F&M Christmas Tea Crisis
 

I've just found out that Fortnum and Mason no longer makes their Christmas Tea, which is black tea flavored with orange and cinnamon. I love(d) to drink it this time of year!
Does anyone have suggestions for a reasonable substitute? I've tried Harrods' version, and didn't like it much. Information on where to order your recommendations would be much appreciated!
Thanks -- Annette

Have you ever tried Constant Comment?

My thought, too.

Also, why not grate some orange zest and put a cinnamon stick into your pot while the tea steeps? (Or am I showing my craven ingnorance and utter barbarity when it comes to tea?)

I haven't tried it before, but it's made by Celestial Seasonings, right? I'll look for it at the store.
Thanks for the advice -- this tea has become one of our traditions ever since we first bought some in 1996. I was really looking forward to that first cup of the season on the morning after Thanksgiving.
Annette

No Constant Comment is no a Celestial Seasonings tea. But you can find it in most good markets.

Constant Comment is made and distributed by Bigelow Teas. It is tea with a mixture of oranges and spices.

Oops -- I knew Celestial Seasonings made teas with poetic sounding names, so I just assumed Constant Comment was one of theirs! It sounds like it might be pretty similar...
Annette

I'm glad I still have a bit left in my tin! This type of tea is my favorite year around. Constant Comment is good but subtle. Have you tried Good Earth tea? In our area, you can buy it in boxes at just about any market. Their Original tea is sweet and spicy. Not much orange but very nice. It comes in black tea and (caffeine free) herb formats. Both are really good. Also there is a restaurant chain in California (perhaps elsewhere) called Hobee's. Their signature breakfast drink is a a spicy orange black tea. They sell it in baggies at the counter. Perhaps you can get it over the Internet.

My "secret" recipe for this sort of tea is one bag of Celestial Seasonings' Apple Spice mixed with one bag of Celestial Seasonings' Bengal Spice.

If this won't do it, there's an English foodstore in New York ( the West Village) that may carry something like this. I just can't come up with the name right now! HELP!

Tea and Sympathy?

Annette,

For years I have been buying my Earl Grey tea from Mark T. Wendell Tea Company in West Concord, MA Tel. 978 369 3709.

Upon checking my catalog after reading your message, I notice that they sell an Oriental Spice Flavored Black tea (orange peel, cinnamon pieces)and other varieties of flavored black, green and herbal teas.

I would suggest you call them as they are wonderful people to deal with. If after hearing your problem, perhaps they could make some suggestions for you.

Thejamlady

Thanks for all the advice! The Mark T. Wendell Tea Company has a website (http://www.marktwendell.com/index.html), and the oriental spice tea looks pretty close (and a lot of the others look just plain good!).
Definitely if you've got some of this Christmas Tea, hold on to it. I had a little left, and have mixed it with English breakfast tea, hoping to stretch it out a bit.
I'll keep you posted on the results of the search.
Annette

Mariage Freres Noel is a very good Christmas tea, also. I bought it through a catalogue one year, but they don't seem to have a working website at this point, that I can find.

Have you tried Fauchon's Christmas tea? I bought it last year and it was yummy.

Scarlet: Tea and Sympathy is Constant Comment with a shot of Grand Marnier. Sort of the tea equivilent of Coffee + Brandy. (T & S may also be the name of some commercial tea blend, but this yummy drink is the only version I know of)

It is served in a lot of cocktail lounges in CA.

Oooh la, that sounds good janis.
I asked -"Tea and Sympathy " in response to weadles mentioning a West Village shop that sells tea, there is a tea room in NYC called Tea & Sympathy :)

...and a great song by the same name by "Jars of Clay"

Try Harney Tea. They have a website. Excellent selection.

I'm a tea fanatic and usually don't care for flavored teas but I'm ready to put the kettle on after reading this thread! Ira, I'm going to try your suggestion!
annettetx, try the tea.com website for lots of tea links.

