I never used to be a fan of glass tea cups until I tried them for the first time. Being able to see the tea infuse and the rich colours and whisps through the wall of the cup is refreshing in itself! Here’s just 5 of my favourite glass tea cups and sets.
Frosted Blown Glass Tea Cup
These small glass tea cups are a fantastic addition to your favourite teapot. They were hand-crafted using a technique that adds small bubbles in the bottom of the glass cup. The bubble patterns are unique from cup to cup and makes each one an exceptional tea cup. This is art, but also a functional glass tea cup that you can enjoy for years.
You’d think something this delightful and delicate looking couldn’t cope without kid gloves but its fully dishwasher safe.
Only available at Teavana.
Bodum Insulated Glass Tea Cups
Glass is a poor conductor of heat anyway so glass tea cups often keep your tea warmer for longer. These insulated glass tea cups from Bodum have a double wall though which means your tea stays hot for much longer. They come with a stainless steel saucer too and being glass blown they look great and show off the tea brilliantly.
From Shop.com.
Petit Fleur Suspendu Glass Tea Cup Set
These wonderful cups have an almost fragile appearance, but the borosilicate glass they are made of is strong and durable. They have a pocket of air between the inner glass wall and outer glass wall to insulate the tea and keep it hot. These are similar in shape to the Bodum cups but they have a wonderfully light printed floral pattern on the outside. It is just enough to show flowers when tea is in the cup. They come as a set of 4 5oz cups.
From Teavana.
Japanese White Pebble Glass Tea Cup
These cups are all the way from Japan and hand-made by a famous artesian glass blowing workshop. These unique glass tea cups have a circle of white dots around the rim for a unique finishing touch. They are all mouth blown glass cups, so each is a completely unique tea cup that you will treasure for a lifetime. It is a great way to start your own tea set and I have some myself!
From Teavana.
Basic Glass Tea Cup and Saucer
This is a nice basic but stylish glass tea cup with matching saucer. Made of tempered glass, which is very sturdy and able to withstand high temperatures and dishwashers. These tea cups are great to have as your everyday cups with a low cost and simple design.
Adagio Teas.
review
art, cups, japan, tea, teapot, teaware
I’ve only seen these specific jasmine teas at Adagio (US) and Jing (UK). I’ve seen other rolled Jasmines but I’ll be concentrating on Jasmine Pearls for this review.
I first bought some of these back in August 2008 and falling head over heels for the tea alost immediately I wanted to give it some time to allow sense to prevail so a more objective review coul be formed. Jasmine Pearls are quite simply one of the finest jasmine teas I’ve come across.
As they’re hand rolled you are treated to their gentle unfurling as they steep in the hot water, unleashing the fragrance and colour as each second ticks by.
The taste is incredibly refreshing and the leaves will provide at least 3 to 4 cups of good quality. Though I’d recommend at most 2 cups per serving of leaves as it feels almost criminal to not have a fresh batch of the balled leaves opening in your cup for each drink.
I’d strongly recommend these to anyone regardless of whether youre normally a fan of green and jasmine. These are a truly amazing tea and have entered the cupboard as my favourite jasmine of all time. Never will my stock run down!
A fantastic 5/5
Get from Adagio Teas (US)
Get from Jing Tea (UK)
review
green, jasmine, review
As part of a regular set of reviews on major UK tea brands you can buy in the supermarket I’ll be reviewing Tetley today. Tetley is very much a ‘builders tea’ which should be drunk strong to make up for its weak flavour.
First a little history
Tetley started its life 1822 when two brothers, Joseph and Edward Tetley started to sell salt in Yorkshire. They started to sell tea as well and became so successful that they set up, in 1837, as the tea merchants, “Joseph Tetley & Co.”. They moved to London in 1856 and set up “Joseph Tetley & Company, Wholesale Tea Dealers”.
Tetley was famous for being the first company that launched tea in tea-bags in the UK in 1953.
In terms of sales in the UK they’re the third largest but in the world they are the biggest by volume and only second biggest by revenue (to Unilever – owners of PG Tips).
Enough History! How does is taste
Mediocre at best but and in the groupings of British shelf teas I’d put it below Yorkshire tea and about equal with PG Tips. Its loose leaf variety has very little difference in taste or feel so don’t be suckered into thinking loose leaf is any better. Its got a richer colour than Typhoo or PG but this doesn’t translate into a richer taste. I’d give this a quite poor:
2/5
review
black tea, review
Continuing on with my series reviewing the most popular supermarket teas of the UK I’ve now come to PG Tips. PG are the second biggest tea merchant in the UK and were first established in 1930 by Brooke Bond who originally called it Digestive Tea. It got this name due to teas claims of aiding digestion but after the second World War the government decided to put a stop to this claim and so the name was changed to Pregestee.
A silly name I’m sure you’ll agree!
As time went on the PG delivery drivers shortened the name to PG and the name stuck. So thankfully they became PG Tips in the 1950’s.
How does it taste
Better than Typhoo but still a poor quality tea. Its the tea rival at our office where Taylors of Harrogate is drunk by the decent tea drinking folk and the evil Morlocks drink PG Tips while feasting on the bones of children and murdering innocent people.
I’m not saying PG Tips causes this – but its is a definate link!
PG has a very clear and crisp taste. With little body it doesn’t cope well with too much milk and adding sugar can kill the taste almost entirely. Although it’s technically a Breakfast Tea it lacks the punch and so I’d say its lacking Kenyan black and rolls more towards a low quality light Ceylon.
