Sleigh Ride

All about Sleigh Ride, Loose Leaf Christmas Tea

What it’s like, and how to make it

CaffeineMedium caffeine

TypeChristmas

FlavourVanilla

CharacterCreamy, smooth

What’s in itblack tea, orange peels, vanilla bits, safflowers, jasmine blossoms, cornflowers

Perfect for

Waking up
Latte ready

How to brew it

212°F / 100°C
Steep 3–5 minutes
Use 1 tsp per 8oz
Past five minutes it turns bitter
Takes milk better than any other leaf

Beyond the cup

Steep into cream for a jasmine-vanilla panna cotta or crème brûlée — the floral lift makes it more elegant than plain vanilla. Infuse into butter for shortbread that’s subtle and sophisticated. The black tea base holds up to milk, so it makes a beautiful holiday latte — floral, creamy, and smooth. Brew alongside a cheese board — the tannins cleanse the palate between bites.

Illustration: Sleigh Ride with a New England country road in winter in the late 1940s

Illustration: a cup of Sleigh Ride tea with shortbread

What’s in it

Every herb in the blend, and where to read about it on its own.

Herb · Caffeine-free

Orange Peel
Citrus sinensis
Previously dismissed as 'just citrus,' orange peel contains hesperidin — a flavanone with genuine anti-inflammatory and cardiovascular evidence — plus polymethoxyflavones that show remarkable metabolic activity in preclinical studies. In Traditional Chinese Medicine, aged tangerine peel (chen pi) is one of the most prescribed herbs....
Bright, citrusy, slightly bitter, aromatic
Learn more Sold on its own
Tea · Contains caffeine

Black Tea
Camellia sinensis
The leaf of one evergreen shrub, fully oxidised. Black, green, white and oolong tea are all Camellia sinensis; what separates them is what is done to the leaf in the hours after it is picked. Black tea is withered, rolled to break the cells open,...
Malt, honey, dark amber; brisk and full, with tannin enough to take milk
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Flower · Caffeine-free

Safflower
Carthamus tinctorius
Orange-red petals that turn water golden — one of the world's oldest crops, and in a tea blend it is there for colour more than for taste. It looks enough like saffron that English called it bastard saffron and false saffron, and it has been...
Light, slightly bitter and hay-like, faintly floral; colour first and flavour a distant second
Learn more Sold on its own
Flavouring · Caffeine-free

Vanilla
Vanilla planifolia
The cured seed pod of an orchid, and the second-most expensive spice in the world after saffron. Twelve products carry it. In a blend vanilla does something no other ingredient does: it makes everything beside it taste rounder and sweeter without adding sugar, which is...
Sweet, creamy and floral with a woody depth; it rounds out everything beside it
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Flower · Caffeine-free

Cornflower
Centaurea cyanus
The blue in your tea. Cornflower petals are in eighteen products here and they are there to be looked at: the pigment, protocyanin, is one of the few真 blues in the botanical world, and it survives drying where almost nothing else blue does. They contribute...
Almost nothing — a faint clove-like sweetness at most. It is in the blend for the blue
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Flower · Caffeine-free

Jasmine
Jasminum sambac
The flower that a tea learns overnight. Jasmine opens at night, and the traditional scenting works with that: flowers picked around midday on a sunny day while still closed, kept cool, then at about nine in the evening layered with dry tea for twenty to...
Sweet white-flower perfume over a soft green tea, a gentle astringency and a clean sweet finish
Learn more

Every ingredient in the shop →

What it goes with

The elegant Christmas tea. Creamy vanilla and jasmine blossoms — pair with sugar cookies, shortbread, or a Brie-and-cranberry cheese board. Grab our Vanilla Bean for baking and our Lavender Flower for a floral dessert pairing.

Lavender Flower - Organic

Lavender Flower - Organic

Regular price From $5.99 CAD

Regular price Sale price From $5.99 CAD
Nutmeg

Nutmeg

Regular price From $7.99 CAD

Regular price Sale price From $7.99 CAD

Where it takes you

Christmas MorningOne whiff and you're seven years old.

Reviews

What the time-travelers say

5.0 from 1 review of this one, and 206 of the shop’s 213 are five stars

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