Birt & Tang White Tea and Blackcurrant

Today the riots seem far less pressing, and tea is again something that I can get enthused about. With a newfound fervour for calm, I was in no state to achieve it. Instead, it fell to my long suffering Gentleman Friend to provide tea just when it was needed, and before I realised it. I would heartily recommend any one of you investing in such a companion. It really makes a huge difference.

So I consumed vast quantities of very milky honest-to-goodness-basic-blend-teabag-tea. While it certainly did the trick and I felt entirely human after, I felt a little full.

So as every problem can be solved with tea I wondered which blend I should enlist. Interesting.

I looked at green, I looked at Oolong, I looked at everything. In the end I resorted to a half formed memory about white tea being especially good for you. Faultless logic I'm sure you'll agree. So, off to the tea cupboard to rifle through. I set my mind on Birt & Tang's White Tea + Blackcurrant. No particular reason, it seemed like it was the kind of thing that might help.

So, with high hopes for calm and humanity I boiled up the kettle and had a butchers at the packet. The kind advice was 'Use freshly boiled water, and leave to steep for around five minutes.' I like that, I like the 'around five minutes' bit. I really don't want to feel like I have to time my steeping to a pack instructions. Already I'm a bit of a fan of these dudes.

So I put the 'freshly boiled' water in my cute little cup (which I painted myself dontcha know) and leave it to get acquainted with the tea for a few minutes.

Time passes. I write a little bit more of this blog. Some cars outside have their music on too loud. I have an unexpected sneeze. Then before I know it around five minutes have passed.

Back to the kitchen to check on my beautiful beverage.

Well it has darkened up a treat, we'll leave it a respectable amount of time so that my tongue doesn't melt. This is always a risk with milkless tea and sensitive tongues. My mother could probably drink the water straight from the kettle, she surely is a sight to behold. But I digress.

Time passes, etc.

So, I drink it now, right? Ok then, here I go.

It has a very delicate flavour, it's very lightly scented and generally a very light tea. If you take a ready deep breath you can almost smell blackcurrant, but I might be imagining that. It's really very faint. As it cools slightly the flavour grows gradually, and it becomes a much more flavoursome cup. It's very easy drinking too, so I hope that all the white tea claims are true because I really don't mind drinking some of this when I feel a bit unhealthy. It's also very quenching, which I often don't find is as true of some of the bagged green tea.

So, verdict out – I like it. I still want some funky loose tea in a pot, of course. But that's not always practical for me. So this is a good delicate tea that might even make you younger! Or invisible or give you x-ray vision or whatever they're claiming today.