Having said that it is much better than Typhoo so I’ll give it a:
2.5/5
history, review
black tea, review
As part of a new series reviewing the major UK supermarket teas I thought I’d begin with Typhoo. Typhoo was first created back in 1903 by John Sumner – a Brummy. He was well versed in tea due to his fathers publishing of a book about the first tea trade missions to China and so was at home when him and his father set up a pharmacy/grocery business offering tea and other such things.
Unfortunately Mr Sumners legacy has been trashed when it comes to taste and decency. Although it is now the most popular tea in the UK outselling even the great Yorkshire Tea by Taylors of Harrogate. Its taste can be described only as wood-y, bland, tannic and dirty. I’ve never come across such a foul concoction in my life as a Typhoo tea. In fact it almost killed me once and it saddens me that its the most popular tea here.
I’d never drink Typhoo and I strongly recommend no one else does either.
A pitiful 1/5
history, review
black tea, review
This is by far the most famous of the gunpowder teas and also the best (I think so). I first got Temple of Heaven Tea at a Nottingham Chinese supermarket several years ago.
If you’re unsure what gunpowder tea is I do a full introduction in a previous post.
I remember being concerned about the tightly rolled black pellets of tea leaves. That was until I steeped them and they unfurled to create a fantastic, refreshing and slightly smoky brew.
I regularly top up my Gunpowder Tea stocks with this variety.
You can get some Temple of Heaven Gunpowder Tea from iHealthTree.
review
green tea, gunpowder tea, review
In my previous review for a Williamson brew I wasn’t entirely positive about the resulting beverage so I came to the Darjeeling with little expectation.
I was pleasantly suprised!
First is the dry leaf which is a beautiful array of colours with dark greens, rust reds and golden tips. It should be noted that this is a blend of Nagri and Moondakote harvested during the second flush.
I spent some moments sifting the leaves with the spoon before brewing my tea just to take in the array of colours and the beatiful fresh smell. Now the smell was your usual clean, crisp Darjeeling but with a hint of…something…flowery.
I brewed the first cup using my new tea strainer for about 3 + 1/2 minutes and went without milk and sugar. I’ve found some Darjeelings go well with milk – maybe to hide their dullness – but this tea doesn’t need anything adding to it.
The taste had a very definite flowery twang that verged on the sweetness of Jasmine. This fresh flower taste persisted long after finishing the cup giving a pleasant fresh-mouth feel with no tannin dryness.
This is one of the best Darjeelings I’ve had and will become my regular evening drink form now on. Williamson’s Assam didn’t quite hit the spot but their Darjeeling is fantastic.
4.5/5
review
darjeeling, review
Williamsons Assam (forgive the quality)
Williamson Tea is a UK tea merchant with a long history of tea wholesale and farming, especially in Kenya where they’re one of the biggest tea plantation owners in the country.
Today though I’ll be reviewing their Pure Assam broken leaf tea which you can purchase from their site for £2.60 for 125g.
The leaf is a broken orange pekoe which has a fresh, clean and crisp aroma. The initial taste is a basic and woody which is typical of its single origin status.
This Assam is slightly weaker in body than I’d expected and would make a good mid-morning tea. Although I initially tried this without sugar this tea actually responds well to just a pinch of demerara.
I attempted to get a bit more kick out of this tea by using 1+1/2 teaspoonfuls rather than the recommended single teaspoon. Unfortunately it fell very rapidly into being too tannin and bitter – even when taken with sugar. This Assam seems quick to release its tannin when pushed.
I’m happy overall with this tea and I’ll continue to use it as my standard mid morning beverage but it lacks a lot of the creamy, freshness of other Assams and indeed I prefer even the bagged Assam by Twinnings! In my attempts to boost the body of this tea it slipped into bitterness too easily.
I’ll give the tea a respectable:
3/5
review
merchants, products, review
Those aged over 16 should remember the old Wispa chocolate bar by Cadbury’s which they discontinued in 2003 after declining sales. In August of this year Cadbury’s decided after numerous campaigns to relaunch in August of this year starting with a charity eBay auction for the first box.
Wispa was a legend of the 80’s chocolate eating population and in fact the displays Wispa used in their relaunch said: “Some things are best left in the 80’s… others aren’t.” – Meaning Wispa obviously.
Although the initial batch of 23 million bars is a limited edition and no gauruntee of continuation the current sales as you may have noticed form your own local store suggest Wispa will be here to stay!
Wispa’s have always been a fantastic bar to dunk into tea or coffee as the gas released from the melting bubble pockets creates a fine, delicate popping sound as it escapes due to the heat expanding the gas before it escapes. The gas bubbles are made of carbon dioxide or nitrogen bubbled into the molten chocolate during production – contrary to popular belief the formula used in Wipsa is different to that of the Dairy Milk bubbly edition. Thoguh what this difference is remains unknown.
FACT: The first Wispa’s were deemed to big for a ladies mouth so were scaled down.
chocolate, review, sweets
Tea Bag Bin
If you’re a regular reader then you may have heard my recent rant regarding tea bags on the draining board of your kitchen sink. Well – in summary: It just isn’t on!
Golden Rule: Tea bags are not for being placed naked on a draining board regardless of other practical concerns.
The Bin
After an email from Nicey over at NCOTAASD.com he informed me of a fantastic new product called the Tea Bag Bin. It makes absolutely perfect sense and yet its something that until now hadn’t existed. Its a bin you keep by your kettle (or on your kitchen sink) so that you can bin your bags safely and cleanly without leaving them on the side.
Tea Bag Bin (UK)
While we’re on the subject of spent tea bags its worth mentioning that tea bags make excellent additions to the compost heap. Or even a wormery if you happen to have one. So you could skip the kitchen bin entirely and hop straight from the tea bag bin to the compost heap. Saving the tea bags dignity and the environment all in one day.
Great stuff!
products, review
news, products, tea
