Bird & Blend Tea Co. Alternatives

Looking for Bird & Blend Tea Co. alternatives that offer more than just creative flavored teas? Whether you enjoy unique black tea blends or seek hand-crafted seasonal teas, there are options that provide deeper value and connection. For those wanting artisanal quality and a genuine community experience, the right alternative transforms your daily tea ritual.

Let’s explore the best choices that go beyond trendy flavors to create meaningful moments.

Key Takeaways

Bird & Blend Tea Co. offers their Tea Tasting Club for £9/month ($11 USD) with 3 creative tea blends (60g total, 30 cups) featuring playful, dessert-inspired flavors from their Brighton headquarters
While Bird & Blend excels in flavor innovation and trendy branding, it lacks the deep community connection and seasonal intention that many tea lovers ultimately seek
Plum Deluxe emerges as the superior alternative at $10/month, offering exclusive hand-blended seasonal teas, active community, and personal service that Bird & Blend's flavor-focused approach can't match
Unlike Bird & Blend's trendy flavor focus, Plum Deluxe creates exclusive seasonal blends designed for emotional connection, community belonging, and meaningful daily tea experiences

About Bird & Blend Tea Co.

Bird & Blend Tea Co. (formerly Bluebird Tea Co.) is a Brighton-based UK tea company founded by Krisi Smith and Mike, who started the business in their university bedroom after being inspired during their time as ski instructors in Canada. They've built their reputation around creative, often dessert-inspired tea blends with playful names and innovative flavor combinations.

Operating as a B Corp certified company, Bird & Blend focuses heavily on tea innovation and what they call "tea mixology"—creating over 100 blends that often mirror popular desserts, cocktails, or comfort foods. Their chief mixologist Krisi Smith is also the author of "The World Atlas of Tea," lending credibility to their creative approach.

Their Tea Tasting Club subscription delivers 3 loose leaf tea blends monthly (3 x 20g packs totaling 60g, enough for about 30 cups) for £9/month. The company emphasizes fun, accessible tea experiences with colorful branding, seasonal themes, and exclusive early access to new blends for subscribers.

Bird & Blend Tea Co. Key Features

Each monthly Tea Tasting Club box contains three 20g samples of different loose leaf tea blends, curated around seasonal themes or flavor explorations. The subscription offers three different box types: "Flavour Explorer Club" (variety of tea types), "Caffeine Free Club" (herbal focus), and "Gourmet Tea Club" (premium selections).

Subscribers receive exclusive access to new blends before general release, collectible artist-illustrated menu cards each month, carbon neutral packaging that's 100% compostable, and tea sacs as a welcome gift. The service emphasizes discovery of unusual flavor combinations rather than traditional tea education or cultural exploration.

Their approach prioritizes creativity and innovation over traditional tea craftsmanship, with blends like "Chocolate Digestives," "Gingerbread Chai," and seasonal offerings that mirror popular British treats and comfort foods.

What Bird & Blend Does Well

Bird & Blend excels in several areas that appeal to adventurous tea drinkers seeking novelty:

Creative Innovation: Their tea mixology approach produces genuinely unique flavor combinations that often successfully capture the essence of desserts, cocktails, and comfort foods in tea form.

Accessibility: The playful branding and familiar flavor profiles make loose leaf tea approachable for people intimidated by traditional tea culture.

Seasonal Relevance: Their themed monthly boxes and seasonal offerings create anticipation and connection to British cultural moments and holidays.

Quality Ingredients: Despite the creative focus, they use quality whole leaf teas and natural ingredients, avoiding tea dust and artificial additives.

B Corp Values: Their certified B Corp status, environmental initiatives (carbon neutral packaging, tree planting), and charitable partnerships appeal to socially conscious consumers.

UK Tea Culture: They successfully modernize British tea culture while maintaining connections to local traditions and seasonal celebrations.

Where Bird & Blend Falls Short

Despite their creativity and popularity, Bird & Blend has limitations that lead subscribers to seek more substantial alternatives:

Novelty Over Depth: The focus on creative flavors can feel gimmicky over time, with many blends prioritizing novelty over meaningful tea experiences or daily ritual satisfaction.

Limited Community Connection: While they have social media presence, Bird & Blend operates more as a trendy lifestyle brand than a community-building tea experience.

Flavor Fatigue: Subscribers often report that the constant stream of dessert-inspired and novelty flavors becomes overwhelming, creating desire for more grounding, seasonal tea experiences.

