Popular Tasting Notes
Chocolate and bananas isn’t high on my list of flavor combinations I lean toward when purchasing tea. In fact, anything involving chocolate is probably toward the bottom of the list, along with teas that have strong spices in them. I decided to try this sample because it was the only one of 3 I received that didn’t have spices in it.
But, I digress…
The aroma of the dry leaves was promising, the banana note was definitely present. However, the minute the little biodegradable filter hit the hot water I could tell this was going to be a no-go. After allowing the leaves to steep for 6 minutes in boiling water, I removed the filter and reluctantly took a small sip. I salvaged my cuppa by adding a touch of creamer and a bit of coconut sugar. That helped to mellow the overwhelming taste of chocolate and make it a lot more palatable.
I probably would’ve enjoyed this a bit more had the banana been more present. Imagine a slice of banana cream pie made with unripe bananas and completely covered with chocolate sauce. That’s what this tastes like to me.
Preparation
I purchased this tea last year against my better judgment. I’m a sucker for hibiscus, but I don’t usually care for the taste of cherries (in teas) when they’re not combined with another flavor to offset the strong/overwhelming taste. The only way I can drink this tea is iced and when it’s combined with another tea to offset the hyper-tart, acidic, strong flavor of cherries. I’ve steeped it with Lime Gelato a few times, and its yogurt bits and light, but present, lime flavor, seems to be a good choice to mellow out the overwhelming cherry-ness of this tea. I’d say if you appreciate the tartness of hibiscus AND the tartness of cherries, then this tea might be right up your alley. I’m happy that I only have a few grams left of this 25-gram bag to finish off.
As a mango-lover, I had high hopes for this tea but found it fell short in the flavour department. The mango taste was certainly authentic but not prevalent enough to hold up against its counterparts, which could have better complimented mango, the namesake of the tea. Certainly light and refreshing and perhaps it would have been better if steeped longer than the recommended time at a slightly higher temperature than the usual calling for green varieties. Would not buy again but would purchase for others new to tea who enjoy fruit flavours.
So I tried this tea because well, I love the color grey. What an odd reason to buy tea, right? The smell was slightly repellent, but I started to be able to pick out the citrusy parts and the tea leaves part from each other and it started smelling quite pleasant. I have never tried black tea before either so this is a first.
The tea bag contained tea leaves of relatively small size. Most of the teas I’ve drank so far have similar size, so it doesn’t really concern me. The string had the perfect length for the cup (mug) I was using. The tea bag itself got stained slightly orange-brown because of the tea. So I’m going to take a sip of this right now since it has cooled for a while (I don’t like to burn my tongue really).
The flavor could be described as woodsy with a hint of citrus. The citrus taste comes at the end of the sip after the woodsy part. It tastes slightly bitter, but in a good way. I did not add any sugar or milk this time. Even though this tea does have caffeine, you can probably get similar flavor from the Decaf version that Twinings also made. I have no idea why, but I actually feel more relaxed by drinking this tea.
So the best part? The smell. It has an interesting scent compared to those extremely obvious scents from the herbal teas I’ve been drinking. The taste is pretty rich and I have no idea how smooth a tea must be to be described as smooth, but this sure is smooth.
I think one tea bag would make quite a few cups. Two minutes already gave quite a strong flavor.
Bought this for the extra caffeine to study for my exams next week. All twenty tea bags would probably be gone by the end of that week.
Preparation
An all right novelty tea. I like fruity green teas, but this one was a tad too sweet and a bit odd-tasting. It had come in a bargain packet at my local David’s, and I can sort of see why. Had my non-tea-drinker brother try it, and he said he liked it, but only because it didn’t taste like tea. Exactly.
