It’s a pet peeve of mine when people try to make their favorite drink their entire personality. But ultimately, I understand the attachment that people have to their drink of choice.
I’ve been a lifelong tea drinker and reader, and those two activities tend to go together. Drinking tea has a classic connotation to it, one that makes you think of classic literature in particular.
I recently received a new shipment of winter tea flavors from The Whistling Kettle to try. Each one has a sugary treat flavor that reminds me of childhood and classic childhood stories, particularly those featuring little girls. I associated each flavor with a classic girl character, and I paired each book up with a classic girl character who becomes the hero of her own story.
Below are my three Whistling Kettle tea flavor pairings with three classic girl heroes in literature. I hope you check them out and see if you get the same feelings and associations from them as I did. Use code LAURASBOOKSANDBLOGS2026 to get 10% off your first order of any products with The Whistling Kettle.
Gingerbread cookie tea and Matilda
The gingerbread cookie tea is made of rooibos, green rooibos, honeybush, cinnamon bark, raisins, ginger root, candied ginger, candied pineapple, maple bits, and safflower, which looks a bit like a dandelion. The loose tea is a mix of brown, red, and green with small pineapple pieces that look like sugar cubes. It smells of raisins and cinnamon.
The tea brews into a reddish brown color. It takes on a mainly cinnamon scent in its liquid form. One ounce should be brewed at 212 degrees Fahrenheit for seven minutes for an eight-ounce cup.
This tea tastes like a classic black tea with a ginger aftertaste. When sweetened, that classic gingerbread cookie taste comes out. I can imagine dunking actual gingerbread cookies into the tea as a sophisticated version of milk and cookies.
I came up with Roald Dahl’s famous little girl hero, Matlida, for this flavor. The first thing that came to mind is Matilda having tea at Miss Honey’s house. It’s a warm scene that contrasts with the cold reality of the rest of the book in which two lonely and abused characters find a safe haven in an afternoon treat within each other’s company.
Miss Honey and Matilda’s tea party is very simple, just bread and butter. Matilda sees it as a new experience, though, and this is how the gingerbread tea felt to me with its blend of multiple unique flavors, mixing flower petals with dried and candied fruits. It represents the many sides of us that are blended together to make a fully formed person, and, in Matilda’s case, one who can do extraordinary things.
Butterscotch tea and Heidi
The butterscotch tea flavor is made up of black tea, apple, currants, chamomile, and sunflower petals. It has a classic black tea look with floral pieces mixed in. When I cracked the package open, it smelled strongly of apple and vanilla.
The tea was recommended to be brewed at 212 degrees Fahrenheit for four to five minutes. It brews to a golden brown and continues to give off that vanilla fragrance.
This tea tastes like black tea with vanilla. It doesn’t need any sweetener, and I found that it didn’t really change the flavor much when I did. It tastes very similar to having taken a sip of black tea after eating a hard butterscotch candy.
I assigned this flavor to Heidi because of the unassuming warmth and sweetness that she brings to those she interacts with. Heidi is simply herself, and she brings with her a different perspective to a town and citizens who seem to be very desensitized to its greatest attributes.
Likewise, this tea injects a bold and unforgettable flavor into a classic brew. I could imagine Heidi swapping out her bowl of goats milk that she sips on the mountain top for the butterscotch tea that warms you from the inside and keeps away the bitter cold that infuses winter in my area and hers.
Spiced pear and Anne of Green Gables
The spiced pear flavor consists of black tea, blackberry leaves, lemon peel, cloves, cinnamon, pear bites, and calendula petals, which looks like a yellow daisy. It’s brewed at 212 degrees for three to five minutes.
This tea smells like pears and cinnamon. It brews into a brownish yellow color, and that spice scent remains in its liquid form.
The tea tastes like a cinnamon tea. When sweetened, the sugar brings out the pear flavor, which is one of my favorite fruits.
This tea marries two distinct flavors into one cohesive one. That very much reminded me of Anne Shirley and her feminine, lovable side mixed with her short temper and her refusal to be dismissed, bullied, or miss out on the things in life that she wants most.
Anne definitely has a bite to her, and it’s at the forefront of her personality. This tea is all about its cinnamon spice, and the pear flavor makes it unique, similar to Shirley’s red hair and distinct worldview which comes as a surprise compared to other classic orphan stories.
I can picture Anne and her best friend, Diana, sipping on this tea after school or of her guardian, Marilla, brewing her a cup as an apology after she accuses Anne of theft. It would give her all of the hydration she needs to venture out into the world, learning more about herself and the world around her.
Which flavor do you most want to try? Leave your answers in the comments below!
Check out my other posts featuring The Whistling Kettle’s teas throughout various seasons here!
Three Whistling Kettle Winter Teas Paired with Wintery Stephen King Novels
Tea Tasting Summer Flavors from The Whistling Kettle
3 Halloween Graphic Novel Recommendations with The Whistling Kettle Fall Tea Pairings
Tea Tasting Winter Teas from The Whistling Kettle Paired with Winter Book Scenes
The Whistling Kettle Book Club May Book Review and Tea Review: American Dirt and Chocolate Chai
The Whistling Kettle Book Club Into the Water and Blood Orange Tea
Summer Screenings with The Whistling Kettle Summer Iced Teas
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