peppermint. Recommended to leave the boiled water to stand for 2 minutes before brewing, the smell was charming, as peppermint always is, although there was also a notable vanilla overtone.

Min-tea fresh

The subtle smokiness of the gunpowder worked well, dancing on the tongue throughout, but it was the completely separate vanilla which had me wanting more of this. A lovely fresh vibrancy to the whole thing, it left the tongue comfortably numb and cleansed and the drinker satisfied.

I’m a big fan of ginger tea (the spicier the better), and fennel is one of my favourite flavours so the appearance of these teabags was promising, with fresh fennel seeds and dried root ginger within.

Greg gets started on another quali-tea brew

The familiar ginger smell was good, and the subtle fennel complimented the ginger excellently, providing a steady aniseed floral note to the sharp ginger and lemon.

This one had a lovely sweetness throughout, but disappointed me on one count. The ginger was not spicy, and was rather more like the syrupy ginger flavour you get from the jar. This was not by itself a bad thing, but I always think one of the joys of ginger tea is the peppery bite which perks you up.

While a pleasant flavour, I felt let down by the spice I thought I was promised.

Fancy getting your hands on some Teaple teas? Check out their Facebook page.