Bird & Blend Tea Co.

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Recent Tasting Notes

78

Iève had this tea before but I don’t remember much about it – but given my rating I’d say that I liked it a fair bit? It came with the Easter themed sampler that I ordered, but otherwise I don’t think I’d have picked it up this time around…

I had it a while ago, and my memory is fuzzy – but I recall it being alright. More fruity than anything else with a citrus lean – but pretty generic.

Idk.

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78

Cold Brew Sipdown (138)!

Thank you Scheherazade! I was really excited when I saw this one in your swap package because I’ve had it before (I think from you, actually?) and I quite enjoyed it so revisiting was very nice. I wont go in depth; this tasted exactly like I remembered it from last time. So, suffice to say, I was not disappointed.

Flavors: Apple, Black Currant, Cinnamon, Cranberry, Fruity, Orange, Orange Zest, Tart

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78

Sipdown (143)!

I’m too lazy to turn my jot notes into sentences right now. So here, have the billion+ jot notes I took while drinking this one…

- Cold Brew
- Free sample w. my order
- Dry, smells very close to Hot Cross Buns (which I call Easter Buns)
- Brewed up, it’s quite delicious!
- However while I find it comes close to tasting like Easter Buns…
- It’s a bit too fruity to really nail the taste
- Strong notes of orange/orange peel, apple, cranberry, and currants
- As well as a cinnamon note
- Interestingly, this has Lapsang in it but I def. can’t taste that
- What’s missing for me is a touch of ‘custardy’/creamy flavour
- From that pastry filling that makes the “cross”
- As well as a bready note, to really tie the flavour together/balance it out
- But super tasty regardless!

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100

Last night’s after dinner cup! I pulled out a stack of Bluebird teas when I went through my tea box on Sunday, so it’s no surprise that I’m starting to work through them. As ever, I only wish I’d done it sooner because this one. Is. Amazing. It smells great as soon as you open the pouch, but I’m always slightly wary of building up hopes at that point because scent and flavour are two entirely different things. I’ve learned this the hard way when it comes to tea and expectations. It’s not the case here, though, because this tea actually tastes like black forest gateau in a cup! I used 1.5 tsp of leaf, gave it a good 4 minutes in boiling water, and then added a splash of milk.

The initial flavour is cherry – concentrated black cherry, and a little syrupy. Second comes the chocolate – dark chocolate, rich and creamy. It has a lightness that really reminds me of sponge cake, although I have no idea how that’s achieved. Last of all is a hint of vanilla, which puts me very much in mind of the whipped cream topping a black forest gateau would have. Altogether, it’s pretty well a spot-on recreation in liquid form. I wasn’t expecting to be quite so impressed, but I’m more than glad that I am. This will definitely be a repurchase once I have my cupboard a little more in order. I’ve just placed an order with Bluebird for their new Spring collection anyway, so it’ll be a while yet I suspect.

One thing that did stand out to me is the sheer amount of different berries that went into this one – elderberries, raspberries, strawberries, blackberries and cranberries, but no cherry. I just found it interesting that the effect they create is so different from what they actually are, and that it took so many different berries to achieve it. There’s also apple and hibiscus, so go figure I guess. In some ways, Bluebird strike me almost as a smaller, UK version of David’s Tea. “All the ingredients”, huh? Given that it tastes this good, though, I’m not really complaining!

Preparation
Boiling 4 min, 0 sec 1 tsp
Sil

Wow this sounds delicious!

tea-sipper

Thanks for your note on this one! I’ve wanted to try this since it was released!

Scheherazade

It’s well worth a try. Totally delicious!

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56

Fruit Salad provides an explosion of flavours that navigate their way through the taste buds, to provide a combination of sweet and sour. The most poignant of these are hibiscus, lemongrass and raspberry with a slight crisp apple and pineapple finish. Whilst this is a tasty hot brew, I felt this tea really lives to be cold. Adding Ice to fruit blends usually makes for an excellent pairing and Fruit Salad is no exception. When cooled this becomes sooo fruity almost like a fruit punch. I can easily imagine this blend being sipped in the high heat of summer for refreshing hydration. For a naughty twist add a sneaky shot of alcohol and a sprig of mint and your good to go with a fruity cocktail! Bliss!

