Guest Post: Jilly of Blackboard Reviews

Hi there tea drinkers! Today my friend and blogger Jilly is here guest posting. She, too loves tea and isn't afraid to pair her love of gaming with her love of tea. I thought it might be nice to tie in the love of games to this blog, as many people love both. Enjoy! -Leah  PS, I added a photo of the Earl Grey box because I love the design. :)



Tea, the Perfect Companion for any Hobby by Jilly at Blackboard Reviews:


First and foremost, I am a gamer. For me, there is nothing better than coming home from university with a free evening to sit and relax with my favourite game. However, it is the companion of tea that makes the experience all the more relaxing.

My favourite tea is Twinings Earl Grey, this has been my choice since a child as my English teacher always brought it into class and it smelt amazing! Being British, I always have been a run-of-the mill tea drinker, PG tips, Yorkshire Tea, Tetley, and thats why I like Earl Grey: the additional citrus flavour is mild in taste, therefore it doesn't stray to far from my traditional tea drinking habits.

Interestingly, I always found Lady Grey a bit too much, Twinings Lady Grey is stronger than Earl and every time I have tried it I find myself reverting all the way back to plain off-the-supermarket-shelf tea bags. I think I still have a nearly full box of Lady Grey at the back of my cupboard!
Whatever your hobby/job, tea is a suitable companion. Us Brits will use any excuse to essentially procrastinate and make a cup of tea before starting any task, whether enjoyable or not.
Also, don't forget the mug, everyone has their favourite cup to make their regular cuppa in. I personally have a collection of chocolate themed mugs from Mars bar to Cadbury Buttons, I am not ashamed in any way! Here's my collection:

Thanks for reading my guest post, if you want to know anymore about gaming, then take a took at my blog Blackboard Reviews

Jilly

Leah's Tea Recommendations: Loose Leaf and Bagged Tea

Today I decided to make a little list of teas that I recommend to the readers of the UK and US. On the first image, you'll find the best places to acquire loose leaf tea, which is the highest quality of tea. The second graphic depicts the best bagged tea you can find in The UK or the US. Many people on Twitter have asked me recommendations on what brands they can trust, well here they are.

A couple exceptions should be noted. Lipton is on my graphic, but only for bagged tea. Their loose leaf tea is not good at all. Tiny tiny pieces and not a very good taste. However, their bagged tea here in the UK is quite nice and in the US if you're looking for something as simple as black tea gets, it's a great option. I hope you enjoy these graphics as much as I did making them. If you see a brand and want further recommendations on what kind of tea you'd like in that certain brand, comment below or tweet me (click the bird on the side bar) and I'll happily help you find a delicious tea.

Current tea I'm drinking: Twinings' (bagged) vanilla black tea. Oh so good! Below the graphics see the little note I've left for people interested in a tea exchange.

If anyone is interested in exchanging tea, I'm looking to do that. I think it would be fun to trade tea from anywhere in the world. If you're interested, click whichever contact link best suits you on the right. I'm in the UK, but I would be willing to ship to other countries!

PS- many tea companies I have listed are on my Amazon store. I have one for the UK and one for the US. Check them out!

Go to Leah's Tea Store US

Go To Leah's Tea Store UK

Leah

Breakfast Tea

Typically in the morning is when you want your stronger, more robust tea. My first cup of tea for the day is always black tea, mainly because it has a lot of caffeine and it wakes me up a bit like coffee would do. When I was younger I would always go for English Breakfast in the morning. English Breakfast tea is also found in most of the lower-end teabag market in stores. For example Tetley, or Lipton are variants of English Breakfast, but it is important to note that these are lower quality and are much weaker teas.

What exactly is English Breakfast tea anyways? I would describe it as a full bodied, rich tea that is typically a blend of several different teas. These teas are usually from India and Africa. Most English Breakfast tea, including the kind found in teabags, is usually a blend of Assam, Ceylon and Kenyan tea. As seen above in the photo, if you're looking for a good blend of English Breakfast, I would suggest Twinings. It's a good price for great tea. Buy in the US or the UK. The only issue with the Twinings tea is that it has small leaves, so if you're a teabag user it isn't a problem, however if you drink loose tea then you will need a relatively fine strainer.

There are also variants of English Breakfast teas, such as Irish Breakfast and Scottish breakfast. Since trying Irish Breakfast recently last year, it has been my go to cup of morning tea. It is stronger than English Breakfast because it has more Assam in it and can be described as malty. With any breakfast tea you have to be careful, because if you brew it for longer than 5 minutes, it can be too strong to drink and neither milk nor sugar can save it. As seen above, Adagio make my favorite kind of Irish Breakfast tea. It's delicious. You can find it here for the UK or here for the US. 