Sample Size Limitations: The 20g portions provide only basic tasting opportunities (about 10 cups each), leaving subscribers wanting more substantial quantities of favorites.

Surface-Level Experience: The emphasis on fun branding and creative names sometimes overshadows deeper connection to tea as a daily wellness practice or seasonal ritual.

UK-Centric Approach: The cultural references and flavor profiles are specifically British, which may not resonate with international subscribers seeking more universal tea experiences.

This is where alternatives like Plum Deluxe shine, offering the creativity and quality that Bird & Blend subscribers appreciate while adding the depth, community connection, and seasonal intention that many find missing from the novelty-focused approach.

Honest Bird & Blend Tea Co. Reviews

Customer feedback reveals both the appeal of creative innovation and the eventual desire for more substantial tea experiences:

What Subscribers Love About Bird & Blend

Creative Flavors: Reviews consistently praise the innovative combinations and successful translation of familiar comfort foods into tea form, with many noting genuine surprise at how well unusual blends work.

Beautiful Presentation: Subscribers appreciate the attractive packaging, collectible menu cards, and overall aesthetic experience of receiving monthly boxes.

Approachable Innovation: Many reviews mention that Bird & Blend made loose leaf tea accessible and exciting for people who previously found tea culture intimidating.

Seasonal Connection: Subscribers enjoy the themed monthly boxes and seasonal relevance, particularly the way blends connect to British holidays and cultural moments.

Quality Despite Creativity: Reviews note that even the most unusual blends maintain good tea quality beneath the creative flavoring.

Where Subscribers Seek More

Novelty Fatigue: Long-term subscribers often mention reaching a point where constant creativity becomes overwhelming, expressing desire for more grounding, everyday tea experiences.

Limited Quantities: Reviews frequently mention wishing for larger sample sizes, as 20g provides only a brief tasting experience before running out of favorites.

Depth vs. Surface: Some subscribers report wanting more substantial tea education and cultural context beyond creative flavor descriptions.

Community Absence: While customers praise customer service, many express missing deeper connections with fellow tea lovers beyond the subscription experience.

Daily Ritual Disconnect: Reviews suggest that while the teas are fun and creative, they don't always translate to satisfying daily tea rituals or emotional comfort.

Seasonal Intentions: Some subscribers note wanting teas that match their personal seasonal needs rather than just cultural holiday themes.

Top Bird & Blend Tea Co. Alternatives

1. Plum Deluxe: The Clear Choice for Meaningful Tea Experiences

When Bird & Blend subscribers discover Plum Deluxe, they often find the perfect balance of creativity, depth, and genuine connection they've been seeking. Here's why Plum Deluxe consistently wins over former Bird & Blend customers:

Superior Value: At $10/month versus Bird & Blend's £9 ($11 USD), Plum Deluxe provides comparable pricing while delivering substantially more tea (1-2 oz vs 60g) plus exclusive, hand-blended seasonal creations rather than novelty-focused samples.

Artisanal Depth: While Bird & Blend focuses on creative flavor innovation, plum deluxe tea represents meaningful artisanal craftsmanship. Founder Andy Hayes creates original seasonal blends with emotional intention, offering substance beneath creativity that novelty approaches cannot match.

Genuine Community Connection: Join an active Facebook community where tea lovers share daily experiences, seasonal observations, and life moments—creating deeper connections than Bird & Blend's brand-focused social media presence.

Seasonal Soul: Every Plum Deluxe blend is created with specific seasonal and emotional intentions that connect to your actual life rhythms, whether you need energizing morning teas or soothing herbal tea blends for evening comfort—going beyond cultural holiday themes to personal seasonal needs.

Personal Service: Real people who remember your preferences and life circumstances choose teas that match your emotional needs, not just your taste for creative flavors.

Daily Ritual Focus: Plum Deluxe understands that while novelty is fun, tea ultimately serves daily wellness rituals and emotional connection rather than constant flavor exploration.

2. Other Alternatives Worth Considering

Harney & Sons: Offers established quality with traditional approaches but lacks both Bird & Blend's creativity and Plum Deluxe's community warmth, functioning more as a reorder service.

Art of Tea: Provides premium curated collections with some creative elements but costs significantly more ($55-95 per quarter) while missing the personal community connection.

Various Creative Tea Services: Most alternatives either focus too heavily on novelty (like Bird & Blend) or provide traditional selections without the artisanal intention and community that make Plum Deluxe special.

