Birchall Tea Tasting Event
A few weeks ago I was invited by Birchall Tea to come along to a tea tasting session and Afternoon Tea at Rosewood Hotel in Holborn. It was a lovely few hours and I found the whole experience so interesting. A little about Birchall tea taken from their site...
"Through five generations our award-winning speciality and everyday black teas are sourced exclusively from estates across East Africa. Our pursuit of quality ensures all our leaves are only ever hand-picked from tea bushes grown at high-altitude in lush volcanic soil and ideal conditions."
Birchall not only produce, in my opinion, delicious tea but they also support charitable causes and commit to making the communities they are part of stronger. Birchall support sustainable projects in these areas and charitable causes across East Africa such as the Virunga National Park, Rwandan Cricket Foundation & Rwandan Schools.
Here's a few photos from the session and a little more about what I thought of their teas.
My very talented illustrator friend Emma Block and I trying out some Birchall Tea with a slice of lemon. I don't usually drink my tea like that but it was delicious!
The first part of the afternoon was the tea comparisons. We tasted a selection of well known and popular tea brands (but weren't told which ones) alongside Birchalls Great Rift english breakfast tea.
I like strong good quality tea and it was really interesting to hear all about the process of making Birchall tea compared to the more economy brands.
As you can see from the photo below the brands of tea we tasted look quite different from each other once they've been taken out of the bags. The first tea is very brown and quite pale meaning that it contains some stem and bark of the tea plant blended up together. Good tea will only include the leaves which means it is darker in colour and a little more expensive but you will end up drinking a much higher quality tea. During the tasting of the various teas I could really tell the difference between a high quality Birchall cuppa and a cheaper one. The standard teas were quite weak and uninteresting and the economy tea was bitter and pretty nasty. I now know for sure that tea drinking should be quality over quantity and that it should be a special ritual just like it was when tea was first introduced to England.
After comparing all those teas it was time for even more tea drinking! We moved into a beautiful room to try the other Birchall teas and enjoy the Afternoon Tea. I try to avoid drinking too much caffeine so the herbal teas were my favourites especially the Peppermint and the Green Tea & Peach. All Birchall teas are around the £5 mark for 80 bags.
The Afternoon Tea looked delicious and as I couldn't eat most of what was on offer because of my wheat free diet I was offered some amazing special sandwiches and a pana cotta. I felt very well looked after!
Once we were finished all the eating and drinking we were introduced to the new Birchall Tea website and given a huge goodie bag that contained lots of Birchall goodies along with all these teas. I felt utterly spoilt and I have really enjoyed trying out all the lovely teas each morning, I gave the english breakfast blend to my mum and she gave it the thumbs up too!
Thanks so much to the team at Birchall, I had a lovely and very informed afternoon!
"Through five generations our award-winning speciality and everyday black teas are sourced exclusively from estates across East Africa. Our pursuit of quality ensures all our leaves are only ever hand-picked from tea bushes grown at high-altitude in lush volcanic soil and ideal conditions."
Birchall not only produce, in my opinion, delicious tea but they also support charitable causes and commit to making the communities they are part of stronger. Birchall support sustainable projects in these areas and charitable causes across East Africa such as the Virunga National Park, Rwandan Cricket Foundation & Rwandan Schools.
Here's a few photos from the session and a little more about what I thought of their teas.
My very talented illustrator friend Emma Block and I trying out some Birchall Tea with a slice of lemon. I don't usually drink my tea like that but it was delicious!
The first part of the afternoon was the tea comparisons. We tasted a selection of well known and popular tea brands (but weren't told which ones) alongside Birchalls Great Rift english breakfast tea.
I like strong good quality tea and it was really interesting to hear all about the process of making Birchall tea compared to the more economy brands.
As you can see from the photo below the brands of tea we tasted look quite different from each other once they've been taken out of the bags. The first tea is very brown and quite pale meaning that it contains some stem and bark of the tea plant blended up together. Good tea will only include the leaves which means it is darker in colour and a little more expensive but you will end up drinking a much higher quality tea. During the tasting of the various teas I could really tell the difference between a high quality Birchall cuppa and a cheaper one. The standard teas were quite weak and uninteresting and the economy tea was bitter and pretty nasty. I now know for sure that tea drinking should be quality over quantity and that it should be a special ritual just like it was when tea was first introduced to England.
After comparing all those teas it was time for even more tea drinking! We moved into a beautiful room to try the other Birchall teas and enjoy the Afternoon Tea. I try to avoid drinking too much caffeine so the herbal teas were my favourites especially the Peppermint and the Green Tea & Peach. All Birchall teas are around the £5 mark for 80 bags.
The Afternoon Tea looked delicious and as I couldn't eat most of what was on offer because of my wheat free diet I was offered some amazing special sandwiches and a pana cotta. I felt very well looked after!
Once we were finished all the eating and drinking we were introduced to the new Birchall Tea website and given a huge goodie bag that contained lots of Birchall goodies along with all these teas. I felt utterly spoilt and I have really enjoyed trying out all the lovely teas each morning, I gave the english breakfast blend to my mum and she gave it the thumbs up too!
Thanks so much to the team at Birchall, I had a lovely and very informed afternoon!