A Gourmet Winter Collection

If you love the exquisite Tea Forté collections you certainly cannot miss this. It’s Tea Forté’s Winter Collection, with 5 different flavors packed in a presentable, christmasy box. There are there limited edition teas in this box – Crimson Nectar, Sweet Orange Spice and Winter Chai and two other that are already familiar from other offerings – White Ambrosia and English Breakfast. Altogether 20 infusers of high quality tea, to entertain your senses all winter long.

Tea Forté products are not cheap, especially if you look at how much you are getting in your deal – that’s for sure, but they do compensate with quality. And if you’re feeling generous, they make great gifts.

Mini Tea Set back to full size

Here is a tea set entitled ‘Mini’, which is one of the projects by design studio Designerette. These pieces are inspired by a miniature dollhouse version of a tea set, brought back to a normal size, thus the somewhat cartoonesque and toy-like look. The porcelain set regains its original function – serving tea, but the inspiration and origin of the idea is still visible in the design. A little clumsy, but surely adorable.

Tea or coffee? – You decide

Yet another one of Naoto Fukasawa’s minimalistic designs, who has also designed products for the oh-so-beloved Muji in the past. This Coffee and Tea Maker can make up to 6 cups at a time! It takes 10 minutes for the water to pass though a double activated charcoal filter and the beverage to be done. The maker also has an automatic switch-off function which kicks in after an hour, letting you save some energy and the environment.

I can’t say much about how practical it is in reality, however you can clearly see that the design in a few years old. I’d like to draw some attention to the cup scale on the container – something I think is a very useful for most of us, but rarely seen on products. It makes it easy to see how much water you will need to prepare your tea. Tea AND Coffee Maker – one can argue, should you ever mix the two? I guess you would need to properly clean this device every time, if you choose to brew both beverages in it.

Available in Japan since 2007, where it received a Good Design Award, this handy gadget can now be bought in the UK as well, at the Design Museum Shop only for £149.

Winter Book Vol I and II

I wanted to feature this product mainly because I was excited about the idea of its look. There is good and bad news.

Good news – Whereas all Basilur Teas tend to look quite tacky, I think for Christmas a little tackiness won’t do any harm. This new Basilur Christmas Tea Winter Book collection comes in tins in the shape of books! And they are almost like fairy-tale books, with beautiful ornaments, golden accents, with a wintery landscape on the cover and they open like a real book. Inside, the tea is packaged in a bag that looks like pages of a book. There are two volumes available, both are Ceylon black teas. Volume I has additions of cornflower, papaya, jasmine and almond flavor. Volume II on the other hand is with papaya, safflower, marigold and sunflower.

For the bad news – these teas are really no good. They are of poor quality, but worst of all the aromas are quite repelling and not well composed. They are certainly drinkable, and the experience is like drinking regular black tea that has a somewhat strange smell, but they are by no means comparable to fine teas. If I had to choose between the two I would go for Volume II, because Volume I honestly smells like a tomato cake.

I have to admit though, that I absolutely love and adore the book packaging – it’s a great idea that could be taken even further.

A New Christmas with Dammann

Dammann Freres has given their Christmas Collection a new look. The tins have now the shape of classic Dammann tins, however this time there is quite some bling bling involved, as they are decorated with rhinestones. But don’t worry, the festive colors are still present and the blends remain the same.

The black tea in the red tin has fruit bits and orange peels and is blended with caramel, maraschino and pineapple aromas, creating a sweet and fruity experience. The green tea comes from China and contains apple bits, orange peels, vanilla and spices – its final aroma is like a combination of marcipan and mint, making it more refreshing. Exciting, right? These are hight quality teas that are sure to enhance the spirit of Christmas this year. You can also compare to last year’s look here.

Tea in a Tube

Here is a product that I wanted to write about for quite some time, but I was a little sceptical about the quality. Now when I finally have the chance to hold the product in my hands and see it for myself, I became more then pleasantly surprised and impressed.

Thelicatessen is a brand which offeres their tea in brushed silver aluminum tubes. These are filled to the top with fragrant oolong tea from Taiwan. The teas in stock are only available in limited quantities, for a limited time – usually there is one tea available at a time, and the offer changes after a while. The tea is in fact gourmet, it’s very subtle and delicate and the leaves are tightly rolled into clumps that are even smaller then most oolongs.

If you like oolong tea or if you want to experiance something new, this is definatly the thing to try. The tubes are fabubous, they have a modern, clean design and they are perfect for refilling and travel, if you want to take a bit of your own tea with you. They are very light and won’t take up much of the oh so valuable kgs in your suitcase. These tea tubes make an elegant gift, especially for a guy. They have that whole masculine cigar feel going on. My three tubes arrived in an also elegant black cardboard box – I love the simplicity and the overall look and taste of this product.

100% Damn Fine Teas

A new discovery – funky and hip like Pop Art is the limited edition Damn Fine Teas. And they are indeed limited editions, you can even track the amount that left on their website. These selections seem like a less uptight and more relaxed take on tea, with is both very pleasing and fun to see.

Currently offered teas are loose leaf blacks and greens and they come in cute, colorful, 55 g (2 oz) tins. Teas like ‘Jackee Muntz’ and ‘Thomas Sampson’ are some of the things you may find among the selection. I’d like to sit back and watch the brand becoming more strange with every new limited edition. The teas are guaranteed to be ‘100% Awesome’, so perhaps they are worth at least a look!

Tea Infuser – An Artistic Expression

This abstract infuser is the work of silversmith Terri Gelenian-Wood. The piece comes from 1999 and is made of sterling silver. To me, this is a very Picassoesque take on tableware and the infuser is only one part of the unique collection. At the same time the design feels organic with its leaf-like shapes and smooth, curvy lines.

 

Tea Hocus Pokus

The Hot-T Wand is a design by Minimal Inc. is a water heater, that heats the amount of water that you need. It turns on when you put it into the water and turns off when you take it out – completely magical! The heat sensor tells you when the water is done and most importantly this device is wireless, so you can prepare your tea anywhere, without risking electrocution. It also has a perforated heat cover for safe cooling down. In other words it’s a clean, minimalistic, beautiful little thing!

 

Green Tea Crispy Rolls

I found these Green Tea Flavored Crispy Rolls from Thailand in one of Stockholm’s asian markets and of course I was tempted to try. Having a generally bad experience with tea flavored products, I prepared for the worst.

These rolls have a vibrant yellow-green color and they are indeed crispy. When it comes to flavor they are very very milky, most likely due to the 50% coconut milk content and the taste is comparable to drinking a sweet matcha latte. Except for the coconut milk, crispy rolls also contain 20% tapioca flour, 15% brown sugar, 9% green tea plus egg and salt – all the good stuff.

By the 5th roll into my exciting venture I started becoming more comfortable with the new, unfamiliar taste and I can say that right then they were not bad at all. Unfortunately, every time I got back to them after a break, they were strange to me anew. To be completely honest, I don’t think I’d buy these again, and stick to the good old green tea chewy candies.