More at; http://tastethetea.co.uk/2016/03/01/bluebirdspringcollection/

Flavors: Fruit Punch, Hibiscus, Lemongrass, Raspberry, Sour, Sweet

LooseLeafClub

Bluebird Tea Co. has some of the best blends!

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68

To my relief Maple Bacon Pancakes was so good! Nothing too harsh and certainly sweet, bordering on syrupy. However, the after taste is where the kick lies. A fiery tingle left on the tongue. Nothing too extreme, depending on how much chilli you have in your steeped leaves! My first brew was an almost pleasant peppery taste, but my next batch contained a fire that I couldn’t quite handle. Despite my focus on the finish, rooibos takes prominence in the flavour, combing perfectly with the vanilla and cinnamon to create another curious sweet blend with a gentle smokey backing note, provided by Lapsang Souchong.

More at: http://tastethetea.co.uk/2016/03/01/bluebirdspringcollection/

Flavors: Maple Syrup, Smoke, Spicy, Sweet

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89

There is sooo much going on in this lovely blend it’s hard to know what to focus on first. On tasting Easter Egg Nest a handful of the ingredients barge through to the taste buds and start fighting for control, all holding their hands up, screaming me, me, me. Not one of these flavours wins out though, because they all combine in an unexpectedly glorious way to reveal a sweet, robust, flavoursome tea. To define this I’ll run through the key identifiers. The toasted rice is no doubt what provides the flavour akin to the classic egg nest cakes, making the two easily compatible for a pairing, but also providing a psychological linking, whisking you back to childhood. Secondly, there is a subtle chocolatey, slightly nutty element, no doubt provided by the cocoa and the chocolate chips. Finally, the marshmallows provide a delightfully sweet element to the flavour.

More at: http://tastethetea.co.uk/2016/03/01/bluebirdspringcollection/

Flavors: Bitter, Dark Chocolate, Marshmallow, Nutty, Sweet, Toasted Rice

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51

As reviewed at www.tastethetea.co.uk : If using a large mug of water this needs to be brewed for a little longer than 4 minutes to allow the flavours to fully develop. Herbal blends can often be weaker than tea so I find the balance between too strong and too weak is more varied depending what herbs the blend contains. Rose tends to be subtle but isn’t easily overpowered. This blend does well to combine rose with lemongrass, in order to tone down the citric notes that can sometimes be overbearing with lemon based herbal blends.

Flavors: Lemon, Rose

Preparation
190 °F / 87 °C 4 min, 30 sec 1 tsp

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I currently have a big tea problem. Picture uncharted tea rapids whose vast force hasn’t found release in over a year. It’s all wild, untended terrain here. Poor tea.

Anyways, I’m going to try and use Steepster to work my way through this while also attempting to salvage tea appreciation.

This tea, which was poking out of an overflowing cupboard screaming from torture and neglect, seemed like as good a place as any to start. Also, “snowball” effect. Let’s channel that.

While coconut and chocolate teas are usually far from my favourites, this cloudy looking concoction was very easy to drink. Adding milk gave it some textural depth, which the chocolate, marshmallow, and coconut mentally tease me with, but there’s enough going on that it’s decent without milk too.

The last cup I had cooled quite a bit before being found in the house again, and it was still decent. The coconut flavour here was particularly strong.

Flavors: Cocoa, Coconut, Marshmallow

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 3 min, 0 sec
Sil

sounds fun :)

Crowkettle

It would be more fun if I had more than three oolong types in this tea horde. After a year I guess I should count myself lucky that it’s mostly resilient puerh XD

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Brewed on the stove top. Added 2% milk to the second boiling round. No sugar.

As the leaf simmered, the house was filled with a deliciously fruit-filled rooibos aroma. Considering that almost half of the ingredients are fruits – apple, hibiscus, rosehip, pineapple – it’s not surprising. My mother thought I was burning a scented candle, ha ha.

The spice mix consists of ginger, cinnamon, and chili. That last one. Holy frickin’ cow! It’s incredibly strong. This is one of the most peppery spiced teas I’ve ever had, alongside Old 52Tea’s Spiced Chai. Even my throat felt spicy.

