Yes, I know it’s September. Yes, I know we haven’t had Halloween yet. But I don’t care. I will listen to Christmas-themed music as I review the English Tea Shop Holiday Collection. You won’t convince me otherwise!
The summer is well and truly over, and I’ve been slowly reviewing individual Christmas teas during the year, leading up to this beautiful article. Below, I’m reviewing the entire English Tea Shop Holiday Collection, including all 12 different tea blends, plus giving my overall thoughts on whether you should buy this.
The 12 Teas of the Holiday Collection
The red bauble Holiday Collection box contains 12 different tea blends, each packed into a small card box and held in place with a plastic sheet (boo). In each box, you get 8 teabags, individually wrapped in plastic (boo again).
That means you have up to 96 cups of tea to drink or share with your family and friends. Well, in theory you should. As you’ll discover in my tea reviews, not all the teabags are strong enough to make a cuppa on their own. Prepare to double up!
English Tea Shop Sour Peach
- Tea Type: Fruit
- Ingredients: Hibiscus, rosehip, lemon peel, lemongrass, cinnamon, apple, flavourings
- Flavours: Tart and juicy with hibiscus peach notes
I do enjoy a fruit tea, especially at Christmas. There’s a lot of chocolate and cinnamon spice going on at this time of year, so a fruit tea is always appreciated. Sour Peach isn’t very sour, although the hibiscus does create a good tartness. If you dislike hibiscus, don’t even bother trying this tea. It’s a hibiscus-dominated blend. The peach notes shine through afterwards, adding a juicy quality to this tea that is very pleasant.
English Tea Shop Christmas Cake
- Tea Type: Black
- Ingredients: Black tea, orange peel, apple pieces, cocoa, cinnamon, ginger, vanilla pods, flavouring
- Flavours: Light and smooth Ceylon tea with hints of honey, malt, peaches and sultanas
As I mentioned in my Christmas Cake tea review, I don’t actually eat Christmas cake or pudding on Christmas day. I do really like this tea, however! The aroma has some really interesting notes swirling around in it – sticky toffee pudding doused in Disaronno. The flavour, however, is lacking. Rather than being rich and full-bodied, it’s light with subtle fruit and sweet honey notes. Delicious, but not a Christmas Cake.
English Tea Shop Christmas Night
- Tea Type: Black
- Ingredients: Black tea, cinnamon pieces, cocoa, cloves, liquorice, vanilla pods, flavouring
- Flavours: Rich and smooth black tea with only the vague hint of sweetness and spices
From Christmas Cake to Christmas Night. Unfortunately, this tea was a bit of a let-down. Despite having a stellar list of ingredients including some of my favourite Christmas flavours, the tea brews into a moderately weak and simple black tea. There are vague hints of generic spice and sweetness that manage to burst through, but overall, this tea is lacking. It’s still pleasant to drink, but it could have been soooo much better.
English Tea Shop Moroccan Spice
- Tea Type: Herbal
- Ingredients: Cinnamon pieces, chicory, liquorice, peppermint leaves, ginger pieces, orange peel, flavouring
- Flavours: Peppermint tea with cinnamon sweetness and a fiery ginger aftertaste
This is the first really unusual tea from the English Tea Shop Holiday Collection. Moroccan Spice isn’t very Christmassy and the blend of ingredients is unique. Peppermint dominates the ingredients list, creating a good base for the cinnamon and spices. What’s really crazy about this tea is the aftertaste – you’ll be shocked at how strong the ginger and black pepper flavour notes are after every sip!
English Tea Shop Peppermint Melon
- Tea Type: Green
- Ingredients: Green tea, cinnamon pieces, peppermint leaves, liquorice, flavouring
- Flavours: Bitter unripe melon flavour with hints of green tea and peppermint sneaking through
Again, English Tea Shop have gone a little crazy with this festive tea blend. Peppermint Melon is not at all festive and is quite an unusual flavour combination. I can’t think of any recipe I’ve ever seen or tried that combined these two flavours. Strangely, the melon is the dominant flavour in this tea, with peppermint floating along behind it. The melon flavour is bitter and unripe – definitely an acquired taste, although not unpleasant.
