It’s December which means that I can play Christmas music for my whole commute and no one can say anything! And more excitingly, it’s time for another tea advent calendar!

This year, I opted to get the tea advent from Fortnum & Mason. I think I’ve tried only one of their teas before this, so it will be really fun getting to try everything. Like last year, I’m planning to update this post throughout December as I continue to drink the teas.

Week 1 (Days 1-7)

• Day 1: Royal Blend – I’m starting the calendar late this year, due to commute and poor planning on my part. But this tea is interesting, the description makes it sound like a plain tea, where flowery pekoe from Sri Lanka is blended with Assam tea. However, this tea actually tastes a bit like a flavoured tea because I had a very strong vanilla note. With milk, the sweetness was tempered a little and I was reminded of Lupicia’s Cache-Cache tea. If I had more time, I would also had liked to compare this to Whittard’s Regal Blend, which I do have but alas, I drank this before work and didn’t have as much time as I would like.
• Day 2: Jade Oolong – This smelled sweeter than regular oolongs, as though it’s flavoured with vanilla (though the description makes it sound like a straight tea). I can get the regular floral notes of an oolong after a longer steep, but it remains pretty subtle the whole time.
• Day 3: Rose Pouchong – This reminded me of Twining’s Golden Rose Hearts (also a black tea with rose) but with a minty aftertaste. Interestingly, only another friend and I got the minty note, while a third friend did not get the minty note at all. Still, if you like rose black teas, this is a lovely one to have and I really enjoyed it.
• Day 4: Ginger and Sicilian Lemon Infusion – This was lovely but I think I may have drunk too many ginger and lemon teas in general, because this felt like a slightly stronger version of Clipper Tea’s Ginger and Lemon Infusion. The steeping time for this tea should be longer too; it takes time for the flavours to develop
• Day 5: Classic Earl Grey – As someone who’s not naturally inclined towards Earl Grey, I find that the test of a brand lies in how much I like their earl grey tea. This one was not bad – the flavours tasted natural and I actually thought the flavouring balanced the taste of the tea pretty well! If you like strong teas, this might not be for you but as someone who likes more natural/straight teas, I like this one!
• Day 6: Genmaicha – I just discovered that the foil in the box is not for each individual tea; that explains the minty note in the Rose Pouchong and why this genmaicha had a vanilla note – it’s probably from another tea near it! Ignoring the outside flavouring, this was a decent genmaicha, but it’s not particularly memorable either.
• Day 7: Apricot, Honey & Lavender Infusion: This was a really lovely tisane! There’s a great balance between fruity apricot notes, the sweetness from honey and the floral lavender notes. The only thing is that you can’t steep this for too long; there’s rosehip in here (probably to help with the apricot note) so after some time, a tart note comes out and ruins the balance of the tea.

Week 2 (Days 8-14)

• Day 8: Elderberry, Wild Strawberry and Rose Infusion – There’s hibiscus in this, which is probably why the tart note was the dominant note in the tisane. I did get the floral rose note, and something that I think is the elderberry, but I think I preferred yesterday’s tea (or perhaps just an Elderberry and Rose version). As much as I like the slightly tart notes of a hibiscus tisane, I did wish that it didn’t dominate.
• Day 9: Rooibos Infusion – I have nothing against infusions, but I do wish the calendar didn’t put three in a row! I like some caffeine in the morning too. Apart from that, this rooibos was quite decent. My favourites are still from Rare Tea and Karel Capek, but it was an enjoyable cup.
• Day 10: Countess Grey – From the name, I guess this is supposed to be a type of Earl Grey. However, this just tasted like an orange black tea. It’s pretty balanced, so as a non-Earl Grey person I ended up enjoying this quite a bit.
• Day 11: Moroccan Mint – This was minty (though more so in taste than the typical “minty” aftertaste) and somewhat sweet from the green tea. It did remind me of the tea a Moroccan friend once made for me, though obviously it can’t really hold a candle to the original.
• Day 12: Assam TGOFP – From what I remember, the longer the acronym, the better quality the tea. I counted five letters here to the tea has to be better than the regular English Breakfast teabags I also have, which is why I paid more attention to the dry leaves. I found the dry leaves to be bigger than the regular teabag dust, but also smaller than loose leaf Chinese black tea. The leaves were mostly black with some lighter pieces (buds?) mixed in. In terms of taste, this was rich and malty, not too sweet and definitely a gentle pick-me-up that I can see myself drinking for a boost in energy.
• Day 13: Rose and Violet Infusion – This was initially a soft and floral tea, but beware about steeping it for too long because a tart note will come it. I’m quite sure this either has hibiscus or rosehip in here.
• Day 14: English Mint – This was sadly disappointing. It smelled musty a bit herbal (like pochaiyi pills, if there are any Singaporeans here) and tasted like how it smelled. There wasn’t much that was minty about this.