On the plus side, good on this blend for nice aroma and spice strength. However, the chili overpowers everything else. Coconut? Shrug. Not in even in the aroma. Too many fruits. Additionally, there are “natural flavors.” Is there a point? The are enough powerful ingredients as it is.

Give or take. You may want to try it or not.

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60

Herbal TTB

I’ve heard great things about Bluebird Tea, so I was curious to sample this chai from the herbal TTB. I didn’t read the description ahead of time, so this tea caught me completely off-guard! It’s not at all the sort of thing I think of when I hear the word “chai”…you don’t really taste cinnamon, cardamon, or cloves in the blend. Instead, it has a juicy pineapple flavor with a touch of creamy coconut…followed by an unexpected wave of spicy chili in the aftertaste! Personally, I’m not a fan of drinks (or foods!) that leave my tongue tingling, so I probably won’t drink this again. But I’m glad I had the experience of trying it once!

Flavors: Coconut, Pineapple, Spicy

Preparation
Boiling 5 min, 0 sec 1 tsp 8 OZ / 236 ML

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86

OH NO.

In a moment of weakness, I just ordered 3 new teas from Taiwan Tea Crafts. I’m supposed to be not buying any more tea, since I sort of accidentally ordered twice as much Bluebird as I’d planned to, due to a confused shopping basket. But never mind that. It’s jolly good stuff, I’m packing up some gingerbread chai to a friend as a little birthday gift (shh, don’t tell her) and I may well be foisting some fancy French teas on you guys, if anyone fancies helping me make a little room in my cupboard.

But that’s that, and this is what I’m drinking this dreary afternoon. I’d had my eye on this one for a while, as I like sweet lemony things and have far too little of it in my tea rotation. This one looks like there’s a lot of verbena and lemongrass and other lovely herbs going on, with a sprinkle of sweet little dark buds of green tea poking out here and there. This tells me it might be a good choice for evening drinking, without leaving me in that awkward state of wiredness where, in spite of being fatigued all day, I SUDDENLY WANT TO DO ALL THE THINGS and devote myself to doing a terrible sketch of Captain Phasma holding a stack of performance reviews.

(Seriously – I actually get paid to be an illustrator, and I just feel constantly in awe of how much faster and better literally everyone else is at drawing than me. It’s weird.)

But I digress. As for the flavour of the brew itself, it’s a pleasantly herby not-too-tart Meyer lemon sort of lemonyness, which I think I like taking brewed strong and with a spoonful of sugar to ramp up the sherbet part of the name. I think this one might have to become a fixture in my cupboard, for those times when only sweet lemon will do.

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Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays, Steepsterites! I hope your day is full of warm spice, comfort sweets, and citrus zing like this particular tea, regardless of whether you celebrate or not!

tea-sipper

Sipping Bluebird’s Mocha Chai right now. :D

__Morgana__

Same to you, CK!

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49

Cue sad music I was really hoping this tea would make a nice latte, something for staying up late nights at the hospital. Keep me warm while finishing up charting patients. Unfortunately the taste of this tea is much like the paper I’m charting on. Bummer. Sounded so good.

Flavors: Wood

drpastry

I think we need a list of teas to chart patients to? Just saying.

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90

020/365

I’m pretty sure I tried Snowball last year (or maybe the year before?) Either way, it’s a Bluebird blend I’m familiar with. I like the idea of chocolate/coconut/marshmallow – they make for a good combination. Drank conventionally, I’m not sure I got all of those flavours very clearly, so I’m going to experiment a little with this year’s sample.

I brewed my first cup as a latte. I’m using a recipe from Bluebird’s own website – 4 tsp of leaf in 300ml boiling water, topped up with 100ml of hot milk, 1 tsp of honey, and 1/2 tsp of vanilla extract.

It’s really delicious. I get mostly coconut and marshmallow, but with a background of milk chocolate. It’s sweet and creamy, reminiscent of one of those Tunnock’s Snowball cake/biscuit/teacake things, which I think is supposed to be. If that’s the case (and I’m pretty sure it is), Bluebird did well with this blend, and it works really well as a latte.

I’d buy more of this one.

Preparation
Boiling 4 min, 0 sec 4 tsp

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90

It’s only mid-morning and I’m already totally harassed. I HAVE TEA THOUGH.

