Dilmah Tea Tasting Experience

Sometimes I think I'm having a bad day, or I am in a really bad mood, but then I have a cup of coffee and I realise that everything is totally fine. So I have never really been a tea drinker. Mostly because I'd never discovered Dilmah up until now.

I was recently invited to experience a formal tea tasting at the Queen Victoria Hotel. I love learning new things about the food world and experiencing tastings. Going through a tasting, whether its wine or chocolate or tea, with someone who knows what they're doing and what they're talking about is always enriching.

The Dilmah range of teas is unique in the sense that every single tea bag is as fresh as it can be, retaining as many of the anti-oxidants as possible. Tea has many healing and medicinal properties, which are often lost if the tea leaves are not preserved or prepared correctly. These are a few of the tips I picked up for making an amazing cup of tea:

1. Don't pour boiling water over your tea. Allow the water to cool down slightly before brewing.
2. Don't squeeze the tea bag. Give it a gentle stir and allow it to steep for the recommended amount of time (2-5 minutes, depending on the variety).
3. Drink tea that is as fresh as possible. Over time, tea loses much of it's anti-oxidant properties. So check the origin and the sell-by date.
4. Tea can be used in many different ways. We had Laborie MCC and Vanilla & Rose cocktails which were delicious!
5. Good tea doesn't need sugar or milk.
6. Gree tea shouldn't taste as gross as I've always thought it does. A good quality green tea delivers a subtle flavour that isn't overly bitter, with lots of health benefits.

Dilmah tea comes in a huge variety of flavours, but my favourites are the White Tea and the Rose & Vanilla. As always, quality is key to exceptional flavour. So while I'd never really seen the appeal of tea before, now that I've started drinking Dilmah, I am experiencing the depth of flavour that has made tea a popular beverage for thousands of years.

All images by the exceptionally talented Claire Gunn