Opulent Tea Blends: The Range and Which Hampers They Come In

Opulent is the tea that goes into our wellness and comfort hampers. Like our wine labels, it is blended for us and packed into gift boxes rather than sold on a shelf, and enough people have gone looking for it afterwards that it deserves a page of its own.

The blends

English breakfast. The everyday one. A strong black blend that takes milk without disappearing, which is the whole job of a breakfast tea. If you are giving tea to someone whose taste you do not know, this is the safe bet.

Chai. Black tea with warming spice through it. Good with milk, better with hot milk rather than a splash of cold, and it stands up to being sweetened if that is how they take it.

Green tea. Lighter and grassier, no milk. The one most people reach for in the afternoon rather than first thing.

Lemon and black. A black tea lifted with citrus. It turns up in several of the comfort and welcome-home hampers because it works hot or iced, which matters in an Australian summer.

Brewing it so it is actually good

Most tea in most houses is made badly, and it is nearly always one of two things.

Water temperature. Black tea and chai want water just off the boil. Green tea does not: boiling water scorches it and produces the bitterness people blame on the tea. Let the kettle sit for two or three minutes before pouring green.

Time. Three to four minutes for black and chai, two for green. Leaving the bag in is not a stronger cup, it is a more astringent one. Take it out.

Loose leaf wants room to move, which is why the infuser cups we pack are wider than they look like they need to be.

Which hampers it comes in

All in stock at the time of writing.

• Ultimate Tea & Biscuits Hamper. Three blends, chai, English breakfast and green, with a cup and its own infuser. The most tea-focused gift we do, and the one to send an actual tea drinker.
• Tea & Comfort Hamper. Opulent blends and hot chocolate with an infuser cup, a cream mug, fluffy socks, an eye mask and pillow spray. Built for someone having a hard week rather than for a connoisseur.
• Self Care Hamper. Calming teas alongside bath salts, a candle, rose soap, shortbread and truffles.
• Vitality Pamper Hamper. Body wash and soap with bath salts, truffles and a lemon tea.
• Red Welcome Home Hamper. Lemon and black tea with a Sage Hills Shiraz and a wooden cheeseboard.
• Gourmet Settlement Gift. Lemon and black tea with a cheeseboard and marble knife set. Built for a new home.
• Home Celebration Hamper. Tea alongside sparkling wine, a cheeseboard, grinders and a candle.

The full set is in tea hampers, and the broader range in wellness hampers.

Why tea is a better gift than people think

Tea does something most gifts do not: it gets used on an ordinary Tuesday, weeks after the occasion has passed. A bottle is opened once and remembered as an event. A tin of tea is twenty small moments.

It is also the right answer in the cases where alcohol is not. Someone who does not drink, someone recovering, someone you do not know well enough to guess. A tea gift carries none of the risk and still reads as considered, which is why the comfort and get-well hampers are built around it.