Christmas teas

I've found that this festive season, tea has been very important to me when entertaining (mainly because a lot of my guests come to me in the day and drive...) As a result, I've been very impressed with the Christmas teas on offer this year.

A good bet is to buy, where you can, sample sizes of the tea. You don't want to buy a huge container of tea to discover that either a) you hate the stuff or b) you're totally bored of it by Boxing Day. I have a few different teas that I am working my way around.

Cup of Tea's Winter Selection box has been a particular favourite- each of the sachets contains enough tea for a couple of cups, meaning that, selfishly, I get to try the tea at the same time as my guest (I cannot recommend the Oolong Plum Pudding and the Toffee Apple teas highly enough; they are my favourites by far!)

Tea Palace  has an excellent selection of Christmas teas; I have Mulled Spice, Winter Whispers and Palace Christmas, all of which have proved popular with friends, although Mulled Spice seems to be the favourite. Their little caddies contain a really good amount of tea (about 10-20 cups) and are a great present for someone who might just be starting out on a tea adventure.

If you live in the UK or Europe, there is still time to get your order in!