2013 Christmas Gifts for Tea Lovers: Gifts under $20

So perhaps you got that quiet lady who sits in the corner for your office Kris Kringle or perhaps you have a friend or family member who loves tea or perhaps you'd like to get someone addicted to tea! Either way, I have trawled through the best of the net to bring you the ultimate tea lovers gift giving guide. This year, to ensure we stick to our budgets and because I found sooooo many lovely things, I'm going to bring you a series of guides based on price. Today it is the best gifts under $20! Enjoy!

Mulled Wine Tea $9.83 by Bluebird Tea Co.

Who doesn't love a nice big mug of mulled wine or even mulled cider when it's chilly outside. Ok, so maybe not for an Australian Christmas but if like me you do enjoy those flavours then this might be a great tea to try. If you like chai then you'll probably enjoy this tea too! Heed caution with customs as this tea contains some fruit pieces.

Miniature Spoon Necklace $9.02 by Hannah Makes Things

How adorable is this cute little necklace pendant. It would make a great gift for a quirky jewellery lover who also happens to enjoy tea and possibly antiquities, or should that be an-tea-qui-teas!

Blue Tea Cup Earrings $9.93 by Jodie Anna

Continuing on the jewellery theme how about these cute but quirky tea cup earrings! Or...

Gold Tea Cup Ring $19.85 by Lisa Angel

...This very Alice in Wonderland golden tea cup ring.

Earl Grey Lipbalm $5.86 from Sweet Cecily's

Umm, yum! Tea that you can wear and smell and maybe even kiss! What tea lover wouldn't appreciate tea flavoured lip balm. What a lovely invention and it sure beats your regular run of the mill flavoured lip balms. 

Christmas Cup Cosy $10.80 from Cookie Crochet

Does someone you know never get to finish their tea because by the time they get around the drinking the rest it's gone cold? If so then this is the perfect gift. This crochet cup cosy fits over disposable cups and the good news is that if this holly design doesn't do it for you they (Cookie Crochet) have tons of other designs, including some cute dogs and a cheeky monkey!

Tea Tote $17.95 by Snowdon Design and Craft

Let your tea loving friend share their passion by sending the world a tea-lightful message of hope. Where else would you put a message of hope than on a lovely multi-use canvas tote! Book bag, laptop bag, shopping bag, it's uses are only limited by your imagination.

Mr. Tea tea infuser $14.95 from Heart & Heim

I know you've often thought it would be cool to brew tea using your pants right? Well now you can, but not with your pants, with Mr. Tea's pants. Fill his silicone pants with your loose leaf tea, allow him to recline in your cup and pull him out when your tea is done. This would make a great gift along with some nice loose leaf tea.

Wedgewood English Breakfast Tea Caddy $7.95 from David Jones

Wedgewood is a brand synonymous with china, quality and lets face it, expensive old stuff. This pretty little tea caddy in the lovely shade of what's commonly known as Wedgewood blue would make a lovely little gift for someone and they'll never know it was under $10!

Dream tea cup and Saucer $14.95 from Myer

This whimsical little cup and saucer comes in a range of pastel colours. It is dainty and sweet perfect for a really girly girl tea lover or just someone who loves a lovely cup!

20 Times to Shine tea sampler $20 from T2

Got a $20 budget? This is perfect! Your receiver gets to sample 20 of T2's most popular teas all individually sealed to ensure freshness and no cross contamination. Just to name a few you'll get Chai, Chamomile, Gorgeous Geisha and Melbourne Breakfast. A great variety box!

Tielka Tea Collection $20 from Tielka

This beautifully presented gift collection of three lovely loose leaf teas from Tielka actually gives twice. Apart from being organic it is also Fairtrade which makes it a great gift for the ethical tea lover. Tielka are also an Australian based company and it's great to support home grown small business where possible. This collection comes in three varieties; dark, light and Rooibos. My favourite is the light collection which includes Moonlight White Tea, Rose Moscato Green Tea and Midnight Blossom Oolong.

Twinings Christmas Tea in tea caddy $10 from Woolworths

If you're in a rush for a gift and you have a $10 limit then this might be the gift for you. Presented in a nice keepsake tin is this christmasy black tea blend. There is also a caffeine free spiced apple Christmas blend in your gift receiver prefers a herbal blend.

Tea Time with Sophia Grace and Rosie $16.98 from Book Depository

Get them started young with this lovely book about taking tea by those two annoying British girls who seem to be on Ellen every day. Ok so maybe some people find them cutesy wootsy but I'm not one of them but that doesn't mean you can't buy this book for your little princess and share it over a cup of tea with her and ted!

Hopefully I have inspired you with these gift ideas under $20. Do you have a gift you need to buy for someone but you're not sure what to get? Let me know in the comments and I'll see if I can include it in my next post!

Stay tuned for gifts between $20 and $50 but in the meantime enjoy your tea!

It's Official; Tea Makes You Smarter!

Drink up friends! A new study has shown that regular tea consumption actually boosts your brain power. This includes both black and green tea. Regular tea drinkers are more alert and less tired according to this study. I know what you're thinking, it's the caffeine, however that's not entirely true. Best you read the article to find out more.

