Tea for Tuesday: Dr Stuart's Tranquillity

Dr Stuart's Extraordinarily Good Teas: Tranquillity

First of all, apologies for the lack of updates here lately; I've been rather busy with everything and nothing all at the same time! However, that will change quite soon :)

Today is Tuesday and so, of course, that means it's time for another Tea for Tuesday post! This week's tea, Tranquillity by Dr Stuart's, is another that was sent to me by the lovely Kei from Unfortunately Oh! and Doing A Thing (also, sorry to shamelessly keep plugging my friend's sites, but she's hugely creative and recently re-opened her Etsy store, Little Deer Day Dreams, which sells the most gorgeously unique, up-cycled jewellery! Please take a look :D).

Before I start, I should point out that I have a slight cold, which means that my sense of smell and taste are probably a little off at the moment. That said, even before the tea was in the boiling water it had an aroma of liquorice to it, so I was expecting it to taste like that as well. However, it had a similar taste to nettle tea mixed with the tongue-numbing effect of aniseed, which was rather pleasant! 

The back of the packet informed me that the ingredients were listed on the box, but as I didn't have the box, I went to the company's website. Apparently, it's a blend of limeflower and hawthorn, which is excellent, not only because I liked it, but because I've never tried either of those before! Also, on a side note, the picture on the box is great:

Tranquillity box
Stolen from the Dr Stuart's website because I'm a naughty thief

Whilst this tea won't turn you into a leaping butterfly face (boo!) it is delicious and I'd love to try it again.

Tea for Tuesday: Twinings Liquorice

Twinings Liquorice Tea

Today's Tea for Tuesday is the Liquorice tea from the "Comforting" range by Twinings. I like liquorice, and the packaging design is quite pretty, so I thought I'd give it a try. The tea is made from 100% liquorice root and, as with all the teas I'm trying, is caffeine-free. However, there is also a warning on the pack about the harmful effects that large quantities may have on those with hypertension, so if this applies to you, it's probably one to avoid.

Quite soon after the water hit the bag, it turned a bright shade of yellow and the sweet aroma of liquorice emanated from the mug. Unlike the other teas I've tried so far, the taste and smell of this one were nearly identical. Unfortunately, although I enjoyed the aroma, the flavour was too sickeningly sweet for me and finishing a whole cup proved challenging. In order to confirm that I hadn't simply over-brewed my first beverage, I made a second, weaker one, on another day, but it made little difference. 

If you're used to having sugar in your tea and enjoy the sweetness, then perhaps liquorice root would be a perfect flavour for you. Personally though, I don't think I'll be trying this one again.

Tea for Tuesday: Twinings Blackcurrant & Vanilla

Twinings Blackcurrant & Vanilla

Tea for Tuesday time again; this time in the form of a Blackcurrant & Vanilla fruit infusion by Twinings. As the flavours diffused in the mug, the water took on an orangey red colour and had an almost pink hue in certain lights.

Whereas the Blackcurrant, Ginseng & Vanilla infusion gave off a strong odour of vanilla when the boiling water touched the bag, this one had a distinctly stronger aroma of blackcurrant. The vanilla also came through, though it had more of a perfume-like quality to it. This was also true of the flavour: a slight tang of blacurrant with a vaguely vanilla after taste. It didn't have the same smoothness as the ginseng infused blend, but it was still delicious.

Another one of my favourites so far!

Tea for Tuesday

I hate to sound like a stereotypical British person here, but I really love tea! It's warming, refreshing, comforting, and delicious all at the same time and nothing else quite matches up to it. For the past several years I've mainly opted for green tea, no (soy) milk, no sugar, because I got used to its particular flavour whilst on holiday in Japan, as the hotel my friend and I were staying at provided it for free next to its hot water dispenser! 

However, as I suffer from a rather debilitating form of chronic migraines, I've been told to cut out all caffeine from my diet. Green tea was the only thing that I ate/drank that contained caffeine and so, unfortunately, that means it had to go, as I'm not really fond of the decaffeinated versions of it that I've tried previously. 

In light of this, I've decided to try out as many flavours of caffeine-free teas and infusions as possible and to write about them in this blog every Tuesday. Currently, I have seven different flavours to sip my way through, but if anyone has any other suggestions, including your own recipes, I'd love to hear about them!

To read about all the caffeine-free teas and infusions I've tried so far, have a look at the Tea for Tuesday tag.