History & Rituals • Caffeinated • Purist Oolong • Fourth Night of Hanukkah

Ingredients: Oolong tea; Origin: Anxi County, Fujian, China

The Iron Goddess of Mercy

Today's tea takes us to Anxi County in Fujian Province, China, the historic home of one of the world's most celebrated oolongs. Ti Kuan Yin, also written Tieguanyin, is commonly translated as “Iron Goddess of Mercy,” a name connected with Guanyin, the Buddhist bodhisattva associated with compassion. Stories explaining the tea's name vary, but many center on themes of gratitude, devotion, generosity, and discovery. Those ideas make Ti Kuan Yin particularly fitting for an Advent calendar built around something equally timeless: making space for one another.

A Tea Made with Skill

Ti Kuan Yin is created through a careful series of steps that can include withering, tossing or bruising, partial oxidation, shaping, drying, and sometimes roasting. Unlike a green tea, whose oxidation is halted relatively early, or a fully oxidized black tea, oolong occupies an enormous spectrum between them. The tea maker's decisions throughout processing help determine whether the finished Ti Kuan Yin is greener and more floral or deeper and more roasted.

The leaves are traditionally rolled into compact shapes that look surprisingly small when measured into the brewing vessel. Add water, however, and something remarkable begins to happen. With each infusion, the leaves loosen, expand, and eventually reveal themselves as surprisingly large leaves. What first appeared small was simply waiting for enough time and space to open.

Gongfu Cha — Tea Prepared with Care

Ti Kuan Yin is particularly rewarding when prepared gongfu style. Gongfu cha (功夫茶) can be understood as tea prepared with skill, effort, or care. Instead of making one large pot, the brewer typically uses a relatively generous amount of tea in a small vessel and makes a succession of short infusions.

The experience changes the rhythm of drinking tea. Pour. Smell. Taste. Refill. Pour again. The fragrance evolves, the leaves continue opening, and each infusion can reveal something slightly different. Instead of rushing toward a finished cup, the preparation itself becomes part of the experience.

A Ritual of Noticing

Today's tea asks us to pay attention to small changes. Smell the dry leaves, then notice what happens after they're warmed. Watch the tightly rolled pieces expand. Notice the color of the infusion and how the flavor changes from one steep to the next. Depending on the style of Ti Kuan Yin, you may encounter fresh vegetal qualities, floral aromas reminiscent of orchids, gentle sweetness, or warmer roasted notes.

None of these changes happen all at once. That's part of the pleasure. Ti Kuan Yin rewards patience and offers a simple reminder that some things reveal their fullness only when we give them time and attention.

The Social Heart of Gongfu Tea

Gongfu tea can be a beautiful solitary practice, but its small scale also makes it particularly suited to sharing. A small brewing vessel produces several little cups rather than one large serving. The brewer pours, replenishes, watches the leaves, and pays attention to the people drinking.

In that sense, brewing becomes an act of hospitality. The person preparing the tea isn't simply making a beverage; they're caring for the experience of everyone around the table. The cups are small, but the repeated infusions create something valuable: a reason to stay.

One steep becomes another. Someone tells a story. Another question follows. The tea changes, and so does the conversation.

The Seventh Tea, the Fourth Night

This year, Day 7 of our Advent journey falls during Hanukkah, the Jewish Festival of Lights. As the menorah grows brighter over eight nights, Hanukkah carries themes of religious dedication, perseverance, remembrance, and light. We approach that tradition with respect, recognizing that today's tea comes from an entirely different cultural and religious history.

Yet a season in which many traditions are being observed side by side gives us an opportunity to think about something shared across communities: how we create warmth for other people.

A light can welcome someone home. A table can make room for another chair. A pot of tea can become an invitation to stay.

Carry the Light Outward

Hospitality is one way we turn warmth into action. It doesn't have to mean hosting an elaborate dinner or creating a perfect home. Sometimes hospitality is simply noticing another person and making room for them.

• Come sit here.
• Would you like some tea?
• Stay a little longer.
• Tell me what's happening.

These are small sentences, but they can carry surprising weight. The ritual surrounding Ti Kuan Yin reminds us that care is often expressed through small repeated actions: warming the vessel, pouring the tea, refilling someone's cup, and paying attention when they speak.

