Time for a cup of tea

I am some what obsessed with the herbal and green teas. Therefore I decided to do  a series of posts on some of my favourites. I absolutely love discovering new tea blends so please share your favourites in the comments.

I think my love of tea began with my first pot of jasmine tea in a small Chinese restaurant. Up until then I only had black tea (and although I always liked it it wasn't something that I would crave). Nowadays I don't even drink black tea apart from occasional earl grey in a cafe.

There is just so much choice! You have fruit teas, herbal teas and flower teas (technically infusions as they don't come from a tea plant). Some taste great others have health benefits. There seems to be a blend of tea for everything: to help you detox, to help you sleep, to keep you energised, to keep you balanced.

My cupboard is full of different varieties and depending on how I am feeling I make my choice.
The two teas that I would like to start with are my special occasion teas. I don't mean that I have them only on celebrations, I just don't have them very often, mainly on days that I feel that I need extra motivation.

Solaris botanicals flowering tea. This is an Irish company that has a range of speciality, therapeutic and organic teas. They have a wonderful selection of teas. The flowering teas are made by hand using silk thread to connect tea leaves and flowers (they look gorgeous and you can imagine how much craftsmanship is required for each pod). Each variety is made from white tea needles and flowers for example: Butterfly Loves tea is white tea and clover; Unity is white tea, jasmine and Dendranthema Morifoilium (it is a pink flower I do not know the common name for it).

I like to have a variety pack. Each flower tea comes individually wrapped. In its dry state it looks like a ball which opens once you add hot water.

Each one looks different once the flowers are opened. The taste is not as intense as green tea. White tea actually comes from the same plant as green tea, but is harvested earlier and there is differences in the way the leaves are processed. Because of that white tea has more antioxidants and less caffeine and milder flavour. Although I like both I do prefer white tea. Out of all the flowering teas my favourite would be Sunrise.The picture shows Embrace.

In the variety pack of 5 that I had there were 2xUnity, 1xCelebraition and 2xEmbrace. On the website they are showing a different selection right now, they do change them from time to time. These are energising teas and each flower makes about 2l of tea so they are great when you have guests, one flower is enough for about 8 cups.


Whole rose buds infusion tea. I think I have mentioned rose tea before. I like this one specifically because of the look of rose buds (you could achieve the same taste with rose petals from a spice store). I first bought tea like this in Turkey and loved it ever since. It has a sweet flowery taste and is just really refreshing. You need to allow one teaspoon per cup, so about 3 maybe 4 flower buds per cup depending how strong you want it, use freshly boiled water and let it infuse for 5-6 minutes. I like to make mine in a glass tea pot.

I love rose buds because they are very versatile, you could make your own blends (adding dried fruit, dried orange or dried lemon peel). Home made rose water for cooking or skin care use. And refreshing ice tea in summer. Just add honey to it while it is warm if you would like some added sweetness, lemon or orange slices and let it cool down before popping it in the fridge, I also like to put sliced strawberries. A rose tea with addition of fresh mint leaves is also very refreshing as a chilled drink.
We are tea is an independent London based company, their teas are packed by hand in UK and they are a member of Ethical tea partnership.