The Northern Lights Tea – Magical Citrus & Bergamot Black Tea

Of all the wonders visible from Santa's Village, there is one that can still bring the workshops to a standstill.

The Northern Lights.

When great ribbons of green, blue and violet begin moving across the Arctic sky, doors open. Elves emerge into the snow. Work is temporarily forgotten.

Even after hundreds of years, Huatua still goes outside to watch.

And it was beneath those lights that The Northern Lights Tea was created.

This wonderfully complex North Pole blend begins with black tea and bergamot, before opening into apple, blackberry, tangerine and orange, fragrant lemongrass and ginger, colourful hibiscus and cornflower, rosehips, liquorice root and an extraordinary collection of fruits, roots and botanicals.

Huatua designed it deliberately.

He wanted a tea that behaved rather like the aurora itself.

At first familiar.

Then suddenly something else.

Citrus rises brightly through the cup before deeper fruits appear beneath it; warming ginger follows; floral and botanical notes drift through afterwards.

No two sips seem quite identical.

But the blend also draws upon centuries of plant lore.

Bergamot has acquired associations with prosperity and good fortune in European magical traditions. Ginger has long represented warmth, vitality and fire. Blackberry appears throughout British and European folklore, while rosehips belong to the ancient symbolism surrounding the rose — love, protection and the mysteries of the heart.

Even the unusual schisandra berry has an extraordinary history. Used for centuries in East Asian herbal traditions, its Chinese name wu wei zi means "five-flavour fruit", referring to its remarkable combination of tastes.

Huatua thought that particularly appropriate for a tea inspired by a sky containing so many colours.

Yet the real story of this blend belongs to an old Elven belief.

Long before Santa's Village existed, northern Elves believed that not every heartfelt wish immediately found the place where it belonged.

Some became lost.

A hope quietly made but never spoken. A dream abandoned too soon. A wish made for somebody else rather than oneself.

These, they believed, travelled north.

And on certain winter nights, when enough had gathered at the very top of the world, the sky would begin to glow.

The Northern Lights were those wishes finding their way again.

Huatua does not claim the story is true.

But there is a tradition at The North Pole Tea Shop nonetheless.

When the aurora appears, he brews a pot of Northern Lights Tea and carries it outside.

The Elves stand beneath the shimmering sky, warm their hands around their cups and quietly think of something they hope will someday come to pass.

Nobody says their wish aloud.

That, apparently, is very important.

For according to Huatua:

"Some wishes travel further when nobody tells them where to go."

From The North Pole Tea Shop

Ingredients: Black Tea, Oil of Bergamot, Apple, Carrot Flakes, Blackberry, Eucalyptus, Beetroot, Hibiscus, Lemongrass, Freeze-Dried Tangerine Pieces, Orange, Ginger, Schisandra Berries, Cornflower, Liquorice Root, Rosehips, Natural Tangerine & Orange Essential Oils

Character: Bright, complex and aromatic, with lively citrus, fruit, warming botanicals and fragrant bergamot

North Pole Tradition: The Wishing Tea — traditionally brewed beneath the Northern Lights while holding one unspoken hope for the future.

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