Morgan’s Brew – Barry Island Rock
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This tea – along with a whole herd of other blends – was very kindly gifted to me by Morgan’s Brew. Being sent free tea is something I am very keen to encourage and if any teamongers reading this feel the urge to do so, you can contact me at em@teafancier.com or via my Instagram account @theteafancier.
Readers, rest assured that the freeness of any tea I review will make no difference to the star rating or the review itself, which will be as appropriately complimentary or condemnatory as I believe the tea in question deserves.
I was very excited to try this Barry Island Rock tea from Morgan’s Brew. It’s a green minty-stick-of-rock-inspired tea, named after one of Wales’ most popular seaside resorts.
Did you know that Barry Island hasn’t actually been an island since the 1880s when the Barry Docks opened and linked it to the mainland? Well, you do now. Apart from that, everything I know about Barry Island, I know from Gavin and Stacey. Consequently, I don’t know very much about Barry Island.
In my excitement, I apparently forgot one important thing. I don’t actually like mint in tea. To be honest, I don’t think I forgot it, I just don’t think I realised it until now. Generally I like mint. Stick some peppermint oil in some confectionery and I’m a happy lady. I quite like the fresh mint leaves that run rampant around my garden, and will cheerfully bung them in fruit salads, salad-salads and Pimms-style mocktails.
But there’s something about drying the leaves of the Lamiaceae family and steeping them in hot water that puts me right off.
When I reviewed a bunch of peppermint teas a few months ago, I compared the taste to cabbage water; a theme I returned to when I was trying to describe how much I disliked Yerba Mate. “It’s like mint tea,” I said. “Only worse.” Proper teas with mint in them don’t fare well around these parts either.
And, sadly, it’s also the case for Barry Island Rock. It looks very pretty with safflower, calendula and sunflower petals all cheerfully jostling with Chinese green tea and spearmint leaves in the packet. But once I brewed it up, all I really noticed was the cabbage-y compost-y tastes of dried mint leaves.
I feel a bit bad because this is definitely a “It’s not you, it’s me”-type situation. I’m sure that people who think is mint is a delightful addition to a hot beverage – and that I’m talking a big load of nonsense to suggest otherwise – will find much to enjoy in a cup of Barry Island Rock.
Me? I reckon I’m going to stick to enjoying mint in confectionery. Preferably great big sticks of seaside rock with “Barry Island – Tidy” all the way through the middle.
Today’s featured book is The Riddle of the Sands by Erskine Childers, even though the ‘sands’ of the title are on the Frisian Islands off Germany and not on an ex-island in the south of Wales.
