Fredsted – Spiced Christmas Tea
A few days ago, I said that Sainsbury’s Earl Grey and Clementine tea was going to be the sole Christmas tea for 2023 here at Tea Fancier Towers. Well, blow me down and call me Blitzen if I didn’t get given some shiny new festive teas for Christmas. (I got a few tea-related gifts as it goes. Funny that.)
And as we’re comfortably still within the 12 days of Christmas, I’m going to crack on and review this here Spiced Christmas Tea from Fredsted. This tea was given to me by my lovely friend Tracey, and it’s absolutely the sort of festive tea I want at this time of year.
It’s got oranges! It’s got cloves! It’s got cinnamon! It smells like holly wreaths and mulled carol singers. There are, in fact, fourteen different flavours in this tea, which is at least seven more ingredients than seems necessary. The full list is (deep breath) black tea, apple, hibiscus, cloves, orange, almonds, rosehips, cinnamon, vanilla, juniper berry, blackcurrant, marigold, coconut and fennel.
What are the coconut and fennel doing in there? I have no idea. Spiced Christmas Tea tastes like an honest-to-goodness black tea, citrus and spice blend. Nevertheless, I shall respect the tea blending process (of which I know very little) and assume that the more left-field ingredients on the list are doing something deeply important in the background.
This tea is made by Fredsted, which is a teamonger I haven’t encountered before. They’re a Danish operation whose website is only available in Danish and therefore makes interesting reading with Google’s haphazard translation service. Black Tea Quince with Shell, anyone? (‘Shell’ does seem to be a mistranslation of peel here, so apologies to anyone looking for a conch-flavoured beverage.)
Fredsted Spiced Christmas Tea certainly hits all the right festive notes, and given my fondness for drinking spicy blends during any date in the calendar, it’s one that I will continue enjoying well into 2024.
Today’s book pairing is How the Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr Seuss which is the best Christmas book of all time. Unless it’s Charles Dicken’s A Carol Christmas Carol. They’ve got very similar plots, actually. Lonely, Christmas-hating man discovers true meaning of Christmas and the companionship of those around him. Not so many ghostly door-knockers in the Grinch, though.
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This article caught my attention as I had picked up this tea during my recent visit to Denmark. The aroma is absolutely divine! I have, however, failed to make the perfect cup of tea. Don’t get me wrong – the tea turns out fine but if I strain, I lose those tummy fruit slices, especially the raisins, almonds and orange peel. When I do not strain, I get everything, including the tea leaves. I’m puzzled, so hope you can help. Including my email address and hope to hear back from you 🙂
Hi there! I think you have to strain and just accept that you’re not going to get the fruit bits in your cup. It might be a waste of all those plumped-up raisins, but to be fair, they’ve already done their job during the steeping process.