Sleigh Ride Spiced Pear Tea – Festive Spiced Pear Black Tea

There are journeys made because one has somewhere to go.

And there are journeys made simply because winter is too beautiful to remain indoors.

Sleigh Ride Spiced Pear Tea was created for the latter.

Every winter, once the snow has grown deep enough to cover the roads of Santa's Village, the old sleighs are brought from their summer stores. Runners are polished, harness bells checked, lanterns filled and horses brushed until their coats shine.

Then, as evening falls, the sleigh rides begin.

Huatua created this wonderfully warming black tea for precisely such nights.

Rich black tea carries the delicious flavour of sweet pear surrounded by warming spice, producing a cup that tastes every bit as inviting as it smells.

The inspiration for the blend, however, is much older.

The pear has accumulated a remarkable collection of symbolism across the centuries. In different cultures it has been associated with longevity, prosperity, affection and abundance. Its long-lived tree made it a natural symbol of endurance, while its generous fruit came to represent the rewards of patience and cultivation.

Huatua particularly liked one idea:

that something which takes time to grow is worth travelling home for.

And so Sleigh Ride Spiced Pear became one of the North Pole Tea Shop's traditional Journey Teas.

On winter evenings, flasks of it are prepared for sleigh parties leaving Santa's Village. Wrapped in blankets and accompanied by the gentle rhythm of hoofbeats and bells, travellers carry the warming tea out along the old northern roads.

There is even a particular route associated with it.

The Pear Tree Run winds beyond the Village, through pine forest and across a frozen valley before climbing to an old stone shelter overlooking the mountains.

Tradition says that every sleigh must stop there.

The lantern is hung beside the door.

Cups are poured.

And before anybody drinks, each traveller must quietly think of somewhere — or someone — to whom they are glad they can return.

Only then does the journey home begin.

Huatua says the custom comes from a much older Elven belief that a traveller who remembers what awaits them at home will always find the road leading back to it.

Whether that is magic, he refuses to say.

But on a snowy night, with lanterns glowing between the trees, bells sounding somewhere ahead and a steaming cup of spiced pear tea warming your hands...

it is very easy to believe him.

From The North Pole Tea Shop

Ingredients: Black Tea & Natural Flavour

Flavour: Sweet, warming and wonderfully aromatic, with the unmistakable character of festive spiced pear

North Pole Tradition: The Homeward Tea — traditionally taken upon winter journeys and shared before beginning the journey home.

Perfect for: Cold winter evenings, Christmas reading, fireside gatherings and warming up after adventures in the snow.

Prepared according to the traditions of Huatua, Tea Master of The North Pole Tea Shop, Santa's Village.