Bird & Blend – Affogatea, Pink Prosecco and Coco Chai No.5
Over the last few days, I have been reviewing a bunch of teas that are shortly to be given the ol’ heave-ho from Bird & Blend’s tea shelves. They’re revamping, refreshing, rebooting and lots of other ‘re-‘ words and will have a shiny new set of tea blends available for sale on the 8th of May.
They’re not offing ALL their current teas, of course, which is why I have been focusing on the ones that have – quite literally – a limited shelf life. I can relax now, knowing that all the remaining Bird & Blend teas in my ample still-to-be-reviewed tea hoard will be available for purchase after the weekend.
The seven teas I had knocking about the place from Bird & Blend’s hit list were: Terry’s Tea, Earl’s Paradise, Honey Bee Beautiful, Hot Mama Jama, Affogatea, Pink Prosecco and Coco Chai No.5.
I reviewed the first four in my previous post. Now it’s time to wrap up this little adventure with the final three,
Affogatea
Affogatea is a blend of Sri Lankan black tea, coffee beans, apple pieces, rosehip, blue cornflowers and natural flavouring.
Coffee in a tea blend is a funny business. The first time I tried it (Bloom Tea’s Vanilla Tiramisu), I was quite outraged by the idea. I likened it to a colleague making a round of drinks in the office kitchen and failing to observe correct teaspoon re-use etiquette.
I’ve mellowed in my outlook since then. I’ve enjoyed Bird & Blend’s coffee-infused Mocha Chai and Fairytale of New York teas. In fact, I’ve had Affogatea before when I went to a craft workshop at Bird & Blend’s tea shop in London’s Borough Market. I also tried their Coffee Pu-Erh. I was apparently in a cofftea mood that evening.
Affogatea doesn’t muck about with its coffee-ness. There are whopping great coffee beans in here nestled amongst the tea leaves. And these days, I’m all for it. I tried it both with milk and without, and even milkless, Affogatea is impressively creamy.
I’ve never had Affogato, the Italian dessert this tea is named after, so the wordplay of the name was lost on me. Having looked it up, the recipe for Affogato appears to be “pour a cup of espresso over a scoop of vanilla ice cream” so I imagine this would be fairly straightforward to recreate at home. In fact, it sounds less like something that would be served in a restaurant, and more like an impromptu hangover cure. I bet it’s bloody lovely though.
Affogatea will no longer be available after 8th May and Coffee Pu-Erh is being retired as well. Their Mocha Chai will still be about, and Bird & Blend are introducing a new brew called “All Nighter”. I have no idea yet what All Nighter contains but I’m really hoping it has coffee in it. After my initial misgivings, I have become rather fond of the cofftea experience.
Pink Prosecco
Pink Prosecco is a blend of Chinese ti guan yin oolong, rosehip, apple, hibiscus, raspberry, pear, orange blossom, orange peel and natural flavourings. And, just to give you ample warning, this review is not going to be a favourable one.
I’ve encountered teas like this one before. It’s a fruity tisane by stealth. The oolong tea and fruit flavours aren’t playing a perfectly pitched harmony in Pink Prosecco. The rosehips and hibiscus and raspberry and goodness-knows-what-else are drowning out any whiff of Camelia Sinensis with their raucous, day-glo, fruit-salad-y cacophony. The oolong needn’t have bothered showing up for work at all.
This is probably bearable if you’re a big fan of fruity tisanes but – as I am sure you know by now – I am not. I am, however, a big fan of oolong. I’ve had ti guan yin before and I thought it was rather marvellous.
This tea made me very, very cross. It’s a shocking waste of oolong is what it is.
I am perfectly happy for Bird & Blend to retire this blend. Be gone with you, Pink Prosecco! And please, Bird & Blend, in future do something more productive with your oolong stash.
Coco Chai No.5
We’re finishing on a high. Coco Chai No.5 is really, really lovely. It contains Indian Assam tea, Sri Lankan black tea, ginger, cardamom, cloves, red peppercorns and coconut flavour.
It’s a smashing honest-to-goodness spicy chai with a pleasing little coconutty kick. I am a big fan of both coconut and chai so my expectations of this were high, and happily, Bird & Blend did not disappoint.
I think a lot of credit for the tastiness of this brew should probably go to the red peppercorns that are included here. I don’t know what it is, but whenever I find a really pleasing Masala chai, it almost always has pepper in it. It’s the magic chai ingredient.
You can’t taste the pepper. It’s not like I’m sipping my tea appreciating the full-on peppercorn flavours. I think having it there, brings out the best in the other ingredients. I loved this tea with the passion of a chai-lover who appreciates a good chai done well. It’s a great pity that, like the rest of the teas I’ve reviewed, Coco Chai No.5 is only going to be around for the next 5 days.
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