Christmas Cookies - Black Tea 100 g - Café du Jour loose tea

Why it smells of biscuits

Christmas Cookies is a flavoured black tea that gets its character from two things: cinnamon, which does the baked-spice work, and orange peel, which lifts it. Together they land close to the smell of spiced biscuits just out of the oven, and that carries from the open pack through to the pot. Underneath it all is still black tea, full-bodied and with the caffeine that comes with it, so this is a morning and afternoon tea rather than a nightcap.

What goes into it

• Black tea — the full-bodied base
• Cinnamon — warm and spiced, the biscuit note
• Orange peel — a bright, citrusy lift
• Red rose petals — a soft floral note, and colour in the leaf
• Flavouring

Making a pot

Loose leaf needs a strainer, an infuser basket or a teapot with a built-in filter. One heaped teaspoon per cup, freshly boiled water, then three to five minutes: shorter for a lighter cup, longer if you like it strong enough to hold a splash of milk.

Details

• Type: flavoured black tea, loose-leaf
• Net weight: 100 g
• Ingredients: black tea, cinnamon, orange peel, red rose petals, flavouring
• Contains caffeine
• Blended and produced in the Netherlands

The rose petals and the orange peel also make it a good-looking leaf, which counts for something if it is going into a tea gift rather than straight into your own cupboard. In the cup it sits well beside shortbread, gingerbread or a square of dark chocolate.