Whittard – Bohemian Raspberry
Whittard’s Bohemian Raspberry is a blend of black tea, raspberry pieces, red cornflower petals and flavourings. It is also, sadly, not currently available for purchase on Whittard’s website. Given that I’m going to recommend it (it really is rather nice), it’s probably a bit pointless reviewing it, since you won’t be able to rush off and buy some of your own. But, hey, I’ve decided that I’m not going to let a bit of pointlessness stop me. If I didn’t do things just because they were pointless, well, I wouldn’t be the woman that I currently am, that’s for sure.
Bohemian Raspberry has a delightfully fruity jam vibe going on. I suspect that some of the taste is down to the flavouring, but it does boast 4% dried raspberry pieces so that puts it in a classier category than, say, Yorkshire Tea Toast & Jam brew.
It’s a rich dark number that clearly wants nothing more than to hang out with a nice slice of cake. A bit of Victoria Sponge would go down a treat, but I really think it would lend itself to most things in a baker’s afternoon tea section.
So why ‘bohemian’ you ask? Oh wait, that was me. I was asking that. In my head. Well, obviously, in this case, it’s a nod to Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody. But why are things that are all cool and arty and that considered ‘bohemian’ in the first place?
Well, it turns out that it doesn’t have all that much to do with the Kingdom of Bohemia (now part of the Czech Republic), although I’m sure they’re all pretty cool guys. Bohemianism as an aesthetic movement started in 19th century France, and the name La bohème was erroneously used to refer to the Romani population.
So, a bunch of upper-class French people culturally appropriated the bits of Romani culture that they liked the look of (artistic expression, music, floaty scarves, etc) while ignoring the bits they didn’t (poverty and persecution). Plus ça change.
(Still, at least the Bohemians get associated – in a roundabout way – with some pretty cool stuff. I bet Philistines are still pretty pissed off with how they’re represented in the dictionary.)
Whittard may no longer be stocking bohemian raspberry (although fingers crossed they bring it back because it really is very nice) but they do have a black tea, raspberry and cranberry blend available. I haven’t tried that one yet so I can’t in good conscience recommend it. I can heartily recommend Bohemian Raspberry and – if it were available for purchase – I would urge you to buy it. But it isn’t. So you can’t.
(Although if any of you would like to try it, just drop me a note and I will send you some.)
Today’s featured book is The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle which features his first short story A Scandal in Bohemia. This is the story with Irene Adler in it and, as such, has a lot to answer for, since every single Sherlock Holmes adaptation since then has fan-fictioned Adler into a much more significant role. One story. That’s all she got. Stop trying to give Sherlock Holmes a love interest, writers. He’s above such things.
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