Birdhouse Tea Company – Retro Blackjack
Given that I’ve stated on numerous occasions how much I dislike liquorice in tea, you might think that Birdhouse Retro Blackjack – a black tea, liquorice and aniseed blend – was an odd purchasing decision on my part. And you’re right. It was.
But the thing is, as much as I dislike liquorice in tea blends, I really do like liquorice-based confectionery products. And this tea is named after blackjacks, a sweet I was very fond of in my youth. So Birdhouse Tea Company lured me right in.
Way back in the 1980s, it used to cost me 16p to catch the bus to school. But if I walked five minutes to the bus stop outside the Hen & Chickens pub, it only cost 14p, and that 2p saved was all mine. There was a shop near the bus stop selling a selection of sweets for a penny each so I wasn’t stuck for what to spend my money on.
Blackjacks were a part of the penny-sweet line-up, of course. There were also fruit salads. foam bananas, shrimps and chocolate mice. You could also buy some tasteless pink bubble gum for 2p. My friends and I would dare each other to chew the gum for as long as possible. I always bailed before we entered the school gates, but one time my friend Caroline chewed hers all the way through assembly. She was badass, was Caroline.
Blackjacks – for those of you unfamiliar with them – are cuboid, individually-wrapped sweets, which turn your mouth black. They were – and presumably still are – ace. Birdhouse have captured the spirit of the blackjack perfectly. I stuck my nose in the packet, inhaled and I could have been a gingham dress-wearing schoolgirl again.
However, once it was brewed and drank as a hot beverage, it was all wrong. I’m sorry. I wanted to like it. But there’s something about hot steaming liquorice that I find terribly off-putting. And it’s so overwhelming. The black tea needn’t have actually been there at all.
So thanks for the trip down memory lane, Birdhouse. Sadly, even Retro Blackjack wasn’t enough to change my opinion that liquorice has no business being in a tea blend.
Today’s featured book is When We Were Very Young by A A Milne. Because I was young, once.
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