Wintertime lovers, the time has come to pull out your wollies and fill your cupboard with your favorite teas! Because winter and tea are just hand in glove! When the temperatures go down, is there anything more conforting than a scorching mug of your favorite tea?

There are so many different varieties and so many different aromas and ingredients, it can be difficult to choose. But that’s the fun of it. Green teas, black teas, oolong teas, white teas, herbal functional teas, you are spolied for choice.

We have already spoken about the benefits of spices during the autumn, of how they boost the immune system, and of course spicy teas are also perfect for the long, cold winter days.

So which are the best winter teas? There really isn’t a straight answer to this question, because all teas and herbal teas are perfect for a cold winter day.

However starting your day with a delicious and rich breakfast tea, with a dash of milk and sugar is a wonderful way to charge you batteries and get ready to walk out into the cold.

Breakfast teas are usually prepared by blending three black teas, and here at Babingtons we love them so much we have created a lovely selection of these heartwarming blends.

Each of our breakfast teas tells a piece of our story. Babingtons Breakfast Special is a delicate blend created in 1950’s and still one of our best sellers. Babingtons Morning Blend is a brisk and slightly astringent blend of Ceylon teas, the first ever served in our tea rooms in the late 1800.

Babingtons Imperial Breakfast is an intense, dark blend created to celebrate HM Queen Elisabeth II Jubilee. Babingtons Scottish Blend is a vigorous blend of Assam and Ceylon teas, created to celebrate Scotland, the homeland of one of our founders, Isabel Cargill. All delicious and absolutely perfect to start a cold winter day.

Speaking of ideal teas for wintertime, it’s important to mention herbal teas. For example if you return from a long day skying and want to heat up with a good hot “cuppa”, but are caffeine sensitive, you can choose a variety of herbal caffeine free blends. Do you like fruity teas? Or would you like a digestive tea? Or a purifyng tea? Or a relaxing infusion? Whatever your need is, the rule is always the same: choose quality, sit back and enjoy the extraordinary variety of delicious and warming blends for your winter evenings.

And because we like leaving you with a recipe, why not try a tea based Hot Toddy for your winter evenings?

Here is the recipe

Ingredients

• 2 ml of fresh water
• 2 gr black tea leaves
• Honey
• Brandy, Rhum o Whiskey
• A wedge of lemon or orange

Bring the water to 95° and infuse the tea leaves for 4 minutes Pour the tea into a mug (through a strainer, to get rid of the tea leaves), add as much honey as you like and mix untill melted.

Add Brandy, Rhum or Whiskey to your liking, squeeze the lemon or orange wedge and enjoy still very hot.

If you like you can add 3-4 cloves and cinnamon sticks to the water before bringing it to the boil and adding the tea leaves.

So, which are the best teas for winterime? All of them are, as long as they are of good quality, because good quality teas contain minerals, antioxidants, vitamins.

You can enjoy them pure, blended with citruses, spices, flower petals, fruits and berries, with milk, honey, sugar. They are perfect at any time of the day and according to your different needs,

moods and foods, you only need to select your favorite, sit back and let them warm you up during the cold winter days and evenings.