Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Culinary Teas
Product Description:
Deep cherry flavor with almond notes. A dash of sugar enhances the flavor and offers a smooth silky character to this tea.
Taster’s Review:
Ahh… this is one of those teas that I think of as “luxurious.” It is silky smooth in flavor and texture. I mentioned on Steepster that this tea makes me think of something I might sip at a spa. It has a flavor like that. Sweet, luxurious, and a little indulgent. It is like being pampered, only in tea form.
The black tea base is mellow. It has a mild manner and even-tone to it, so I didn’t even have to visit the webpage to know that this must be a Ceylon. But it is a good match for the other flavors of this tea, as it doesn’t attempt to intrude on the other flavors territory. It is content to provide a smooth background of flavor without drawing too much attention to itself.
The cherry flavor is deep in the sense that it is consistent throughout the sip. It is always there. There is no mistaking that I’m sipping a cherry flavored tea. But it is also delicate. It doesn’t overwhelm the cup, it is a sweet cherry flavor, but there are hints of tartness there too.
The almond is sweet and nutty in flavor, and it develops as I continue to sip. With my first couple of sips, the almond was there, but more like a whisper of a flavor. But now as I’m nearly finished with the cup, it is very almond-ish. And I like it!
But this is not simply a tea that is about cherry and almond. This tea has some other interesting dimension to it that is worthy of notice. For example, the ingredient list states that there is dried cranberries in the tea. While I suspect that they are primarily for appearance sake, they do contribute an ever-so-slight hint of flavor that enhances the flavor of the cherry more than it contributes its own cranberry taste.
The rose petals add a mere insinuation of floral falvor, while the blackberry and lime leaves add their own hints of tart and sweet to the cup. Most of these ingredients primary role is to enhance the aesthetic value of the tea, but they do impart their own hints of flavor to the cup as well.
A very enjoyable tea that at first glance may seem somewhat ordinary, but when I stop and really get to know the tea, becomes a rather extraordinary cup. An excellent afternoon tea for those afternoons when you want to take a moment to pamper yourself.