In Your Cup

Tea Type: Oolong • Origin: Anxi, Fujian, China • Flavor: Floral • Vegetal • Naturally Sweet • Caffeine: Yes

If possible, steep today's tea more than once. Watch the rolled leaves gradually unfurl and notice how the aroma and flavor evolve. You don't need a complete gongfu tea set to explore multiple infusions; simply use a smaller amount of water and shorten your steeping time. The important thing is to give the leaves another chance.

Today's Moment — Make Room for Someone

Today's ritual is inspired by the hospitality at the heart of shared tea.

Think of someone who might appreciate a little more connection right now. Maybe they're celebrating a holiday different from yours. Maybe they're new to your neighborhood or workplace. Perhaps they've had a difficult year. Maybe you haven't spoken in too long. Or maybe they're sitting in the same house, and you've both simply been busy.

Invite them in somehow. It could be an invitation to tea, a phone call, a seat at your table, a message saying I've been thinking about you, or simply a few extra minutes of conversation.

Then, if you're sharing today's Ti Kuan Yin, don't rush through the first cup. Steep it again. And again. Let the leaves open. Let the conversation open with them.

The greatest gift in today's cup isn't simply the tea. It's the time and attention we choose to give another person.

Create a little warmth, then share it.

Holiday Delights • Caffeinated • Nutty Dessert

Ingredients: Black tea, dates, sultanas, almonds, figs, vanilla; Contains: Almonds

A Bazaar in Your Cup

Today's tea invites us into a world of color, fragrance, abundance, and exchange. Turkish Bazaar Black Tea brings together black tea, dates, sultanas, almonds, figs, and vanilla—a rich combination inspired by the sensory experience of a bustling bazaar. Imagine stalls filled with dried fruits, nuts, sweets, spices, and tea; merchants and customers talking across counters; packages changing hands; and people wandering from one discovery to the next. Today's blend captures a little of that feeling in the cup: abundant, sweet, nutty, and full of small flavors waiting to be discovered.

A Table Overflowing with Good Things

Each ingredient contributes something different to the experience. Dates and figs bring deep, honeyed fruitiness, while sultanas add the concentrated sweetness of dried grapes. Almonds contribute gentle richness, and vanilla rounds everything out with soft, familiar warmth. Together with the black tea foundation, they create the impression of a table filled with treats—something festive enough for December but comforting enough to simply enjoy beside someone you love.

There is also something particularly appropriate about dried fruits in a winter tea. Drying allowed the sweetness of fruit to be preserved long beyond harvest, carrying the abundance of warmer seasons into colder months. A fig or grape can disappear from the tree or vine, yet its sweetness can remain available months later. In today's cup, a little of summer has been saved for December.

The Bazaar — A Place of Exchange

The word bazaar comes from Persian and is used for marketplaces found across the Middle East, Central Asia, South Asia, and surrounding regions. Historically, these marketplaces were far more than places to purchase necessities. They could function as important centers of commerce and social life, bringing together craftspeople, merchants, travelers, neighbors, food, information, and conversation.

That's part of what makes the bazaar such a fitting image for this Advent journey. A marketplace is built around exchange. Something passes from one person to another. Sometimes it's a product. Sometimes it's a recipe, an idea, a piece of news, a recommendation, a story, or simply a few words between people who might otherwise never have met.

Tea as Turkish Hospitality

Tea holds an especially important place in modern Turkish daily life. Strong black tea is commonly prepared in a distinctive two-tiered teapot called a çaydanlık and served in small, tulip-shaped glasses. It appears in homes, workplaces, cafés, shops, and social visits, offered throughout the day as a gesture of welcome.

Someone doesn't necessarily need to be an invited dinner guest to be offered tea. Tea can accompany business, conversation, a visit, or simply the act of sitting together. The cup becomes part of the language of hospitality: you're here, so let me offer you something.

Today's Turkish Bazaar isn't a traditional Turkish tea blend, but its name and ingredients give us an opportunity to celebrate that spirit—the idea that a drink can turn an interaction into a welcome.

The Abundance of Giving

By December 8, the holiday season is beginning to gather momentum. Packages arrive at the door. Shopping lists get longer. Gifts begin appearing in closets and under trees. We spend a surprising amount of time thinking about things we can give.

