Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: The Rabbit Hole
Tea Description:
Delicious, ripe raspberries explode with blueberries and strawberries to create this beautiful berry brew. Works well hot or iced up with a dash of honey if you like it that way. The perfect afternoon pick me up.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
As summer slowly comes to an end – a bit too slowly for my liking, really, I mean, come on! I’m ready for the cooler weather already! – I find that this tea is ready to remind me of all the delicious flavors that summer offers. Really, is there any food that says summer more than fresh, juicy berries? And this tea embraces three of my favorite berries – strawberry, raspberry and blueberry – In one tasty cup.
The moment I opened the package of this tea, I knew I was in for a berry delicious treat! The berry aroma was so delightful and strong … YUM! The fragrance of the brewed tea is softer than that of the dry leaf, but it still smells incredibly yummy.
This is one of those teas that tastes best if you’ve given it a few moments to cool down to a drinkable temperature … and it gets better the more it cools! When drunk very hot, the flavors are not easily discerned in the sip, but, definitely explode in the aftertaste. Delicious berry flavor … sweet and tart and juicy! But after it’s cooled to a still-hot-but-not-piping-hot temperature, the berry flavor really comes to life.
The berry flavor is quite remarkable – I taste each of the berries, and usually with these berry medley type teas I find that the flavors become sort of jumbled into a super-berry kind of flavor where I taste notes of each but they all sort of meld together into one unified flavor. That doesn’t happen here.
Instead, I taste the strawberry. It is sweet and luscious and reminds me of those days in the summer when I rush home after visiting the produce market and buy a bunch of the berries … I have to grab a few immediately because if I don’t, they’ll be gone (I have a tween-ager daughter who loves the berries more than I do!) And I taste the blueberry, juicy and just a little bit tart. And I taste the raspberry: sweet, intense flavor with a tangy, tarty finish that tickles the tongue.
And even though the berry flavors are absolutely divine, this IS a black tea and this tea won’t let you forget that. It has a pleasant, full flavor that is brisk yet mild enough to let the berry flavors come through. A pleasing, mellow cup that would be very enjoyable as an afternoon cuppa – alone or with friends!
But where this tea really shines is as an iced tea. It is sweet and flavorful enough to serve straight – with no additions at all – but a little bit of sugar goes a long way to perk up the flavors a bit (or perhaps a drizzle of honey as suggested by Rabbit Hole!) And as I sip this, I wonder how wonderful it would taste with a sprig of mint!
A lovely tea that reminds me of the beauty of summer.
