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Whenever I get a new tea I make whoever is with me sniff it. “Go on, stick your nose in!” I guess I’m trying to convert them with peer pressure. Soon I’m going to be out dealing tea on the street corner! Anyway, when my mom sniffed this one (since she was the person nearest to me when I opened the tin) she made this horrible face. I knew it was a winner then—she HATES guava, and the smell of it is quite strong here and distinctly “guava!” I, on the other hand, love guava. Pretty much any weirdly shaped or colored fruit and I get along really well, even durian. Man, someone should make a durian tea. Or a dragonfruit tea… there’s a prickly pear blend that caught my eye recently, maybe that will be next up on the list of odd fruit teas to try.

I didn’t get a sample of this the first time I ordered from them, since I didn’t know if guava, strawberry and ginger was something I really wanted to try. But I got a coupon for a free ounce, so why not? I love that even the small amounts of tea there are in cute little tins, they’re such an adorable size! And man, does this smell good, like a tropical paradise in a tin. I cold brewed it (shocking, I know!) for the usual 12 hours and the smell after was so good, I went through the whole cup in about 15 minutes when I usually try to get them to last a few hours. Ah well!

The guava is what I taste first and it’s very, well, guava-y. It’s got that signature “thickness” that I expect in guava, along with a punch of sweetness. The strawberry plays well with it, the more common taste balancing the uniqueness of guava perfectly. The berry notes are gentle here, but brought to the forefront a bit by the ginger. Man, the ginger! It’s so perfect! A little tiny pinch of spice and bite at the end keeps this from being a run of the mill fruity blend, and it manages to make everything else pop. I don’t know if I’d go “oh, that’s ginger!” if I didn’t know it was in there, but it works some kind of magic. I love the white base as well, it balances everything else out and acts as a great canvas for this unique flavor combo. I’m quite glad I have a tin of this instead of just a sample, but I think I’ll be running through it quickly!