Time for a Great British Brew

26th August 2020

Time for a Great British Brew

A refreshingly strong everyday tea, our new Albion Blend is an homage to the story behind Britain’s favourite drink

A wonderfully robust brew, Albion Tea is a blend of malty Assam and bright Kenyan teas with a typically British taste. Curiously, despite coming from nowhere near Britain.

It has also been specifically engineered to the perfect dunking partner to our County Biscuits. The testing has been rigorous and in a great hardship, many biscuits were required to be consumed. It is also one of our strongest teas – second only to Irish Breakfast – and therefore perfect for an elevenses pick-me-up.

What's in a name?

Our Albion Tea was christened after an ancient name for Britain/England – interchangeable in a way that no other word is. It predates the creation of Britain (1707), but was in general – and poetic – use as a term for Britain thereafter, and mentions are made in Latin, Scots Gaelic and Welsh. To that end, the tea represents the epitome and essence of Britain – a brew for the whole nation.

We played our part in ensuring this could be the case, helping tea become a popular breakfast drink in the 18th century. Before that, people would have ale or gin instead. We can’t imagine how they would have felt by mid-morning.

And so the name, and our beautifully illustrated caddy which you can find out more about below, celebrates the story behind tea, and how it came to be inextricably linked with Englishness.

A Short & Heavily Abbreviated History of Tea According to Our Caddy 

• According to legend, about five thousand years ago Emperor Shen Nung discovered tea when leaves from a wild tree drifted down into his pot of boiling water.

• The Great Tea Race of 1866 saw five clippers carrying five million pounds of tea between them compete to travel from China to London. Close to the docks, two ships, Ariel and Taiping, suddenly together appeared from the mist sparking a furious final race to the finish.

• Finally, Messrs F and M welcome you to the famous Piccadilly store, helping tea become accessible to all.

Some other things happened in between, some of which you can read about here, but there’s only so much you can fit on a tin of tea. 

Designed to Dunk

The strong, malty characterics of our Albion Tea undoubtedly makes your biscuits taste better. We would go so far to call it a fact of life.

The eagle-eyed amongst us may have noticed that the Albion packaging bears the same designs as our County Biscuits, as they are intended dunking partners. You can find out more about their flavour profiles, and the stories behind them, here.