A bazaar offers another way to think about abundance. Its richness doesn't come from one extraordinary object. It comes from hundreds of small things gathered together—the colors, smells, conversations, foods, people, and discoveries that create the experience.

Our lives can work the same way. Abundance isn't always measured by how much we own. Sometimes it's the collection of people who know us, places that welcome us, recipes we inherited, stories we've accumulated, and small kindnesses exchanged over time.

The Greatest Treasure May Be the Experience

Think about a favorite market you've visited—a Christmas market, farmers market, night market, neighborhood market, or perhaps a bazaar while traveling. You may remember something you bought there, but chances are you also remember who was with you.

You remember wandering. Trying something unfamiliar. Laughing about something. Smelling food cooking nearby. Finding an unexpected treasure. Carrying too many bags. Getting lost. Going back to the same stall twice.

The object you brought home may eventually disappear. The memory of discovering it together can remain much longer.

In Your Cup

Tea Type: Black Tea • Flavor: Dried Fruit • Nutty • Vanilla • Dessert-like • Caffeine: Yes

Look for the richness of black tea surrounded by dates, figs, and sultanas, followed by almond and soft vanilla. The dried fruits create concentrated sweetness while the nuts and vanilla give the blend its warm, dessert-like personality.

Try it with dried fruit, nuts, baklava, cookies, or another small sweet—or create your own little tasting plate and pass it around the table.

Today's Moment — Give Something That Isn't a Present

Today's bazaar is filled with things that could be bought and sold, but our Advent challenge is about something that can't be wrapped.

Think of one thing you can give someone today that costs nothing.

Give them your time. Share a recipe. Send them a photograph that will make them smile. Recommend a book. Teach them something you know how to do. Tell them a story about someone in your family. Offer to help with something. Write a note. Call someone who isn't expecting to hear from you.

Or simply make today's tea and say: “Sit down. I made enough for two.”

Holiday generosity doesn't have to be measured by the number of packages beneath a tree. Sometimes abundance is created when we take something we already have—our time, attention, knowledge, food, stories, or hospitality—and make enough of it to share.

The best thing exchanged today may be something that never had a price tag.

Holiday Delights • Caffeine-Free • Fruity & Floral

Ingredients: Elderflower, eucalyptus, Greek mountain tea (Sideritis), and botanicals

A Celebration Without the Champagne

Today's tea captures the feeling of raising a glass for a special occasion—but in the form of a fragrant, caffeine-free herbal infusion. Sparkling Elderflower combines delicate elderflower, refreshing eucalyptus, Greek mountain tea, and bright botanical notes to create something light, aromatic, and celebratory. Despite the name, there are no bubbles required. The “sparkling” quality is about the spirit of the cup: fresh, lively, and made for a moment that deserves to be noticed.

And perhaps that's the point of Day 9. We don't necessarily need to wait for Christmas, New Year's Eve, a birthday, or another milestone before we celebrate. Sometimes being together is enough of an occasion.

Elderflower — Summer Preserved for Winter

Elderflower has a long history in European food and drink traditions. The fragrant blossoms appear in late spring and early summer and have been transformed for generations into cordials, syrups, teas, and other preparations, particularly across northern and central Europe. Their delicate floral character has also found a natural place in contemporary celebratory drinks.

There's something lovely about encountering elderflower in December. The blossoms themselves belong to warmer days, yet their fragrance can be preserved and carried into winter. In today's cup, a flower from the brighter months arrives during some of the darkest days of the year—a little reminder that seasons pass, but some of their pleasures can travel with us.

From the Mountains of Greece

Another distinctive ingredient in today's blend is Greek mountain tea, commonly made from plants of the genus Sideritis. This caffeine-free herbal infusion has been enjoyed in Greece for generations and is particularly associated with the country's mountainous regions. Traditionally brewed simply and often served with honey or lemon, it is the kind of uncomplicated household drink that demonstrates how deeply an herbal infusion can become woven into everyday life.

During colder weather, a warm pot of mountain tea offers something that people across many tea traditions would immediately recognize: warmth, hospitality, and a reason to sit together. Different plants, different mountains, different cultures—but the gesture of putting something warm in front of another person feels wonderfully familiar.

What Makes a Toast a Toast?

