Home Comforts with Ringtons

I'm not sure it's normal to fill up your hire car up with tea bags and biscuits when you're going away for the weekend.  Simon is more than used to me appearing with bags upon bags of shoes and clothes to stuff into the boot, but I think he thought I'd finally lost the plot when he caught me struggling to the car with a huge box of Ringtons goodies.

Allow me to explain!  Whenever I'm away from the Toon for more than a day I get seriously homesick.  I miss the silliest things - the Tyne Bridge, Geordie accents and, of course, all of my home comforts. 

Easter weekend saw us travelling to Milton Keynes for a friend's wedding and the thought of being away from Newcastle for so long made me feel a little sad so I decided to take a little piece of the North East down south with me.

My friends at Ringtons recently sent me a box of their delicious goodies to try and nothing makes me feel more at home than Ringtons so, clinging onto my cardboard box like it was a comfort blanket, I decided to sneak it into the boot of the car when Simon wasn't looking (mwah ha!).

Ringtons is, of course, available across the country but it's particularly special to us in the North East as the family run company started out selling tea from a horse and cart in Newcastle back in 1907.  Now, more than 100 years later, Ringtons deliver door to door to over 260,000 customers across the UK as well as their goodies being available in restaurants, hotels and cafes.

Arriving at our hotel after a long drive we were excited at the prospect of a decent cup of tea to remind us of home.

As a Southerner I'm not afraid to admit that folk in the North really do know how to make a superior cup of tea.  I can never get it quite right, but lucky for me I'm marrying a Northerner and when Simon announces he's off to "make a brew" I know I'm going to be getting a cracking cup of tea.

Ringtons Extra Fresh Tea Bags make the perfect full bodied and rich cuppa and we enjoyed chilling out with our lovely hot cups of tea whilst watching the wildlife out of our hotel window.  Just what we needed after tackling the Bank Holiday traffic.  Bliss!

Of course no tea party is complete without biscuits and delving into our box we found Hand Baked Ginger Snaps and Creamy Shortbread Rounds to enjoy.

With wedding outfits to fit into we only meant to have one biscuit each, but as we all know a newly opened packet of biscuits is impossible to resist!  Before we knew it we'd devoured an embarrassing amount.  They were just too good!

Now they're all gone I've obviously been eyeing up the Ringtons website to see what I'd like for our next tea party and the Lemon Meringue Biscuits have my name on.

Many of my friends who grew up in the North East have told me about their childhood memories of Ringtons.  I've been pretty jealous hearing their tales of getting baskets of Ringtons goodies delivered direct to their doors.

The good news is that Ringtons offer their Traditional Doorstep Service across the country with more than 200 vans out delivering.  You can check if you're eligible here and if you are you can enjoy fortnightly or monthly visits from Ringtons free of charge with no obligation to purchase.

If you prefer you can visit their online store which has a full range of tea, coffee, biscuits, cakes and beautifully packaged gift sets with free UK delivery if you spend over £30.00

All this talk of tea has got me gasping for a cuppa so I'm off to the kettle, followed by a desperate hunt of the biscuit tin to see if I can find any Ringtons biscuit crumbs!

Let me know if you have a special Ringtons memory from your childhood and which biscuits  I should try next!