The results are in, The Great Taste Awards have announced that Birchall Tea have won an astounding 13 Great Taste Awards for 2020. Consequently, Birchall has now surpassed 60 Great Taste Awards!
Birchall’s Great Rift blend was acknowledged for its impeccable taste, winning it’s 10th annual Great Taste Award in a row. When describing our best selling tea, the judges commented: “A bright attractive cup, with good strength, body and such wonderful flavour.” Awarding it two stars.
Other highlights include 2-Star wins and continuous compliments from the judges for our “beautifully rolled pearls,” Jasmine Pearls loose leaf – “with a pleasant level of jasmine. A light, golden, delicate liquor.”
Furthermore, the Great Rift Loose Leaf Tea was acknowledged by the judges specifically for its flavour: “bold and brave” with “satisfying, robust flavour.”
Daniel Graham, Managing Director said: “We go beyond the industry standard to source the highest quality and finest tasting tea, so it’s brilliant to receive the recognition. We’re on a mission to restore prestige to our national drink and help people demand good quality tea on every occasion, so it’s fantastic to be recognised for the work we’ve done so far.”
What is Birchall’s secret to producing the finest tasting tea?
- Our Great Rift Breakfast tea captures the freshness and delicious taste of Kenya’s Great Rift Valley, one of the most renowned tea-growing regions in the world. It is sourced exclusively from estates across East Africa, from Rwanda through to the Great Rift Valley in Kenya, where the very best teas are found. The high altitude, lush volcanic soil and heavy rainfall of this equatorial area combine to create the perfect set of conditions for growing tea of unparalleled flavour and taste.
- Birchall’s dedicated tea tasters uncompromising position on quality. Our tea tasters taste up to 750 teas a day and out of all these teas usually only around 5, out of nearly 5000 presented each week, would be considered a high enough quality to meet the Birchall standard and be eligible for a Birchall blend. It’s this dedication which really sets us apart.
To identify a superior tea taste takes years of experience and honing of the palette. Our tea tasters dedicate up to 5 hours to tea tasting a day and it takes up to 5 years – that’s one million cups, for a tea taster to truly develop their tea tasting skills and be eligible to become a Birchall tea taster. We are proud of the selection process that ensures that only the best leaves are used to make our exquisite blends.
- How we seal the Birchall flavour and taste. An important aspect to the tea selection process is the speed of the packing of Birchall teas in order to seal in the flavours and maximise taste. As soon as our delicious blended teas are selected we preserve the full flavour by packing our teas within 8-12 weeks of picking. This is against an industry standard of around 4-6 months and allows us to maintain the high quality taste you enjoy today.
We’re proud of our dedicated selection process and we know that the depth of our tea taster’s expertise is key to the delivery of our unrivalled taste. It’s this dedication to taste and uncompromising position on quality, which really sets us apart. It is the Birchall commitment to make exceptional tea the norm in households across the world, and we’re demonstrating that this can be done at an affordable price.
The full list of award winning Birchall teas which won a 2020 Great Taste Award with added judges comments below:
- Birchall Darjeeling Loose Leaf Tea – “Good colour and strength with a fine malty and a decent muscatel character.”
- Birchall Green Tea & Peach Loose Leaf Tea – “The floral character has blended well with the base tea to produce a subtle, aromatic meld within a bright green, clear liquor – this would make a pleasing iced tea.”
- Birchall Redbush Loose Leaf Tea – “Sweet and rich rooibos on the nose. Lovely deep and rich rooibos on the palate, with a pleasing sweetness to it, exactly what you want to see when you are drinking rooibos.”
- Birchall Great Rift Loose Leaf Tea – “Solid and delivers flavour.”
- Birchall Virunga Earl Grey Loose Leaf Tea – “A full-coloured, bright liquor with a pleasing bergamot character, a sound, aromatic oil note. The Earl Grey characteristics are well balanced with the tea.”
- Birchall Great Rift Prism Tea Bag – “Very bright, brisk and hard. Fresh, with plenty of flavour. Works very well with milk.”
- Birchall Green Tea Prism Tea Bag – “The liquor was delicate and sweet with some ‘soft’ fruit notes. A very good quality with a refreshingly lovely amber colour.”
- Birchall Green Tea & Peach Prism Tea Bag – “A light, smooth tea with hints of gentle soft-fruits. A good quality green tea base. Overall a well-balanced blend.”
- Birchall English Breakfast Tagged Tea Bags – “Lovely, clear and bright rich garnet colour in the cup. Deep rich earthy notes on the nose.”
- The new Birchall 1872 Orthodox Loose Leaf Tea – “Neat, well-made, orthodox tea. Light and bright infusion with good briskness and attractive quality.”