A toast is an interesting ritual because the drink isn't really the most important part. Champagne may be traditional for some celebrations, but what gives the moment meaning is what happens around the glass. Everyone pauses. Glasses are raised. People look toward one another. Someone says a few words—perhaps about friendship, health, gratitude, love, achievement, remembrance, or hope—and for a brief moment, everyone participates in the same intention.

Tea can do that too.

A toast doesn't require alcohol. It doesn't even require a formal occasion. We can raise a cup because someone finished a difficult week. Because a friend came to visit. Because the family finally managed to get everyone in the same room. Because something good happened. Because something difficult is finally behind us.

Or simply because we are here together today.

Celebrate the Ordinary Things Too

The holiday season tends to focus our attention on big moments: Christmas morning, elaborate dinners, parties, gifts, travel, and traditions. But when we look back at a year, the memories that matter aren't always the grand occasions. Sometimes they're an ordinary Tuesday when someone made us laugh until we cried, the phone call that came exactly when we needed it, a meal that accidentally lasted three hours, or the evening when nobody had plans and everyone simply stayed at the table.

Sparkling Elderflower invites us to recognize those smaller occasions while they're happening rather than only appreciating them afterward.

Not every meaningful moment announces itself as one. Sometimes we have to decide to celebrate it.

A Little Brightness in December

December can become wonderfully rich—and wonderfully heavy. Rich food, busy calendars, crowded rooms, long lists, and plenty of expectations can accumulate quickly. Today's tea offers a different kind of holiday delight: something light, fragrant, refreshing, and uncomplicated.

Serve it after a meal, alongside dessert, or during an afternoon conversation. Let the elderflower bring floral brightness, the eucalyptus add a refreshing lift, and the Greek mountain tea provide an herbal foundation. There doesn't need to be a ceremony around it.

But if you happen to have two cups, raise them.

In Your Cup

Tea Type: Herbal • Flavor: Elderflower • Floral • Fresh • Botanical • Caffeine: None

Look for elderflower's delicate floral character alongside refreshing eucalyptus and the herbal qualities of Greek mountain tea. The result is light and aromatic rather than heavy, making it particularly well suited to an afternoon pause, after-dinner cup, or caffeine-free holiday toast.

Today's Moment — Make a Toast to Something Small

Today, we're going to borrow the ritual of the toast without waiting for a major occasion.

Pour today's tea for someone else. Before you drink, each of you chooses one small thing from this year worth celebrating.

Not the obvious milestones. Look smaller. Maybe someone finally learned to make a recipe. A child became brave enough to try something new. You made a new friend. Someone helped you through a difficult week. You kept a promise to yourself. Your family adopted a ridiculous new tradition. You survived something that didn't feel funny at the time but does now. Or maybe you're simply grateful that the person sitting across from you is still sitting there.

Then raise your cups and say it out loud:

“To ______.”

Clink the mugs if you like.

Drink.

For a few seconds, give that ordinary piece of your life the attention usually reserved for something much grander. Because celebration isn't only about recognizing the biggest moments.

Sometimes it's about noticing, while we're still living them, how many little things were worth raising a glass—or a teacup—to all along.

Don't wait for a special occasion. Sometimes noticing the moment is what makes it special.

Signatures & Stories • Caffeinated • Fruity Green Tea

Ingredients: Gunpowder green tea, peach and apricot flavoring

A Churchill’s Favorite with a Story of Its Own

Today's tea is one that many Churchill's customers already know. Peach Apricot Green Tea has become a well-loved part of our collection, pairing a traditional Chinese Gunpowder green tea with the familiar sweetness of peach and apricot. The combination is uncomplicated but memorable: a substantial green tea foundation balanced by the bright, juicy character of two favorite summer fruits. Its popularity is part of today's story, because sometimes the teas that matter most aren't necessarily the rarest or newest. They're the ones people return to, recommend to friends, give as gifts, and eventually make part of their own routines.

Gunpowder — Or Perhaps We Should Call It “Pearl Tea”

At the heart of today's blend is Gunpowder green tea, a traditional Chinese tea whose leaves are rolled into small, compact pellets. The English name comes from their resemblance to grains of gunpowder, but the Chinese name zhū chá (珠茶) translates more beautifully as “pearl tea.” The tightly rolled shape isn't merely decorative. Rolling helps protect the leaves and made the tea particularly practical for storage and transportation, contributing to its long history as a tea that could travel considerable distances.

