A Rose Garden

For me, tea is a very comforting drink. It evokes memories of cosy evenings at home with my parents, snuggling up on the sofa with a good book.

The other day, when I was dithering around the tea section of Waitrose to buy Lady Grey tea (my husband's favourite), a pretty box caught my eye. It was in the standard black Twinings package but with a picture of an elegant lady in a pink dress. The tea was named "Rose Garden".

It immediately piqued my interest. I love the scent of rose and enjoy it in perfumes but also very much in food. Turkish delights (although increasingly a bit too sweet for my tastes these days... maybe it's a sign of age...) come to mind and also my pretty pink cupcakes containing rose water extract that I like to bake. So this was a very exciting find, a black tea with a flavour of rose. These teas with a black tea base with added flavouring reminded me of this shop (now sadly closed) called First Class Teas which I used to enjoy going to in Cambridge. There I loved to buy almond black tea. It was a divine tea delicately flavoured with almonds. I really loved it, somehow the combination of black tea and another flavour with a sweet undertone is something I find irresistable.

Anyway, getting back to the rose tea at hand. Once I got home, I immediately put the kettle on and got out my favourite big mug my husband recently bought for me from John Lewis (with an amazing capacity of 500ml!). I tore open the sachet excitedly and sniffed. Wonderful. The scent of black tea was perfectly matched with the floral sweetness of rose. I couldn't wait to brew it. Once the hot water hit the tea bag, the aroma really spread out and I already knew that this would be a tea I would enjoy very much. I had it with a dash of milk and it was divine. The amount of rose was just perfect. It wasn't too strong to be overwhelming but enough to really flavour the dark tea. Every time I took a sip the aroma of rose would fill my senses and then I would taste the tea. Delicious.