To cheer myself up, I went for the most temptingly delicious sounding Bluebird Christmas tea – Snowball! Anything with three kinds of chocolate, two kinds of coconut, marshmallows and pink flowers has to be a good thing, right? And it’s tea as well. This totally reminds me of those Tunnock’s marshmallow snowballs, as I expect it’s supposed to. The intial sip is mostly chocolate (quite dark, rich chocolate I might add), followed by the sweetness of coconut, and then the creamy over-the-topness of sticky marshmallow. It’s liquid deliciousness. It’s another pretty blend, too, with the pink cornflowers and white coconut – tastes like a snowball, looks like a snowball. Is this perfection in a cup?

I used 1 tsp of leaf for my cup, and left it approximately 3.5 minutes. I added a splash of milk just because, really. I figure it only helped with the creaminess. I think next time I might give this one a slightly shorter brew time, because it’s really quite sweet and borderline overpowering by the end of the cup. It’s an amazing dessert tea, though.

Really enjoying this one :)

Preparation
Boiling 3 min, 30 sec 1 tsp

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85

No notes for this one? It’s Christmas jumper day at work today, so I figured I might as well make it Christmas tea day also just to add an extra festive touch. I feel so far from Christmassy at the moment, I need all the help I can get.

I’m a fan of candy cane tea any time of the year, really, but I’ve been saving this sample pouch for a suitable occasion. Turns out that’s today! I used 1 tsp of leaf for my cup, and gave it 3.5 minutes in boiling water. I was thinking maybe milk, but in the end I went with no additions.

To taste, it’s actually pretty good. Spearmint is always a winner with me – it’s sweeter and more gentle than peppermint, and it does a good job of recreating a “candy” mint flavour. The vanilla adds a creamy touch, which is totally delicious in this context. I really am thinking candy cane as I sip this one. I’m not 100% sold on the ceylon base – it’s a little citrussy for my tastes, and then with the added lime leaves and pomegranate flowers it’s just a little confusing and muddled in the aftertaste. The initial hit of spearmint and vanilla is excellent, though. I’m not usually a fan of stevia in teas, but I will say that it works quite well here to create the candy cane effect. It’s not too cloying and artificial, either, so clearly it’s been added with a light hand.

The last thing to say, as with pretty much all Bluebird blends, is that it looks fabulous. Pink cornflowers, red pomegranate flowers, green mint, black tea. It does recall a candy cane, and it’s lovely to look at. The biggest joy is in the drinking, though. It’s pretty much liquid candy cane, and it’ll surely make this work day more bearable.

Preparation
Boiling 3 min, 30 sec 1 tsp

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72

Spicy, with a very peppery bite. It was dry and not my favourite. Decent, but nothing I’d seek out again. Glad to have tried it though.

Flavors: Drying, Pepper, Spices

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87

Sometimes you feel yourself sinking into the earth and no amount of effort can free you.
That is just how it is in life. Nothing can be done to change it. Alas. Sorry for my absence.

I had this within the last 2 months. Apologies if my memory of it is not the sharpest. I know that I really enjoyed it. I know it had a beautiful creamy flavour. It really brought Christmas to my mind and I was sorrowed to only have one cup worth of this delight. Someday I will be able to order this and more from Bluebird, but it will not be anytime soon. If you have access to it though I definitely recommend it for you.

Flavors: Creamy

Preparation
1 tsp 10 OZ / 295 ML

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86

Ahhh, this is nice.

It’s been tired times for little Kelshy and I am so over having blood tests taken, but I hope they’ve got enough of my blood to actually figure out how to make me feel less like perma-garbage. And way heavier than I’ve ever been. And always sleepy.

And yet I still managed to be awake until midnight last night, even though I specifically made myself a nice cuppa this to help me drift off into dreamland and maybe, just maybe wake up refreshed instead of exhausted? Oh well. Tasty, though. I love lavender, but it needs to be balanced with the right other flavours otherwise it’s a bit like drinking soap. And it needs to be sweet, otherwise, again, soap. So brewed this up with two little spoons of sugar and tucked in while finishing my evening attempt at finishing that awful race off the end of the heli-carrier in Lego Marvel Superheroes on the Xbox. The chamomile balances out the lavender beautifully, with just a touch of the other bits giving it lift and balance. It’s like being wrapped up in a warm blanket of lovely flowers that I’m magically not allergic to. Lovely.

