My stomach periodically gets a little antsy (long-running gastric thing) so my house is always filled with ginger tea. But, I am always open to trying new things so when I needed something soothing and found The Digester, I decided to give it a shot.

Tea Review: The Digester

From the description on Bird & Blend Tea Co.:

Previously known as our infamous Skinny Minny blend. We wanted to be honest + clear about the intentions behind our digestion brew so we’ve changed their name! We also want to open up the conversation about ‘un-glamorous’ digestive issues + help you kick your pesky gut into gear! Let’s get ready to rumble!

Bird & Blend’s amazing digestive blend, developed especially with those suffering from IBS, bloating + sluggish metabolisms in mind. Warning! We promise this tea won’t make you skinny but it will kick your pesky gut into gear.

Why is it so good?

The Digester tea has been specially developed to help with metabolism and digestive issues such as IBS, food intolerances (such as gluten and dairy), bloating, slow or sluggish metabolism and indigestion.

The Digester’s benefits…

Pu’erh – nicknamed ‘the composting tea’. Oolong – natures metabolism booster. Ginger – natures stomach soother. Fennel – a natural appetite suppressor and digestion stimulator. Ginseng – natures energy booster. 

To be very honest, this was not my purchase. I’m not a big puer person, but when I do drink it, it’s normally ripe and in a Chinese restaurant (or around the dinner table). My mom was the one who saw this puer blend and took a chance on it.

The tea bags contained a lot of loose pieces (always a good sign) and smelled a lot like ginger. But the tea liquor was dark brown and the tea smelled a lot more like puer after brewing. I was surprised by how much I liked this: there was the earthiness of puer mixed with the pleasant warmth of ginger. I also got a hint of citrus in the aftertaste, which I guess comes from the orange. I didn’t, sadly, get any of the oolong and ginseng – I think they might have been overpowered by the other ingredients.

The tea did taste like the type of thing to settle my stomach, although I’m not sure if it’s because I’m already used to the idea of puer and ginger helping with digestion (though I normally take them separately). Unfortunately, this will have to be a daytime blend because I can’t really take oolongs at night if I want to be able to fall asleep.

My Visit to Bird & Blend Tea Co.

I have been longing to visit Bird & Blend Tea Co. since I heard of their Advent Calendars, so on our last visit to Manchester, I got my sister to bring us there. And it was such a nice tea shop!

I really liked how there was a space for customers to sit down and have a cup of tea. It’s not something that I’ve seen in a lot of tea shops in Singapore unless they were also tea houses at the same time.

And of course, the rows of tins of tea are amazing. I love the way they colour coded them. And it’s really great that they let you choose the amount of tea you want to buy – there are many times where I just want a small amount of tea to sample at home but end up getting way too much because they come prepackaged in fairly large quantities.

2019 Prices for reference! I’m not familiar with how much teas cost in the UK, but they seem reasonable to me.

What I found most interesting were the ways that they served their tea. I have definitely tried lots of cold brewed and normal hot brewed tea samples in shops, but this is the first time that I’ve seen people cold brew tea in lemonade and apple juice. It’s a really refreshing twist and it’s giving me an idea for another post (;

I really enjoyed my visit to Bird & Blend Tea. Co. in Manchester. It’s a very welcoming shop with friendly and knowledgable staff; by the time we walked out, I wasn’t the only one who had bought some tea. I’ll definitely be back next year when I’m visiting my sister again.