Sunday, 17 March 2013

Cosy Teas Review & Giveaway

Tea bag in. One level spoon of unrefined cane sugar. Boiling water fresh from the kettle. Little stir. Dollop of soya milk in. Not too much, or the tea will be ruined. Not too little, or the tea will be too strong. Remove tea bag. Couple more stirs. Satisfying tap of the spoon on the cup rim, and you’re done.

That’s how I like my tea. Not that it matters, these days I mostly just sit next to the tea as it goes cold, while trying to distract a toddler who so desperately wants to touch the tea cup just so she can proudly announce that it’s “hot!”.

In spite of my now pour-away-whilst-crying-into-the-sink relationship with England’s favourite drink, I was still excited when Cosy Tea asked if I would like to review their teas. I mean, I’m sure the world is filled with people desperate to read my review comparing how fast certain teas go cold, right?




A few days later, the postman knocked on my door. I did my usual trick or answering it in my pyjamas at what is considered a very late stage in the day to be wearing pyjamas. The postman pretends not to judge me, while I try to give off the air of a person who has either won the lottery (and chosen to live on a run down street because of my eccentric personality) or who owns a niche fashion business specialising in all day night wear. After the usual awkward conversation where neither of us mention the pyjamas, the postman left me with a big box.
I was expecting a small box of breakfast tea, what I got was a huge box of EVERY tea. I had been sent breakfast, decaf, earl grey, rooibos, chamomile, blueberry, lemon green, jasmine green and peppermint tea. That’s a lot of tea. 


It was at this point during my career as a product reviewer, that I realised I should perhaps have mentioned that I don’t drink fruit teas. Oops. I don’t like the taste, and I’ve tried quite a few varieties, brands and flavours. They’re just not for me.
So, I invited my family round. They love teas of all kinds. I sat them all down with a variety of teas, I got myself a pen and paper to record all of their comments featuring beautiful imagery depicting the tastes and smells of these wonderful teas. And this is what I got:

From my sister, a keen fruit tea drinker, I got: “Oooh, very blueberry-y.”

That’s not even a word.

And my Dad didn’t do much better. He tried the Jasmine green tea, and he said “Oooh yes. Some Jasmine teas can leave you with a … hmmm, how to describe it, it’s not quite dry, well anyway, some teas leave you with that, but not this one. Yes, very nice.”

It soon became apparent that I could not rely on my family to review the tea for me, so I decided to review it myself. And, you’ll never bloody believe it. I now actually like fruit tea! Well, blueberry tea anyway. The Cosy Tea smells and tastes amazing. I never thought I would be a fruit tea drinker, but here I sit. Just a girl, sitting in front of a laptop, asking for a fruit tea please.

Cosy Teas are vegan certified, organic and some of the range is Fairtrade certified too. Basically, even when I just let them go cold and then pour them away, I still get to feel good about it.
“Well, I may not have had the chance to enjoy that tea,” I think to myself, glaring at the toddler, “But I’ll bet the tea farmer who was paid a living wage did.” 



The branding is great. I absolutely love the knitted design on the boxes - each flavour has its own stitch - and I love the bright colours. They look amazing in my tea cupboard. If you have a fetish over amazing cupboard set ups, these are the teas for you.

I think these teas would make a great gift for a friend. They’re fun, ethical and stylish. A box of tea and a couple of cute mugs would be such a lovely way to show you care. Plus, it’s a very polite way to invite yourself to someone’s house for tea.

Cosy Tea have very kindly offered to give two of you the chance to try their teas for free. All you have to do is do one, or all, of the below to be entered into the competition. Two winners will be selected at random to receive a selection of Cosy Teas. Good luck!




a Rafflecopter giveaway