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UK-based tea company Bird & Blend has launched a cohort of new tea blends, in two new partnerships with confectionery brand Swizzels and stop motion franchise Wallace & Gromit. Bird & Blend worked closely with Swizzels to create four new sweet-inspired teas blending a range of ingredients including herbs, flowers and fruit. The teas are based on Swizzels popular Love Hearts, Refreshers, Parma Violets and Drumstick Lollies sweets. Each tea blend is said to contain the distinctive smell and taste of the sweets. The Love Hearts variety is made with apple pieces, rosehip, hibiscus and elderberries; Parma Violets features black tea, hibiscus and mallow flowers; Refreshers includes apple pieces, rosehip, lemongrass, orange peel and calendula petals; and Drumstick consists of apple pieces, rosehip, hibiscus, Chinese oolong tea, sunflower petals and freeze-dried raspberry. Jeremy Dee, MD at Swizzels, said: “To be able to work with another innovative brand and watch the tea blends come to life has been amazing. There is nothing more quintessentially British than sitting down to enjoy a cup of tea and being able to experience some of our most well-known sweet flavours in tea form is really incredible.” Bird & Blend has launched another new flavour, this time in collaboration with animation studio Aardman which is celebrating 30 years since the launch of Wallace & Gromit. The new blend, named More Tea Gromit?, features a blend of Sri Lankan black tea, yerba mate – a South American herbal tea –, desiccated coconut and freeze-dried cranberry.

Bird & Blend co-founder Krisi Smith commented: “As a flavour creator, I took inspiration from the greatest inventor of all time, Wallace. Knowing he and Gromit would require a blend that would ignite new ideas, I opted for a traditional black breakfast tea but with a surprising and delightful twist. I really had fun inventing this blend and as a business, we’re thrilled to be a part of Aardman’s celebratory programme.”