Gunpowder tea has been produced in China for centuries and is strongly associated with Zhejiang Province, although it is produced elsewhere as well. When hot water reaches those little “pearls,” the leaves begin to loosen and unfold, revealing how much tea was tucked inside each tightly rolled piece.

When a Chinese Tea Traveled the World

Gunpowder green tea also offers a fascinating example of what can happen when tea travels. Chinese Gunpowder became an important export tea and eventually found a particularly enduring place in North African tea culture. It is famously used as the green tea base for Moroccan-style mint tea, where it is brewed with fresh mint and often sugar.

A Chinese green tea therefore became part of a beloved hospitality tradition thousands of miles from where it was produced. That's one of the recurring stories of tea: leaves travel, people encounter them, and new traditions emerge. What begins as one culture's tea can become an ingredient in another culture's ritual.

Today's Peach Apricot follows that same spirit in a much more contemporary way. A traditional Chinese green tea meets familiar fruit flavors and becomes something entirely new.

A Little Summer in December

Then come peach and apricot, two fruits that seem almost determined to remind us of warmer weather. Their fragrance calls to mind ripe fruit, sunshine, orchards, farmers markets, and the abundance of summer. Against the deeper green character of Gunpowder tea, they add sweetness and brightness, making the traditional tea especially approachable.

There's something delightful about drinking those flavors on December 10. Outside, the trees may be bare and daylight increasingly scarce, yet today's cup carries a little sensory memory of another season.

Tea has a wonderful ability to do that. One aroma can take us somewhere else before we've even taken the first sip.

How a Tea Becomes “Your Tea”

A tea shop can tell you when a tea was sourced, what ingredients it contains, and how it should be brewed. But we can't decide which tea becomes meaningful to you.

That happens later.

Maybe you drink it every morning until the aroma itself starts to mean morning. Maybe someone serves it every time you visit. Perhaps you buy it for your mother because it's the only green tea she likes. Maybe you discover it during a trip, bring it home, and years later one sip can return you to that place.

Eventually, a product name becomes shorthand for something much more personal.

“That's Dad's tea.”

“We always drink this at Christmas.”

“This is the one you introduced me to.”

“This reminds me of you.”

That's when a tea stops belonging entirely to the tea shop and starts belonging to the people who drink it.

The Familiar Can Be Meaningful

During an Advent calendar, it's tempting to believe every day should contain something rare, exotic, or completely unfamiliar. But that wouldn't tell the whole story of tea. Some of the most meaningful cups are the ones we already know.

Peach Apricot has earned its place today precisely because people have chosen it repeatedly. Each returning customer adds another invisible layer to its story.

There's a lovely lesson in that. Familiarity doesn't necessarily make something less special. Sometimes familiarity is exactly how something becomes special.

In Your Cup

Tea Type: Green Tea • Base: Chinese Gunpowder Green Tea • Flavor: Peach • Apricot • Fruity • Caffeine: Yes

Look for the deeper vegetal character of Gunpowder green tea beneath the bright sweetness of peach and apricot. Watch the tightly rolled tea leaves begin to open as they steep. Because this is a green tea, use water below boiling and avoid oversteeping so the fruit and tea remain balanced.

Today's Moment — What's “Our Thing”?

Over the past nine days, we've talked about memories, places, hospitality, attention, and things worth celebrating. Today, we're interested in something that belongs specifically to the two of you.

While you share today's tea, ask:

What's something that has become “our thing”?

Maybe it's a restaurant you always choose. A song you both know every word to. A television show. A ridiculous joke nobody else understands. A vacation spot. A recipe. A Sunday routine. A holiday tradition. A particular snack you always buy on road trips. Maybe it's even a tea. Then ask the more interesting question:

Do you remember how it started?

Many of the rituals that eventually become important to us begin accidentally. Nobody announces, “We're creating a tradition today.” We do something once. Then again. Eventually someone says, “But we always do this.”

That's when you realize an ordinary experience has quietly become part of your relationship.

And if you can't think of an “our thing,” perhaps that's today's invitation: choose one. Find something you both enjoy and decide to do it again. Maybe even this...

