STAFF REVIEW: TEA BLENDING WORKSHOP IN BRISTOL

A couple of months ago, Charlotte and I were lucky enough to be invited to a tea blending workshop held by Bird & Blend Tea in Bristol. We were excited to take part in this unique experience, as we have never done anything quite like it before! Bird & Blend Tea Co. was founded by Mike and Krisi, who started the business in 2012 from their spare room selling online and at markets. They opened their first shop in Brighton in 2014. Now, they operate from several successful shops across the UK, where they sell a wide range of unique tea blends and regularly hold tea blending and mixology workshops. 

Arriving at the evening class at 7pm, we could tell straight away this would be the perfect ending to our Bristol trip. We were greeted by the lovely Holly, who was our host for the evening, and Tanji, who makes the amazing tea cocktails. Charlotte and I arrived early, so we had plenty of time to wander around the shop and admire their aesthetically-pleasing displays of colour-coordinated teas! 

Once everyone has arrived, we were given a menu of unlimited cocktails we could order from. Charlotte and I did not hesitate, and quickly put in our drink orders. Charlotte went for the Matcha Bee’s Knees, and I ordered the Wobbly Unicorn cocktail. This intrigued me the most because it changed colour, which felt like some kind of delicious science experiment! When the drink was mixed with another concoction, the colour went from blue to a light pink. Charlotte and I made it our mission to try all the drinks on the menu. It’s amazing to think the cocktails were made form a variety of different teas!

Shortly after everyone had ordered their drinks, Holly gave us a brief introduction to the company and how it all started. It was amazing to find out the company started in Brighton, which is also where our office is based! On the table were pots of different teas with their lids removed, and we had to figure out what the name of each tea was before matching the pot with the lid. This was a lot more difficult than I thought and I only got a few of them right! 

After the game, we then moved on to tasting some teas - which was, of course, my favourite part! We tried a warm blue berry matcha with milk, as well as charcoal matcha. The blueberry matcha was my favourite as it was creamy and not too sweet. Holly also informed us on the history of tea making, and answered the all-important question: What comes first, the water or the milk? To our surprise, it’s actually the milk that should go in the cup first. Holly explained that when they made tea in China, they would pour the milk in first to prevent the hot water from breaking their cups.

The tasting session did not end there! We all stood in a line opposite the counter where the tea was kept, spoons in hand, and passed around the warm tea to taste. This helped us figure out what flavours we preferred when it came to making our own tea. Once the tasting was over, we were given our very own Bird & Blend tote bags which included 3 brown sealed packets to put our chosen tea blends inside, along with a matcha sachet to drink. (I had the ice cream flavoured matcha, which I was very excited about!)

Once we received our tote bags, we were free to decide what to include in our teas and were advised to use 8 spoons of the different blends in total. I decided to make three different teas. I made a white tea with hibiscus and liquorice, a green tea with coconut, liquorice and goji berries, and a black tea with cocoa, liquorice and coconut. Each packet had a sticker advising which temperature to boil the tea at, and whether or not to add milk. 

Charlotte and I had an amazing time learning about different teas, and how to correctly make them. We would like to say a huge thank you to Holly and Tanji for being amazing hosts, and the Bird & Blend team for inviting us to experience this tea blending workshop.