Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: Tea Licious
Tea Description:
Sencha green tea with safflowers, acai berry and raspberry leaves.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
There are a few teas and/or ingredients (or flavors) in teas that just sort of make me cringe. And for the most part, the cringe is unfounded, because, I end up enjoying the tea. Acai is one of those ingredients. I had a pretty bad experience with the acai berry at one point – it was way too sour and bitter for my liking – and since that one tasting, I find myself cringing when I receive a tea with acai berry. However, since that one tasting, I’ve tasted many different teas with acai berry and really enjoyed them … but that one distasteful moment seems to outweigh the many really tasty ones when it comes to my reaction to acai.
So when I pulled this tea sample out of my stash to try today, I did, indeed, cringe. But I decided to ignore that initial reaction and reminded myself that I have liked more acai berry flavored teas than I’ve disliked. Then I opened the pouch and smelled it – WOW! It smells really good. I smell more raspberry than acai. It smells fresh and vibrant, reminding me of the aroma of one of those berry stands at the side of the road in the summer. Mmm!
This has a stronger raspberry flavor than an acai – and it is far less tart than I expected it to be. Oh sure, it is still a tad tart, but, it is more sweet than it is tart, and that’s the way my taste buds like it. The tartness is most noticeable at the finish and in the aftertaste, when I experience that tingly tart feeling on my tongue. But the sweetness is there from the moment the tea touches my palate, and lingers into the aftertaste as well.
And even though the berry flavor is strong with this tea, I taste the Sencha and it provides a really pleasing creamy note to this – slightly buttery and agreeably sweet. I find that it gets even creamier as the tea cools a bit, the buttery tones really seem to pop after it’s cooled for about five minutes.
A really enjoyable tea – it’s good hot, but even nicer iced! Very thirst-quenching!