Make Peach Apricot. Sit down together. Talk for a while.

Then someday someone might say:

“Remember that Advent calendar when we started doing this?”

Traditions rarely announce when they're beginning. Sometimes we only recognize them because we keep coming back.

Holiday Delights • Caffeine-Free • Vanilla & Fruit

Ingredients: Rooibos, freeze-dried raspberries, vanilla pieces, rose petals, flavoring

An Old Favorite Gets a New Chapter

Today's tea is new to the Churchill's collection, but its story actually began with an old favorite. Raspberry Vanilla Rooibos is the new and improved successor to our original Raspberry Rooibos, which paired rooibos with raspberry, blackberry, moringa leaves, and natural flavor. While developing our in-house Raspberry Chocolate Chip Rooibos for last year's Advent Calendar, we discovered an exceptional raspberry-and-vanilla combination. We loved the quality and character of that tea so much that it started a larger conversation: could our everyday Raspberry Rooibos be even better? The answer became the tea behind today's door.

When an Advent Experiment Becomes Something More

Advent calendars are naturally places for discovery. They give us permission to experiment with teas, ingredients, stories, and combinations that might not otherwise appear together. Last year's Raspberry Chocolate Chip Rooibos was one of those experiments, but one element of it refused to remain just a seasonal idea. The raspberry-and-vanilla base stood out enough that we kept thinking about it after the calendar was finished.

So we did something tea blenders frequently do: we went back and reconsidered what we already had. Rather than keeping our existing Raspberry Rooibos simply because it was familiar, we used what we'd learned to create something better. Today's tea is therefore both a new blend and a continuation of an older one—a small example of how a tea collection continues to evolve.

Raspberry, Now in Full Color

One of the most noticeable changes is the raspberry itself. The previous blend paired raspberry with blackberry, creating a straightforward berry profile. The new recipe includes freeze-dried whole raspberries, bringing a vivid raspberry character to both the appearance and flavor of the blend.

There's something especially cheerful about finding raspberry in a December cup. Raspberries naturally evoke summer—ripe fruit, warm weather, gardens, and long days. Freeze-drying allows some of that fruit character to travel with us into another season. Open today's tea in the middle of winter and there it is: a little burst of summer hiding among the rooibos leaves.

Then Came Vanilla

The biggest transformation, however, may be the addition of vanilla pieces and vanilla flavor. Raspberry is bright and lively; vanilla is soft, creamy, and comforting. Put them together and the personality changes. Instead of simply tasting like a berry rooibos, the blend becomes rounder and more dessert-like.

Vanilla also belongs naturally to the holiday season. It's the background fragrance of countless cookies, cakes, custards, and desserts. Sometimes we barely notice it because it's so familiar, yet remove it and something important is missing.

Perhaps that's one of today's little lessons: the quiet ingredients can sometimes be the ones holding everything together.

A Few Rose Petals for Something Beautiful

Rose petals replace the moringa leaves used in our previous Raspberry Rooibos. They contribute a delicate floral quality and bring another layer of visual beauty to the blend. Raspberry, vanilla, rose, and naturally red rooibos together create something that feels a little more festive, indulgent, and special than the tea that came before it.

The rose isn't meant to dominate the cup. It's a supporting character—a little fragrance, a little elegance, a little beauty.

And perhaps holiday tables need ingredients like that too: not everything has to be essential to be worth including. Sometimes beauty is reason enough.

From South Africa to a Holiday Teacup

Beneath all those flavors is rooibos, a plant native to South Africa's Cederberg region. Its name comes from Afrikaans for “red bush,” referring to the reddish color the leaves develop during processing. Rooibos isn't made from Camellia sinensis, the plant used to produce black, green, white, and oolong teas, and it is naturally caffeine-free.

Its mellow, naturally sweet character makes it especially well suited to dessert-inspired blends. It also makes today's tea a lovely evening choice, when the day's activities are winding down and you want something warm without adding more caffeine to December's already impressive supply of energy.

A Thumbprint Cookie in Tea Form

If today's combination reminds you of a cookie, you're not imagining it. Raspberry and vanilla naturally evoke the flavors of a classic jam-filled thumbprint cookie. These simple cookies are made by pressing a thumb or fingertip into a small ball of dough and filling the indentation with jam before or after baking, depending on the recipe.