You can read the full article here from News.com.au

Also this article had such a lovely graphic that I had to share that too.

The only problem is that all the little sweet treats look more appealing than the tea!

Lupicia Budou Green: A Tea Review

About 15 years ago when I was 13 I went on a student exchange to Japan. I'd been learning Japanese for two years and could manage to detail my basic needs, wants, likes, dislikes etc. I was in a what is considered in Japan to be a small city, about half a million people.  Many people I assumed had never in person seen a caucasian or really in my case a very fair haired blue eyed girl. I had many people stare at me just about everywhere I went. I was at the shopping centre with my host family when someone stopped me and made me wait whilst they flipped through a dictionary then pointed at me with the words 'movie star' scrawled on a piece of paper. I just laughed and said 'no'. These days if I was to go to Japan I doubt I'd get that same response.

As a result of my trip my family started to host exchange students. I have many Japanese friends as a result and learnt so much about not just them and their culture but myself too. As I grew up, left home and made my own family and career as a teacher I was fortunate enough to be in a position where I could open my home to exchange students. As part of an annual school trip we hosted a really lovely girl from Japan, lets call her K. K was such a delightful student, so open to new experiences and willing to try anything and everything. I think the thing I liked most about K was that she loved tea just as much as I did. I have this lovely tea, Japanese Morning Dew, that she'd share with me most mornings. Before she left we went to the specialty store where I buy the lovely blend and we purchased some for her take home. I'm sure she could get nicer tea in Japan but it would be a nice memento from her time at our home. Saying goodbye to her was difficult, I'd become rather attached. I tried not to cry as we don't want the kids all crying and blubbering and as she gave me one last hug she placed a little folded letter in my hand. Two and half years on I still carry than letter in my purse because it's just beautiful. 

A few weeks after K had arrived back in Japan I arrived home to a letter saying there was a parcel for me at the post office. I went and picked it up, it was pretty large and was from Japan. When I got home and opened it it was a large gift box containing a dozen decent sized tins of Japanese green tea blends and a lovely letter from K's parents thanking us for everything we had done. The brand was one I was unfamiliar with, of course, but would soon come to love. Lupicia. It does of course have the unfortunate sounding connotation with alopecia however they make lovely teas. I'm still working my way through the teas and have some definite favourites. Tsugaru Green, which is an apple flavoured tea and Tropical Green which is infused with tropical fruit flavours are great however Budou Green is my favourite.

This blend of grape with green sencha has a very strong aroma, much like grape lollies, chewing gum, or even grape Fanta. The aroma is just as sweet when brewed. When you drink the tea however, you lose a little of that fake-grape flavour. It's still a refreshing blend and if you are a lover of fake grape flavour, and I know there are plenty of us out there, then this tea shouldn't disappoint you. I haven't tried it but I believe this would make a nice iced tea too.

About six months ago when all my Lupicia stock was low, I thought it was the end, that I'd never taste this lovely tea again so I decided to ask Google. Lupicia is a Japanese company who through some sort of tea miracle have a retail store in Melbourne and also an Australian online store. They famously boast to have over 400 varieties of tea, perhaps not all on sale at the same time I suspect. The Melbourne store in in the QV Building and looks as thought it is aimed at possibly a touristy market.

Earlier this year as we welcome another group of student from K's school in Japan a girl from the group approached me and handed me a letter. She told me she was K's little sister and this letter was from K. I couldn't help but shed just a tiny little tear when I read her letter and she said she was studying hard so that one day she could come back. When she does she'll be very welcome.

The Verdict

Tea: Lupicia lose leaf Budou Green
Store: Lupicia - online or at the QV building in Melbourne. Google for international stockists.
Rating: 3.5/5
Comment: A wonderfully aromatic tea if you are in to grape flavour. The grape tends to dull on consumption. Brew at 75 degrees celsius for 2-3 minutes. If brewed incorrectly this tea is practically unpalatable.

Pickwick's Green Tea with Cherry and Elderflower: A Tea Review

The story of this tea comes in two parts, or three really, if you want to be technical. Essentially, it all harks back to a childhood love of black cherry yoghurt. Commence dreamy flashback music and screen fade now...

At about the age of 14 I was diagnosed with lactose intolerance. This was devastating for me considering my great love of milkshakes, thick shakes, soft serve ice cream buffets and black cherry yoghurt. Off to the boring world of lactose free and soy yoghurt I trudged with its generic flavours of vanilla, strawberry, vanilla oh and did I say vanilla?

Approximately 20 years on from that fateful diagnosis I found myself in England, the land of "cherry flavour". After several trips to Tesco I was in a cherry soy yoghurt coma. Now I don't know what it is about cherry flavour that I love so much, perhaps it's the sweetness with that ever slight bit of tart?  Perhaps it's because it's not orange flavour! Whatever it is I just love it. When I returned home I was disappointed at our serious lack of variety when it came to catering for people with special food needs. More so, I was disappointed with the serious lack of cherry flavoured anything. Four years on not a lot has changed, apart from my occasional trip to the specialty sugar heaven of the Harry Potter-esque lolly shop near my house, I don't even know what it's called but I know they sell Cherry Coke Zero and I know it's ridiculously overpriced but sometimes I just need that completely fake flavour, fake sugar hit. Don't judge me, I know you've been there! So basically, if you want something cherry flavoured in Australia, forget about it!

