Whittard – Regal Blend
Whittard very kindly gifted me this Regal Blend tea. Thank you very much, chaps! I had intended to review it for Her Maj’s Platinum Jubilee but sadly I didn’t receive it in time.
But never fear! The jubilistic shenanigans may be over but this is still a right royal weekend because today is the Queen’s Official Birthday and if that’s not an excuse to break out the Regal Blend then I don’t know what is.
Regal Blend is a delightful black tea and vanilla blend. In a nice touch – aimed at lovers of tricoloured flags everywhere – it contains red, white and blue cornflowers. I’m pretty sure that cornflowers have no impact on the taste of a tea blend. I’m absolutely certain that even if it did, three different coloured lots of petals aren’t bringing three different flavour profiles into the mix. I am not complaining though. If Messrs Whittard want to sprinkle edible confetti into my tea, then I am all for it.
I’m struggling to put into words how much I love this tea. It’s just perfect. The Black tea and vanilla is a wonderful, warm, almost-sweet combination. It’s very, very nice. And you can all quote me on that. I don’t think you even need a Monarch-related occasion to appreciate it.
It’s not her Majesty’s actual birthday, of course. That was back in April. But, being the queen, she gets two birthdays a year. The only other person I know with two birthdays is Paddington Bear. Maybe that’s why the Queen and Paddington are such bezzie mates now.
It was Edward VII who started this ‘Official Birthday’ malarky. Because his birthday was in November and he wanted there to be some chance of good weather for Trooping the Colour. Every monarch since then has kept the tradition of the ‘official birthday’ in June. Because presumably, they figured if Bertie could have two birthdays, then they weren’t about to miss out on the chance of extra balloons and birthday cake.
I don’t blame them. Giving myself two birthdays is EXACTLY the sort of thing I would do if I were queen.
Of course, I’m not even slightly the queen. For a pleb like me, the closest I’ll get to living like royalty is having this here Regal Blend tea. But I’m OK with that. Like I said, it’s very, very nice indeed.