But I also made a little gaggle of five-spice gingerbread Daleks and TARDISes to take to the office last night, and they went down an absolute treat. Huzzah! Five-spice makes the best gingerbread.

And here’s something I wrote where I talked to some nice gentleman about a Christmas special they made for a show called Doctor Who:

http://www.cultbox.co.uk/interviews/exclusives/peter-capaldi-and-steven-moffat-tell-us-about-2015s-doctor-who-christmas-ep

__Morgana__

I hope you start feeling less like perma-garbage soon. (Great description, though.)

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86

I had to drink something reliably scrummy to get the memory of last night’s pumpkin spice out of my taste buds.

This one is so good, though. I was so wary about the prospect of banana tea, and yet it’s SO GOOD! There’s no suggestion of that nasty banana artificial flavouring (barf) and it tastes instead like creamy banana chips baked into banana bread, that melds so nicely with the base. I love it with milk, to bring out the creaminess of the banana. I love it so much. How is this such a comforting taste, I don’t know, but it is. Oh man. Good.

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86

Great news! I fell down the stairs getting off the bus today! My shoulder and back definitely feel like they’re going to be massively messed up tomorrow! I am so grateful I still have a stash of the Canadian back pain pills you can’t seem to get from pharmacies anywhere else!

THANK YOU CANADA FOR RECOGNISING YOU TOTALLY DON’T NEED A PRESCRIPTION TO NEED THE HECK OUTTA ROBAXACET PLATINUM plus I am so tired right now (falling down the stairs getting off the bus probably didn’t help) that I crawled under my desk for a few minutes to see if it would be a good place to nap.

In other news, the pile of Things I Need To Write seems to continue to grow exponentially, and in my current state of being, I have no confidence whatsoever and may have to chop a longish opinion piece down to like 300 words and some quotes from people whose opinions are more important than mine. Ugh. The life of an almost-not-paid-at-all journalista on her quest to, I dunno, get invited to the same parties as Peter Capaldi? Getting paid would be nice, too.

Oh yeah, tea. I was SO nervous about trying a banana thing, because when banana is done badly, it’s massively unpleasant. The last thing anyone wants is to take a sip of something that, it turns out, is a dead ringer for that banana medicine they give you for ear infections and stuff when you’re a kid. Or any kind of readymade banana milkshake. That’s that kind of fake flavour that I think I actually only acknowledge as banana because that’s what I’m told it’s supposed to taste like, rather than bearing any meaningful resemblance to my very favourite source of potassium. NO.

Not so with Monkey Chops. It’s subtle, which is definitely for the best, and really didn’t make a massively banana impression on me until a few sips in. The mouthfeel is creamy with a dash of sugar and skimmed milk, and the soft baked banana flavour is more reminiscent of banana bread than anything else, with lovely bread/cake notes and enough tea-ness that you don’t forget you’re drinking tea. And I do love banana bread. So this is good. I’m very glad I tried this one.

keychange

Oh no! I can relate to wanting to crawl under the desk to knap, but am so so sorry you fell off the friggin bus! my goodness.

Fjellrev

Oh geez! Well, glad my country can help you out but damn those stairs.

You can totally pull off all that work. Yes, you can, yo.

And you make me even more stoked about this tea.

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86

It’s so weird in Oxford right now. Like, it’s grey and dreary and drizzly and blustery, but the temperature’s gone above 10, so I’m bundled up for the wet and wind, and end up sweltering by the time I get where I’m going. So weird. But at least I’m wearing my Star Trek: TNG cardigan (in science blue, but of course) and thus I feel fabulous.

These weird blustery days are calling for warming teas, so I went for one with bonfire in the name. It’s toasty and buttery and warm but not quite cooked apple, and it’s got a really pleasant character.

Fjellrev

I freaking love that you have one of those cardigans.

Sami Kelsh

I got one of the last ones in stock, I think! Honestly took ages trying to decide which colour uniform to wear. Which Starfleet colour are you?

Fjellrev

Although the blue is tempting symbolism-wise, I’d have to go with red! Someday, I’ll get a dress, something like this: http://www.thinkgeek.com/product/1c62/

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