Feeling Floral with Tea Pigs Chamomile Flowers 🌼

I’ve never really been a big loose leaf tea drinker until a few months ago. I think that myself and a lot of other people just prefer the ease and convenience of tea bags, it’s understandable and seems far less time consuming. However, with more and more news reports of plastics in tea bags and reading up in what is actually in a lot of our tea bags, it has never seemed more appropriate to take the deep dive into the wonderful world of loose leaf brews.

I’ve always been a big chamomile tea drinker, mainly because I’ve always enjoyed herbal teas. They’re good for your stomach and can help with digestion if you’re like me and can have spats of IBS and tummy issues. I had tried Tea Pigs chamomile flowers before, but in a temple tea bag form. I originally I only tried it because it came as a free sample a long with another tea order I’d received in the post, alas I was not disappointed with this freebie, it actually convinced me to buy more! My favourite thing about a lot of up-market teas is the fact that you can genuinely see the ingredients that are in the bag, rather than just having a serving of chopped up tea dust that could be god knows what. The Tea Pigs chamomile bags are literally just a nice serving of chamomile flowers (which definitely adds to their adorableness!)

There are benefits to drinking chamomile tea, one being that it can help promote a nice relaxed sleepy state – perfect for bed time! I tend to drink one about 30 minutes before I want to settle down to sleep. It may help me sleep because I want it to (almost like a placebo effect) or it could also be because filling yourself up with hot liquids is basically a mini guarantee of getting to sleep. But chamomile is also linked to relaxing muscles and soothing some feelings of anxiety, so overall it’s a perfect little cup of calm. A great choice to end the day with.

So why choose the loose leaf life over tea bags? Well through google I’m sure you’ll find an abundance of health information that’ll give you specifics on chemical reactions and more. But to put it simply: loose leaf is cheaper! A box of 15 Chamomile Flowers temple tea bags will set you back £3.99 where as a 50g bag of loose chamomile flowers, which lasts longer and will give you about double the of cups of tea, will only cost you a little more at £4.60! Once you sit down and work out the price per brew you’ll struggle to go back to justifying the price of those tea bags.

So, how does this tea perform as a brew? Well, whole chamomile flowers in general do tend to brew better than chopped up and dust-like chamomile teas, so you’ll find that these whole flower blends are a lot more flavoursome and delicate. Just pop two tea spoons of flowers into your strainer, leave for a couple of minutes, and hey presto! A lovely and fresh floral brew to make the world seem that little bit calmer. 🌼

Check out the Chamomile Flowers here.

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Sweet Treats: Rinkoff Bakery

The question is; where are do I start!? Rinkoff Bakery is a little slice of heaven that has been plucked from the sky and brought down to us mere mortals so we can purchase a slice of deliciousness and use the hash tag ‘#TreatYoSelf’. Forget Hummingbird Bakery, disregard Greggs, put that sausage roll from Gail’s on hold because this is the Bakery you’ve been looking for.

The city of London has been blessed with the Rinkoff family Bakery since 1911, with no signs of going anywhere of the radar. For over 100 years they’ve been supplying Londoners with sourdoughs, cheesecakes, traditional Challah breads, muffins, Danish pastries and my personal favourite: crodoughs! (They also make amazing rainbow layered cakes!) With two Bakeries in London; one in 79 Vallance Road near Shoreditch and the other a short walk from Whitechapel station on Jubilee Street, these family run Bakeries are truly perfect little gems of the city. But why should you pop in you may ask? One word: crodoughs.

So, what is exactly does one of there famous crodoughs consist of? Well, let me tell you that they’re your new worst enemy but equally your next best friend consisting of sinfully calorific goodness. Essentially this sweet treat is a doughnut made with croissant pastry and filled with a variety of delicious fillings, from Nutella and marshmallow to salted caramel with pistachio, I can 100% guarantee that there will be a flavour for you.

I’m lucky enough to work within walking distance to one of their stores, so sometimes at work we treat ourselves to a crodough every now and again. (Although this means we usually spend the afternoon sitting at our desks feeling a little full and a bit sick, but it is worth it!) The staff are a very nice and friendly, although don’t stand in the bakery for too long trying to get the perfect picture to share on your Instagram because, understandably, they just want to serve you and then the next person, so if you want that perfect pic for your perfectly curated Insta gallery then be quick and be snappy! I usually try and snap a couple of photos whilst they box up my order which is a tactic that tends to work fine.

So if you’re in east London at any point and feel like treating yourself, then head down to one of these Bakeries and grab yourself a delicious baked good.

Let’s be honest, any day is the day to treat yo’self!

Check out the bakery website here!

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Tea Pot Spot: The Vanilla Cafe, York

I visit York about once every two months because I have an older brother who works there. I won’t complain about a sibling moving away when its to such a beautiful city like York, it’s a dreamy mashup of cobble stone streets, abbey ruins and affordable pints! One thing I always appreciate about it though is it’s countless amount of tea rooms. What could be better!?

One spot that I absolutely recommend in York is The Vanilla Cafe, located right next to York Minster on College Street. It’s a smaller tea room of York, with only room for a few people inside and some extra vintage style metal work seating outside. Its a truly a little gem of a vintage style British cafe, with bunting and paisley crockery galore. We went for some classic breakfast teas and cake, in a truly english fashion of course. I would rate both the tea and cake 10/10! I have no idea what brand of tea they used, but I tend to find that I prefer it that way, as long as it doesn’t taste like i’m drinking pond water, tea is tea no matter what label is on the box! I chose to be a bit vanilla (which was fitting considering we were sitting outside The Vanilla cafe) and had a big ol’ slice of Victoria sponge!

Copyright: Corah Norton Photography

The location is truly idyllic, we sat opposite the outside of York Minster along a cobbled stone street sipping tea on a lovely spring day. As we sipped our warm drinks and noshed on our yummy cakes the Minster bells rang and because it was a weekday the streets were quite empty, it was extremely peaceful and probably one of my favourite memories I have of York recently.

Check out the cafe here