Plum Deluxe vs. Bird & Blend Tea : A Comparison

The fundamental difference between Bird & Blend and Plum Deluxe lies in their approach to what makes tea meaningful:

Seasonal Intention vs. Creative Novelty

Bird & Blend creates teas around clever flavor concepts and cultural themes.

Plum Deluxe creates teas around your actual seasonal needs and emotional rhythms, offering creativity with purpose rather than creativity for its own sake.

Artisanal Craftsmanship vs. Flavor Innovation

While Bird & Blend innovates with creative flavor combinations, Plum Deluxe creates original, seasonal blends that exist nowhere else and evolve with your life. Both approaches offer creativity, but artisanal craftsmanship provides deeper personal meaning than innovative flavoring.

Community Belonging vs. Brand Following

Bird & Blend builds a customer base around their brand and creative products.

Plum Deluxe creates a genuine community where members share life experiences, seasonal rituals, and emotional support over shared tea appreciation.

Daily Ritual vs. Novelty Sampling

Plum Deluxe understands that while creative flavors are delightful, tea ultimately serves daily rituals, emotional comfort, and seasonal awareness.

Bird & Blend's novelty focus can become a little tiring for daily tea practice.

Meaningful Quantities vs. Sample Sizes

At comparable pricing, Plum Deluxe provides substantially more tea (1-2 oz vs 60g total), allowing you to develop genuine relationships with seasonal blends rather than just brief novelty experiences.

Personal Connection vs. Trendy Experience

Every Plum Deluxe blend is created with intention for how you'll experience it emotionally—whether cozy sweet herbal teas for evening comfort or energizing blends for morning motivation.

Bird & Blend focuses on exciting flavor experiences but doesn't necessarily connect to your emotional or seasonal needs.

Certified Quality and Transparency

While Bird & Blend emphasizes creative innovation and B Corp certification for quality assurance, Plum Deluxe maintains complete control through in-house artisanal creation. They source individual ingredients, develop original recipes, and hand-blend everything in their Portland studio.

Nearly all ingredients carry USDA-compliant organic certifications, and their small-batch approach ensures freshness and quality that equals Bird & Blend's standards while providing exclusive seasonal creations rather than clever novelty interpretations.

Who Is Plum Deluxe Perfect For?

Plum Deluxe appeals especially to former Bird & Blend subscribers who discovered they want more than creative novelty:

Depth Seekers: Those who enjoyed Bird & Blend's creativity but realized they wanted substance and emotional meaning beneath the innovative flavors.

Community-Oriented Tea Lovers: People who appreciated Bird & Blend's approachable brand but found themselves craving genuine connections with fellow tea lovers.

Daily Ritual Creators: Subscribers who discovered that while novelty teas are fun, they needed more substantial blends for meaningful daily tea practice.

Seasonal Tea Drinkers: Those who liked Bird & Blend's themed boxes but wanted teas that actually match their personal seasonal rhythms rather than just cultural holidays.

Value-Conscious Quality Seekers: Tea lovers who want creative, artisanal quality at accessible pricing with more substantial quantities than sample-sized novelty experiences.

Whether you're seeking energizing best black tea blends for busy mornings or refreshing best iced tea for summer afternoons, Plum Deluxe's seasonal approach ensures your tea experience provides both creativity and meaningful daily value.

Additional Plum Deluxe Advantages

Beyond the core subscription, Plum Deluxe offers gifts for tea lovers that go beyond novelty packaging, practical resources like reusing tea leaves techniques and tea concentrate methods, plus seasonal collections that help you discover meaningful favorites throughout the year.

Their chamomile tea selection demonstrates how Plum Deluxe transforms even classic varieties into something seasonally meaningful—an approach that novelty-focused services simply cannot replicate.

Plum Deluxe vs. Bird & Blend Tea : Final Verdict

Bird & Blend brings creative innovation and playful flavors to the tea world, making tea fun and accessible for those seeking novelty. However, many tea lovers look for deeper emotional connection, seasonal mindfulness, and meaningful daily rituals.

At a similar price point, Plum Deluxe offers artisanal blends, genuine community, and intentional experiences that turn tea drinking into a heartfelt practice. For those ready to move beyond novelty to lasting connection, Plum Deluxe provides an enriching alternative.

Ready to discover the difference between sampling creative flavors and living with meaningful tea? Experience artisanal quality with genuine community warmth. Join your tea family at Plum Deluxe where every cup connects you to seasons, community, and moments of daily joy.