Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Foxfire Teas
Tea Description:
Delicious Assam black tea flavored with black currant gives this tea a nice fruity pop; super delicious iced or hot and a great mixer for cocktails
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
As it turns out, this is going to be a day for Portland teas … at least for me. I just got finished writing a review for Mt. Hood Vanilla tea from Townshend’s Tea that will appear later this evening, and now I am trying tea from another Portland company – one I’ve not yet tried but have wanted to for quite some time now: Foxfire Teas!
From the moment I opened the pouch of this tea, I couldn’t stop smelling it. The aroma is AMAZING! It smells so sweet and fruity, it brings me back in time to when my gramma had a grapevine in her backyard and she’d cook the grapes and make grape jelly. She eventually removed the grapevine and replaced it with ollaliberries, but that’s another story.
Now, as I’ve stated before, I’m not generally a big fan of grape flavored things. I don’t really care for grape juice (I mean, it’s alright, but I’d prefer other juices), and I won’t eat grape flavored ice pops or grape flavored candies. I don’t really even like grape jelly, although I did like gramma’s grape jelly, and I think that is why I am loving the fragrance of this tea so much … it smells so much like my gramma’s kitchen when she’d make grape jelly.
But of course, this is not a grape flavored tea, it is a Black Currant flavored tea. However, I’ve not eaten a lot of fresh black currants (they’re not especially easy to find, I was surprised a few weeks ago while shopping at my local Whole Foods to find them there), so I can’t really compare the scent to currants. But currants and grapes are very similar in aroma, and fermented grapes (aka wine) often taste of currants.
And I’m glad to say that this indeed does taste like black currants and not of grapes. It has a very bright, fruity flavor which is both sweet and tart, leaning a bit more toward the tart than to the sweet. It is not too tart, though, at least not for my palate, and as I tend to not like a strong tart flavor that’s a good thing.
The black tea base is an Assam, and it definitely lets you know that its there. It’s has a very powerful flavor – strong and bold! This Assam is leaning slightly toward the wine-y tasting Assam rather than the malty; however there are some delightful malty tones in there as well. Of course, the black currant flavor also lends to that wine-y taste.
I am sipping this hot, but I suspect that it would also make a delightful iced tea with its strong fruit notes. This is certainly one of the best black currant teas that I’ve tried. I love the strong, full-bodied taste of the Assam and and how nicely it melds with the flavor of the currant.
An excellent tea – and I’m very proud that it’s a local company. And even if you don’t live near Portland, you can still try this tea as they do sell their teas online. I’ve had the opportunity to converse with Katherine via email and she has such a wonderfully warm personality. I love it when I find a tea company that offers great teas and excellent customer service!