Also a choice to bear in mind is Scottish Breakfast, although I've never had it myself. It's the strongest of the three breakfast teas, because it was made back when Scotland's water was soft, which means the water lacks the natural elements typically found in water after it goes through the ground, such as magnesium and calcium. In some Scottish Breakfast teas, you can detect a hint of smokiness. I have yet to find any true reason as to why the Scottish Breakfast tastes stronger, but if I had to guess I would say more Assam and less Ceylon, since Assam tea is very strong and caffeinated and Ceylon is a very weak black tea.

My boyfriend got me this for Valentine's Day. Thought you might enjoy it too!

Leah

Twinings Vanilla Tea

Twinings Vanilla Tea

Black Tea

Rating: 5/5

Allergens: none

Order: Twinings or Twinings USA (Amazon)

This is probably my favorite bagged tea, ever. You can get this from UK Twinings or on Amazon if you're in the US. Both links are above. I like this tea because it steeps quickly and it's not too strong for a black tea. In fact, I would call this a dessert tea. It's a lovely treat if you're seeking something sweet.  It has a lovely smell to it, in the box and as well, steeped. If you're a green tea drinker looking for a tea with a little caffeine, this would be perfect for you. I suggest you steep this delicate tea for 3 minutes-if you let it sit any longer it will be stronger. If you like it quite strong, by all means. After steeping, it's a lovely red color. 

Gorgeous! Now I do insist on adding some milk and sugar. Or, if you prefer sweetener that works too. Note: I've found that 2 packets of sweetener will be quite sweet, so try adding one packet and if you think one more is needed, then add the second. For those of you that use sugar, two teaspoons is ideal. Here's what the tea's coloring will look like with the perfect amount of milk:

Time to sit down and enjoy my tea! But first, let me tell you why I decided on a 5/5. For bagged tea, it was above and beyond my expectations. Secondly, I love sweet things and the vanilla with the black tea is the perfect balance of strong yet sweet. Honestly, I could have a cup of this every day before bed, unlike the Bollywood Chai I reviewed recently. For £3.00, almost an entire month of tea is not bad at all. It steeps quickly, making it an effortless task to make. I just really like it!

If you have a look at my previous post, there's a free tea giveaway. So have a look!

Leah

FREE TEA from Twinings & vanilla tea

Twinings USA is giving out free tea! If you're located in the US have a look.

Later today I'll be reviewing vanilla tea.

Until then,

Leah

Twinings Bollywood Chai Latté

Twinings Bollywood Chai Latté
Black Tea

Rating: 3.5/5 stars

Allergens: Almonds

As soon as I poured the boiling water on top of my teabag, the spicy aroma of the tea filled the air. I had a feeling that this tea would be good. Plus, despite it being bagged tea, it was in silky teabags, which is fancy because it's typically big leaves inside the bag. This, however wasn't the case with this Bollywood Chai. The tea looks almost ground up. I took a photo of the teabag for you to examine for yourself:

I was one bummed gal when I realized this tea would be so fine despite it having a silky pyramid tea bag. Usually if you're paying for the fancy type of tea bag, you expect the tea inside to be full leaves of tea, but Twinings presented me with this. This is where this tea lost a star in its rating. After steeping the tea, it had a beautiful amber coloring. I took a photo of that for you, of course. :)

What exactly is in this tea? I noted above that this tea has almonds in it. If you suffer from an almond allergy, please stay away. I was very displeased that I had to read the fine print on this to find there was a nut ingredient, despite nuts being a large allergy people typically have. The title of the tea, Bollywood Chai Latté, has zero mention of almonds so I thought it was Twinings' duty to label the packaging with the appropriate allergy warning. It did not. I was shocked. As a nut allergy sufferer I wasn't happy, although I'm lucky I'm not allergic to almonds! Anyways the ingredients are: black tea, almonds, spice flavoring and honey flavoring. 

My biggest issue with this tea is that it's quite strong. Like, really strong. I suggest adding more milk than usual to truly make this a latté-maybe even heat some up in a sauce pan and add it to the mix. Also, I suggest if you're going to add sugar, add brown sugar because it's a little more sweet and goes perfectly with the honey and almond taste in this tea. This kind of tea isn't something you would want to drink daily. It's more of a special treat kind of tea, because if you drank it often you would get sick of it. I'd suggest it once in a while if it's cold out and you want to cozy up with a spicy, warm tea. 

The 3.5/5 star rating was given to this tea due to it being very strong, as well as the very, very small, ground up tea leaves in the "premium" tea bag. 

Leah