On to part two: During the same time period that I was in a cherry soy yoghurt coma I discovered something else incredible. I popped into a cafe to grab some lunch and noticed this drink in the fridge 'elderflower' something. 'Hmm' I thought to myself, 'these weird Brits drink old flowers?' The picture on the contained was pretty enough, they kind of looked like jasmine flowers so I thought I'd give it a whirl. From then on I was enamoured with this 'elderflower'. If you have never tried it before, and most Australian's haven't, it has a slightly sweet florally taste but it also a little tart. It is very refreshing. Again, when I got back to Australia do you think I could find it anywhere? The closest I came was a pear and elderflower sparkling water at $10 a bottle from a specialty water store, it was imported from the UK. Then, about two years ago my local supermarket began to stock Elderflower cordial, it wasn't cheap at $9 for less than half a litre, which is equivalent to about 6 pounds, but I purchased it anyway. Mix it with some sparkling water and it's beautiful on a warm summer day. Since then I have converted many an Australian to elderflower, it's also great with some lemon and mint in a kind of mojito - virgin or not. You can also put a little on fruit salad to give it some zing!

Fast forward to the present day where I find myself in the UK again. I don't know about you but when I travel I love going into the supermarkets and looking at the food and also the tea. The tea isle in this supermarket was rather large, which I appreciate in some respects but then in others it's difficult to make a selection in under 10 minutes with so much variety. This day however it took me all of about two minutes of browsing to decide which tea I wanted. Like a shining beacon I was drawn to a box of green tea bags with a cherry on the front. As I got closer, I could not believe my eyes, green tea with cherry AND elderflower! Now, dear reader, if you are in fact from the UK or Europe you might think I'm rather odd for celebrating this but just remember the two other parts that make up this story!

Pickwicks tea is relatively unavailable in Australia. It is not commonly stocked in the major supermarkets and I have not been able to find this variety of tea in an online store. Pickwicks has an interesting heritage and literary connections. Originally called Douwe Egberts, the company started in 1753. In the 1930's they decided they needed a more British sounding name for their tea. They chose Pickwicks from the Dickens novel the Pickwick Papers. I can't say I'm familiar with this work however people embraced this British name and the company has grown.

Back to the tea. Sometimes, you have expectations of something and they are so high that many times they are never reached, that was not so much the case here. Yes, it is but a humble inexpensive tea bag however after two days of terrible airplane tea and a four year deprivation of cherry flavour it was just what I needed. It is a lovely aromatic blend of mild green tea with the sweetness and tartness of both the cherry and elderflower giving in a mild fruit flavour. It is a nice refreshing and uplifting green tea blend which would be perfect for summer and I imagine it would make a lovely iced tea too.

Now for my next challenge; getting this tea back to Australia!

Update: I got this tea back into Australia without any issues!

Pictures to come soon

Gorgeous Geisha: A Tea Review

I strongly believe that every cup of tea you savour should take you on a journey. With each sip, as you close your eyes, you should be transported somewhere, albeit momentarily, so you can relax and escape.

Gorgeous Geisha, a green tea blend from T2, has me on a plane and plonked at a hanami faster than imaginably possible.  And a hanami is a cherry blossom viewing party.

My fantasy place kind of looks like this...

Photo Credit: http://regex.info/blog/2008-04-09/787

Gorgeous Geisha is a blend of sencha, a Japanese green tea where the leaves are not ground. If you look into the tea bag you can see the little leaves in there all curled up and then you can watch them unfurl when you add water. I’m a big fan of being able to see what I’m drinking. What makes this tea special is its combination of the sencha with freeze dried strawberry pieces. When the hot water hits those strawberries the aroma is incredible. The last ingredient is ‘cream flavouring’ and we don’t get much more info than that apart from that the tea may contain traces of lactose. T2’s Stawberry and Cream blend contains little yoghurt pieces, which makes me wonder if that’s what is in this one.

There’s no denying that this is a sweet green tea and is a perfect blend for spring and summer as it also makes a great iced tea. It’s delightful aroma and harmonious, not subtle but not too strong, blend of flavours make for a ‘gorgeous’ cup.

I buy my Geisha in tea bags, which are fantastic triangular infuser pods, however you can buy it loose leaf. T2 has an online store or you can visit the real thing by checking locations on their website but be warned, you will spend far more than you intend!

The Verdict

Tea: Gorgeous Geisha: Green Tea with Strawberries and Cream

Shop: T2

Rating: 5/5 if brewed correctly.

Comment: Perfect light, fruity and fragrant blend for the warmer months. Leave it brewing for too long and your sweet blend turns into a bitter punnet of squashed sour berries. To avoid this brew at 75-85 degrees celsius for 2-3 minutes.