Week 3 (Days 15 – 21)

• Day 15: Breakfast Blend – This had a slight vanilla note, but I suspect that is from the other teas in the box. Otherwise, I found this to be a really smooth tea and one that doesn’t get bitter no matter how long you steep it. I suspect it will be good with milk too, but sadly did not have milk to try it with.
• Day 16: Darjeeling FTGFOP – Another acronym-filled tea, another tea with high expectations. This darjeeling here was smooth, slightly woody, and also slightly floral. I don’t know if it’s my bias at work but it did taste like a better version of the Darjeelings that I’ve tried at afternoon teas. It’s also made me realise that Darjeeling tea is one tea terroir that I’m not very familiar with – and therefore not able to fully appreciate!
• Day 17: Camomile and Bee Pollen Infusion – This basically smelled like a camomile tisane and it tasted like a slightly sweeter camomile, probably because of the bee pollen part. The sweetness is quite subtle, which I liked.
• Day 18: Plum, Apple, and Cinnamon Infusion – I got a pretty strong cinnamon note from this tea! I also tasted a strong tart note, probably to evoke the plum, but I didn’t really get apple. The cinnamon and fruit combination reminded me of the M&S Christmas Spiced Tea, but to be honest, the only thing in common is the cinnamon note + fruit. Orange tastes very different, and I think I may like the M&S version better!
• Day 19: Victoria Grey – This is the third ‘grey’ tea that I’ve tried, but this one does taste pretty different! The main note here is lavender, so it’s a very floral black tea. I did google the tea and I saw there are other ingredients, but I’m really just getting lavender and I think this “simplicity” works for me because I’m not a fan of overly floral teas. I ended up really enjoying this one!
• Day 20: Gunpowder Green Tea – I was looking forward to this, since I hadn’t had a straight tea in a while, but unfortunately, I did not get any notes I expected from a green tea. I did get a vanilla and fruity note, which I suspect is from the other flavoured teas in the box.
• Day 21: Chai – Unfortunately (again), I ran out of milk on the day I drank this! So I drank this straight. It smells like a spiced tea, but it tastes like a regular straight black tea, which is a little odd. I do wonder if it’s the teabag that is affecting things – perhaps I should be using a larger quantity of tea?

Week 4 (Days 22 – 24)

• Day 22: Christmas Green Tea – Yay, we are drinking Christmas teas! My first impression was one of tartness, which was a surprise. After that, I started getting a strong vanilla note along with the tarty fruit note. For a green tea, this felt rather cloying and I wondered if it would be better black.
• Day 23: Gin and Tonic Tea – I was a bit worried about this tea because it smelled musty. Taste-wise, it was fine and strangely reminded me of a less intense version of the Christmas Green Tea. There was, however, a weird aftertaste that I wasn’t a fan of.
• Day 24: Christmas Black Tea – As with the M&S Christmas tea, there is a spicy note to Fortnum and Mason’s Christmas tea. Apart from that, however, the tea is quite bland, and I actually found myself preferring the M&S version!

Misc Thoughts

• There is a layer of foil underneath the paper doors, which makes me pretty happy because the Mariage Freres advent calendar did not have this and the tea dust fell out during the month
• While the calendar is gorgeous, I don’t think it’s meant to last. The Mariage Frères calendar mentioned being able to use it as a box after drinking, but this one looks like it’s meant to be thrown.
• Sadly, I have discovered that the foil wraps around all the teas, not the individual boxes so the scents of all the teas are mingling together right now.
• I’m not a huge fan of how they are ordering the teas – I like there are both regular teas and tisanes, but they need to mix it up so I don’t get two or three tisanes in a row (this is a slight problem for me because I’m opening it in the morning when I need caffeine and I don’t want two tisanes in a row)

Overall Thoughts

To be honest, I am disappointed with this advent. It started off pretty well and I do like the first week’s teas, but towards the end, a lot of the teas disappointed me. Given its reputation, I expected more from Fortnum & Mason than “slightly better than average” teas, especially for its straight teas! But you know what? It’s good that I find this out now, via an advent that is easily finished than by buying 50g of tea and regretting it.

I will say, their tea biscuits were pretty nice, so if I ever buy something from there, it will be biscuits and maybe a tisane.