I won’t lie, I’ve been hoarding this tea since Christmas. It’s the last teabag from the English Tea Shop Christmas collection so I made sure to savour the moment with a great tea review.
Ginger is such a powerful ingredient. While I love strong ginger flavours in my gingerbread, cakes and desserts, in tea it needs to be carefully balanced or it easily becomes overpowering. Read my Pukka Lemon, Ginger and Manuka Honey review to see what I mean.
English Tea Shop is one of my favourite tea brands because they are the masters at balancing strong flavours well! Once again, they didn’t disappoint.
ETS Ginger Bread Man at a Glance
- Blend: Black tea with ginger, apple and warm spices
- Flavour: Subtle sweet apple with a spicy warmth, medium body and a ginger heat
Another perfectly balanced tea from English Tea Shop. The predominant flavour is apple, but it doesn’t overpower the tea. It’s well-balanced with warm spices and a ginger fire that lingers in your mouth afterwards.
Full Review - English Tea Shop Ginger Bread Man Tea
- Type: Pyramid mesh sachet
- Tea: Ceylon black tea
- Additives: Cinnamon (15%), Ginger (15%), Cardamom (5%), Apple (5%), Natural Flavourings (5%).
- Flavour Notes: Subtle sweet apple, complex spices, ginger fire
- Aroma: Sweet spiced apple, warm cinnamon, hint of ginger
- Milk or Lemon: Honey, if desired
- Where to Buy: Amazon
I love the tea sachet aroma, it’s Christmassy and almost earthy. The spiced apple reminds me of hot apple juice, while the ginger is less of a flavour and more of an experience. It tingles my nose with spice and fire.
Once brewed, it has an amber gold colour with a hint of reddy brown. It reminds me of autumn leaves or an open fire. The whole tea drinking, smelling and slow brewing processes makes me feel warm and comforted. The sign of a great tea!
On that first sip, you instantly get some natural sweetness from the whole apple pieces infused with the tea. The spices mix with the medium body of the Ceylon tea and create a complex warmth. The ginger is well balanced – it starts as a light warmth with the apple, getting stronger as the tea warms my mouth. You can feel the ginger fire in your throat and lingering on your tongue for a while after. It’s very pleasant.
Finishing this warming cup, I feel cosy and a little bit drowsy (in a good way).
How to Brew English Tea Shop Ginger Bread Man Tea
Brew instructions are 4-5 minutes. Normally, I find my tea has brewed perfectly within the 2-3 minute time frame, but actually this tea took a whole 4 minutes and 10 seconds to get where I wanted it to be.
Despite the strong flavoured ingredients in the tea sachet, it’s quite a light brew. The liquor is bright and has a slightly thick consistency for a tea. It almost reminds me of apple juice, there are bubbles that just won’t pop at the edge of my drink.
This texture adds to the experience of the drink. It’s smooth, warm and subtly sweet but with a sticky sweet edge. I enjoyed it with a gingerbread man, but I imagine it would taste very good with any sort of salted caramel or pastry, bready cinnamon treat.
Why English Tea Shop Christmas Collection?
Ceylon black tea was the perfect choice for this blend. You need a moderately long brew time to get the sweetness of the apple and spices to really blend together, which would usually make the black tea bitter and strong.
But the Ceylon tea is quite delicate. Even after 4 minutes of brewing it has a warm and light flavour with a medium body. I’ve praised ETS many times on their blending mastery, and I’ll do it again here. It’s perfect.
The tea quality is good, not great. Although the spices, apple and ginger are whole pieces added to the ginger tea blend, there are artificial flavours added too. No tea dust in the sachet, but some small broken leaves.
All ingredients are certified organic, which makes drinking it a little more satisfying.
Summary
I would highly recommend this tea, especially if you like ginger but don’t want to be overwhelmed by it. Actually, I think that if you didn’t see the label you might think this was a purely fruit and spice tea blend.
For the price, it’s definitely worth it. Although it’s part of the English Tea Shop Christmas Collection you can find it online all year round.
About Me
I’m a bit of a tea addict! You can find my growing tea reviews right here on the blog. Find something new or get my opinion on a tea you’re unsure of. Don’t be afraid to comment and recommend a new tea for me too.
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