Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: Kally Tea
Tea Description:
You’ll love this combination of sweet watermelon, paired with smoky gunpowder green tea, with the addition of tangy lime, and natural flavors. The result is a sophisticated and refreshing cup that will surprise and delight your senses. We have found that this tea is truly enhanced with the addition of a sweetener of your choice. Try it without first if you desire, but do not deprive yourself of the experience with the addition of a sweetener.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
At first glance, this tea might cause some confusion even to the most experienced tea drinker. With so many chunks of fruit and herbs, this looks more like a fruit or herbal tisane than a tea. But, look closely, and you’ll see the gunpowder green tea.
So, I steeped this as I would most green teas – a low temperature for a time somewhere between 1 1/2 minutes and 2 1/2 minutes. I opted to lower the temperature to just 170°F so that I could tack an extra 30 seconds brew time and brewed it for 2 1/2 minutes. My hope was that I would be able to extract as much fruit flavor as I can in such a short amount of time, while still managing to keep the green tea from becoming bitter.
Success! This is very flavorful. The liquor is a pretty pale pink hue from the hibiscus, but fortunately, the hibiscus didn’t affect the texture by turning it syrupy nor did it make this cup too tart. There is some tartness to this – make no mistake – but the sour notes I taste are from the lime and pomegranate, not the hibiscus. I can barely taste the hibiscus here, and I’m certainly not complaining!
I can taste the green tea too. It offers a slightly smoky note in the distance, and I find that this smoky tone is especially noticeable in the aftertaste. Quite nice. The green tea does get a little overwhelmed by everything else that’s going on in this blend, but, it’s not completely masked by the other flavors.
And I love that I can taste the watermelon here … it is sweet, and juicy – just like the delicious fruit in the very center of the melon. I love how the tart lime brings out the sweet notes of the watermelon to offer a really delicious cuppa. This is good hot, but even better iced with a little bit of sugar, which helps to bring out the flavors even more.
These leaves can be resteeped a second time. I found that the flavor mellows a little bit with the second infusion, but they weren’t really less flavorful, the cup just tasted different than the first time. This time, I taste more of the gunpowder tea, but, not so much of a smoky note from it. Instead, I taste more of a light, fresh vegetative taste.
The watermelon is a lighter flavor this time around, tasting a bit more like the fruit that is closer to the rind rather than in the center of the melon. The lime is milder this time, and I really am enjoying how the flavors come together in this second infusion – I think I prefer it to the first!
Very nicely done.
It’s a good post.