I am always on the look out for quirky things to buy for Christmas to keep in the house for visitors or to give people as gifts. I was browsing through Whittards at Bluewater last Christmas and came across this for £4.99. I was actually looking for nice tea pots to buy people, but I added this to my basket too.

Whittards mulled wine flavoured tea comes in a round tub, with a plastic lift on and off lid. I wasn't sure what to expect but was surprised to see grains inside. I guess the name 'instant tea drink' should have given it away, but I obviously didn't have my brain switched on! I think I was expecting tea bags, or more the sort of tea you strain, but this was more like a hot chocolate type drink.

You add around 3 tea spoons of the mixture to hot or cold water, depending on how you like it and how strong you want it. It didn't appeal to me to try cold, but it was easy to make hot, you didn't have to stir too much to get the right consistency and make all the mixture dissolve. The smell which filled the room, was deep delicious and gorgeous. Not really quite the same as mulled wine, but it still had the christmas feeling to it, as it was warm and quite deep.

I found the tea a little heavy in flavour and a bit sweeter than I usually like it. If you are the sort of person who adds tea to their sugar you are more likely to like this. It really didn't taste like I make my mulled wine, which is quite a lot of orange juice, but it certainly had more of the brandy edge to it.

It is worth mentioning however that this tea is totally non alcoholic, so it provides a nice novelty offering to this who are driving or just tee-total.

I certainly wouldn't go out of my way to buy this again as the flavour didn't bowl me head over heels, but it was nice for the one off, to have something a bit different in the cupboard. The packaging is nice, and looks nice on display also.