They're wonderfully imperfect by design. Each little indentation carries the mark of the person who made it.

That's part of what makes homemade holiday treats so charming. They don't all look identical. One cookie has too much jam. Another is slightly crooked. Someone makes them differently from Grandma even though everyone insists they're following the same recipe.

And somehow, those imperfections become part of what we love about them.

Holiday Treats Are Meant to Travel

Cookies are baked and placed on plates for visitors. Tins are carried to neighbors. Recipes are passed between generations. Desserts are cut into pieces because someone else is supposed to have some too.

Sweet things have always been particularly good at creating small acts of generosity.

Raspberry Vanilla Rooibos carries that same spirit. It's sweet, creamy, fruity, floral, and comforting—a tea that feels like a treat but is naturally caffeine-free and easy to share after dinner, alongside cookies, or during a quiet evening when the lights are on and the day is finally finished.

In Your Cup

Tea Type: Rooibos • Origin of Rooibos: South Africa • Flavor: Raspberry • Vanilla • Gently Floral • Dessert-like • Caffeine: None

Look for bright raspberry first, followed by creamy vanilla and the mellow natural sweetness of rooibos. Rose petals contribute a delicate floral accent. Try it alongside thumbprint cookies, vanilla shortbread, chocolate, or simply on its own as a light after-dinner treat.

Today's Moment — What's Something We Made Better Together?

Today's tea exists because one creation led to another. We discovered something we loved while making last year's Advent blend, carried that idea forward, and used it to improve an old favorite.

Relationships can work that way too.

So while you share today's cup, ask each other:

What's something in your life that became better because of another person?

Maybe someone taught you a better way to cook a family recipe. Your partner introduced you to a tradition you now can't imagine the holidays without. A friend encouraged you to try something you never would have chosen yourself. A coworker helped turn an idea into something much stronger. Your children changed the way you celebrate Christmas. Perhaps someone simply looked at something you'd always done and asked, “What if we tried it this way?”

Tell them what changed—and why you're glad it did.

Tradition matters, but tradition doesn't require us to freeze everything exactly as it was. Sometimes honoring what came before means carrying its best parts forward while allowing something new to grow beside them.

That's the story of today's tea. An old favorite didn't disappear.

Someone found a way to give it a new chapter.

The best traditions aren't always preserved unchanged. Sometimes they're made better because someone new became part of the story.

Signatures & Stories • Decaffeinated • Churchill’s Artisan Blend

Ingredients: Decaffeinated Ceylon black tea, rooibos, lavender, lemongrass

This Tea Began with a Customer

Some teas begin in famous gardens. Some come from recipes refined over generations. This one began with a conversation inside Churchill’s. Years ago, a customer came to us carrying the memory of a tea she had loved—a blend that was unfortunately no longer available. She remembered the experience well enough to miss it, and instead of simply searching for another tea, she asked a much more interesting question: “Could you make something like this?” That question became the beginning of Scots Highland Night.

Recreating a Feeling, Not Just a Recipe

Recreating a beloved tea is difficult when the original blend is no longer available. A favorite tea isn't simply a list of ingredients. It's an aroma, a balance of flavors, and often a collection of memories surrounding the cup. So the customer and Churchill's tea specialists began with what she remembered and worked together using the teas and botanicals available in our collection. Our team brought knowledge of ingredients, flavor, and balance. She brought something equally important: the memory of what she loved. The goal wasn't to create an exact copy. It was to capture enough of the original tea's spirit to create something she could love again.

A Tea Created Together

That collaboration eventually became Scots Highland Night. Decaffeinated Ceylon black tea provides the familiar tea foundation, while rooibos contributes natural sweetness and body. Lavender adds a soft floral quality, and lemongrass brings brightness and a gentle citrus character. The art is in the balance. None of the botanicals should dominate the cup; instead, each contributes a piece of the experience.

The result wasn't simply a replacement for something that had disappeared. It became a new tea with a story of its own.

A Highland Night in the Cup

The name Scots Highland Night draws its inspiration from Scotland rather than claiming Scottish origin for the ingredients themselves. Lavender evokes purple hills and fragrant gardens, lemongrass brings a touch of brightness reminiscent of cool, fresh air, and the darker tea base gives the blend the warmth of something enjoyed indoors at the end of the day.