We love the Royal Blend from F&M - reading this thread got me thinking about how I would like to order some, so I went to britishtea.com, where I had gotten my last refill. Alas, F&M is no longer exporting any of their teas to the US as they apparently plan to open some stores in the US, one of which will be in NYC. (MY poor DH, I send him on all these errands when he goes to meetings in NYC -today he was at the French Tourist Office, which by the way, had next to nothing - and soon he will be fetching tea from F&M!)

Thanks again for all your answers -- I'm cross-eyed from looking at tea websites all evening! The tea.com website is especially amazing, with so many links to online tea shopping.
I was really hoping to find that someone somewhere had unsold back stock of the F&M tea, but no such luck.
Instead I've ordered small amounts of Christmas tea or spice tea from Mark T. Wendell, speecialteas.com, and adagio.com. Surely out of all those, at least one of the teas will be pretty close to what I'm looking for.
Cheers!
Annette

This year I received two Fortnum Mason Christmas catalogues , the 'regular' version and also a US version.
The US catalog offers a much smaller product selection, but there are some teas available. ( Sadly, there's no Christmas Tea ).
There's a US online ordering service, too. fortnumandmason-usa.com/

Hi
try the BBC America shopping-grocery section. I just sent a gift box to a friend, and one of the items was a Christmas tea, the brand name escapes me at the moment

annettetx,

I know you've already bought your tea, but my British friend informs me that the name of the tea shop I mentioned in New York City is: Myers of Keswick at 634 Hudson Street. Their phone number is: 1-212-691-4194. Their website is: MyersofKeswick. com. I browsed their website briefly, and they do carry quite a lot of teas!

Good luck!

Just back from London - F&M did have their Christmas tea in the store, although I haven't found it on-line available for export.

I think F&M have two different things: Christmas Blend (which is just a mix of black teas) and Christmas Tea (which they say they don't make, and has orange and cinnamon in it).
After all yall's help, I read more tea websites than I even knew existed, and purchased three different kinds from Adagio Tea, SpecialTeas, and Cyber Cucina. Of those, Adagio's Christmas tea is most like F&M, although SpecialTea's was a close second. Ashby's Christmas tea (from CyberCucina) smells wonderful, but is more cinnamon-y than I was looking for.
Thanks again for everyone's help -- my Christmas tea tradition lives on!
Annette

I second the suggestion for Harney & Sons Teas, www.harney.com. Click on Spiced Black Teas and there are a number of offerings including Holiday Tea (with citrus, almond, cloves and cinnamon) and Hot Cinnamon (with 3 different cinnamons, orange peel, and cloves). They have an excellent selection of teas and very efficient service.

Hi
I posted elsewhere earlier today that if you can't get Fortnum's, Taylors of Harrogate also makes a Christmas tea and it is available on line from many sources

Curiouser and curiouser (or spelled something like that) We just got back from a London trip. We were in Fortnum and Mason last Saturday afternoon. They DID have Christmas tea. They had the larger tins of Christmas Blend (I bought one of those last year) and a smaller tin of the black spiced tea. (Which I bought this year.) I don't know if this is the same tea you wanted or where your information comes from but it is in the Piccidilly Circus store.

If you want to know the exact tea name, when I get my wits about me a bit more and unpack later today, I could provide it.

Hmmm -- that is curious, since I received an e-mail reply from them saying they no longer sell Christmas tea, but have a spiced tea which is similar.
I would be curious about the tea you bought. The Christmas tea tin I have left over says, "A nostalgic blen of tea enhanced with cloves, cinnamon, and orange peel."
If they do have the real thing, I'd be tempted to order it. (Don't tell anyone in my family, though. My poor kids have been subjected to blind "sniff tests" of all the tea we've gotten in, and my husband has to try a different brand each morning. I think they believe I've gone slightly over the edge on this one!)
Annette

Don't know when you're coming, but Liberty (the department store in London) has a Christmas Tea that sounds very similar to what you've described. I bought some on sale after Christmas (it's good until mid-2005), but I haven't tried it.