English Tea Shop Silent Night
- Tea Type: Green
- Ingredients: Green tea, cinnamon pieces, ginger pieces, peppermint leaves, rose petals, flavouring
- Flavours: Bland green tea with notes of spice and peppermint menthol
With spices, gentle green tea and rose petals, this tea should be a perfect symbol for the sweet Christmas hymn. But Silent Night doesn’t quite hit the mark. The green tea is a little too bland (probably because it was finely chopped to go in the teabag) and the spices are way too generic. It’s a real shame because, if done well, this would have been my favourite English Tea Shop blend.
English Tea Shop Sweet Vanilla Bread
- Tea Type: Black
- Ingredients: Black tea, cinnamon pieces, ginger pieces, cardamom pieces, apple pieces, vanilla pods, flavouring
- Flavours: Smooth black tea with subtle honey and spices
I really wanted this tea to taste amazing! Sweet Vanilla Bread sounds like it should be comforting, malty, bready, and sweet with vanilla honeyed notes. But it’s actually quite subtle and a nice tea to drink without milk. The sweetness and spice are well balanced but overall, quite light. Try brewing 2 teabags at once to get a stronger brew from this one. It’s lovely to sip after dinner on a cold day.
English Tea Shop Coffee Cream
- Tea Type: Black (cofftea)
- Ingredients: Black tea, coffee, cocoa, safflower, flavouring
- Flavours: Mellow coffee notes with black tea warmth
As a tea drinker, I strongly dislike the harshness and bitterness of black coffee. But Coffee Cream works so well. The Ceylon black tea creates a smooth base with hints of coffee and cocoa swirling through it. It’s quite creamy and also quite caffeinated, as tea, coffee, and chocolate all contain caffeine. I wouldn’t drink this one too close to bedtime! It’s really nice with milk or without. I don’t need sugar in my tea, but you could add some for a Christmas treat.
English Tea Shop Vanilla, Orange & Coconut
- Tea Type: Herbal (rooibos)
- Ingredients: Rooibos, orange peels, cloves, vanilla pods, flavouring
- Flavours: Rich and sweet rooibos with orange peel and spice notes
This is an unusual combination. I haven’t had much luck with coconut teas in the past, but Vanilla, Orange & Coconut isn’t so bad. The rooibos is the main flavour, with those typical nutty and tannin notes, with just a slight medicinal hint. It’s caffeine-free, of course, but quite full-bodied, nonetheless. Besides the orange peel and spice notes, there’s not much going on with this tea. The coconut (which must be entirely from the flavouring) doesn’t make much of an impression.
English Tea Shop Berry Savoury Pie
- Tea Type: Herbal (rooibos)
- Ingredients: Rooibos, apple pieces, flavouring, raspberry, blueberry, cranberry, cinnamon pieces
- Flavours: Light rooibos honey with berry notes
Although Berry Savoury Pie is quite light, the flavours are delicious. A medley of berry notes with a light honey rooibos body. Some people find rooibos tea to have a slight medicinal quality to it. Adding berries can sometimes give it a Calpol type flavour… which isn’t nice. But this one is well-balanced, and I quite enjoyed sipping it. It makes a great evening tea for the festive season.
English Tea Shop Vanilla, Mint & Mango
- Tea Type: Green
- Ingredients: Green tea, lemongrass, mint leaves, cinnamon pieces, vanilla pods, mango pieces, flavouring
- Flavours: Green tea with mint and sweetness for a refreshing taste
This was the most refreshing tea in the whole box. Mint and mango may seem like an odd combination, but Vanilla, Mint & Mango works so well when you add a grassy green tea base. It balances the whole cup! I really enjoyed this one so it scored significantly higher than most other teas in the English Tea Shop Holiday Collection box. Check out my full review to read more about how to brew it.
English Tea Shop White Wonderland
- Tea Type: White
- Ingredients: White tea, cinnamon pieces, cocoa, peppermint leaves, liquorice, chamomile, flavouring
- Flavours: A nice blend of white tea and chamomile with subtle spices
The chances of actually having a white Christmas are pretty slim. The chances of your enjoying a cup of White Wonderland are significantly higher. English Tea Shop have done a pretty good job of blending this white tea with chamomile – a flavour combo I wasn’t so sure about at first. It’s quite calming and lightly spiced. I found it a great tea to sip when I needed a break from the heavily spiced black teas that are so popular at this time of year.