Imagine the Highlands after evening settles in: the landscape darkening, cool air outside, and somewhere indoors a warm cup waiting. That's the feeling behind the name—less a literal description of place than an atmosphere captured in tea.

From Afternoon Tea to Evening Comfort

Tea has long been woven into British and Scottish social life, whether around an afternoon table, offered to a visitor, or simply made at home during an ordinary day. Scots Highland Night carries that spirit into the evening. Because the black tea is decaffeinated, the blend is particularly suited to the quieter hours when the day's work is finished and there is finally time to sit.

That makes today's tea less about ceremony and more about welcome. Put the kettle on. Make enough for another person. Sit down somewhere comfortable. The lavender and lemongrass don't require a special occasion.

The cup can be the occasion.

From One Customer's Tea to Your Advent Calendar

Perhaps the most remarkable part of this story is that Scots Highland Night wasn't originally created for a product launch or a collection. For years, Churchill's continued making the blend especially for the customer who helped inspire it.

What began as one person's search for a lost favorite became an ongoing relationship between a customer and a tea shop.

And now something else is happening.

Her tea is in your Advent Calendar.

A blend that began with one customer's memory is traveling outward. You're opening it in your home, perhaps sharing it with someone the original customer will never meet. A personal favorite has become a shared discovery.

That's how stories sometimes grow.

What an Artisan Tea Shop Can Be

A tea collection isn't built only from famous estates, historic origins, and established recipes. It's also shaped by the people who walk through the door. Someone asks a question. Someone remembers a flavor. A tea specialist experiments. A customer tastes the result. Something is adjusted. A relationship develops.

Scots Highland Night represents that quieter side of an artisan tea shop: listening.

Expertise matters, but expertise becomes especially interesting when it enters into conversation with another person's experience. Neither the customer nor the tea specialist could have created exactly this story alone. One brought the memory; the other helped translate it into a new cup.

When Something We Love Disappears

Most of us know the surprisingly strong feeling of losing something small but beloved. A restaurant closes. A favorite recipe gets lost. A product is discontinued. A family member who always made a particular dish is no longer there to make it. A place changes. Something familiar suddenly exists only in memory.

We can't always recreate those things exactly. But sometimes we can ask a different question:

What was it that I really loved about this?

Then we can carry that part forward. The new version may not be identical. In fact, perhaps it shouldn't be. It can honor the memory while becoming something that belongs to the present.

In Your Cup

Tea Type: Decaffeinated Black Tea Blend • Base: Decaffeinated Ceylon Black Tea & Rooibos • Flavor: Floral • Citrus • Earthy • Caffeine: Decaffeinated

Look for the familiar body of black tea softened by naturally sweet rooibos, with lavender bringing a gentle floral note and lemongrass adding brightness. The ingredients are intentionally balanced so that no single botanical overwhelms the others, creating a cup particularly suited to an evening pause.

Today's Moment — Tell Me About Something You'd Bring Back

Today's tea began because someone missed something enough to try to recreate it.

So while you share Scots Highland Night, ask each other:

If you could bring back one small thing from your past, what would it be?

Not a person—we'll leave that much bigger question aside today. Think instead about the little things that quietly disappeared.

A restaurant you loved. A childhood candy. A family recipe nobody makes anymore. A store from your hometown. A holiday tradition your family stopped doing. A place that's changed beyond recognition. A perfume, a song on the radio, a particular Christmas decoration, or a food you haven't tasted in years.

Tell the other person why you miss it. Then ask:

Is there any part of it we could bring back?

Maybe you can't reopen the restaurant, but you can try recreating the dish. Maybe the original ornament disappeared, but you can find something that carries the same meaning. Perhaps a childhood tradition could return this Christmas in a slightly different form.

The goal isn't to reproduce the past perfectly. It's to decide what was worth carrying forward.

That's what happened with Scots Highland Night. A favorite tea disappeared, but the feeling it created didn't have to disappear with it. A customer asked a question, a tea shop listened, and together they created something new.

Sometimes preserving a tradition doesn't mean recreating it perfectly. It means remembering what mattered and giving it another life.