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This smelled pretty good in the package and looked interesting with little yellow shreds or thin petals (Chrysanthemum perhaps?) and orange bits of what might be dried peach amid the stems and shreds of black. I put a teaspoon in my strainer and gave it a try. When water was applied, it smelled like …um…tea? I’m not much of a tea connoisseur but it had kind of a greenish scent from the leaves—like green vegetables.

When I strained out the liquid, it didn’t smell so green, but it didn’t smell particularly peachy either, or even terribly appetizing. I briefly considered dumping it out and then dismissed the notion, opting to wait for it to cool and find out how it actually tasted. This was a sample from my big sis, Terri Harplady, so I felt obligated to see the experiment through.

No sir, I didn’t like it. Blah blah bland. A few days later I learned that Terri prefers a tablespoon per cup and my previous conservative attempt hadn’t done it justice. I resolved to try again with a stronger brew, though I really wasn’t liking the flavor base of this.

Attempt #2 This time I used a full tablespoon for my standard three minute steep. Once again, it smelled like green vegetables, but the surface of the tea looked…scummy. It tasted like the water left when I cook vegetables, with a slight astringency from the tea, so I pulled out the stops and sweetened it.

Ok, there was the peach, just a hint of it, as well as an undertone of vanilla beneath a kind of funky, gamy vegetable flavor I guessed to be the oolong. I concluded there IS something there, but I don’t have much use for a tea that needs sweetener to be appreciated.

My big sis said she preferred it iced. I decided it was worth a try.

Attempt #3 This time I tried a cold brew. Sometimes a batch of tea brewed slowly in a jar of cold water in the refrigerator will turn out infinitely better. Not this time. No sir, I didn’t like it. Fortunately, I used the last of it up in this attempt.

There’s something in the base of this tea that disagrees with me. Tastes differ, and I don’t doubt that someone else is giving this variety a shining review. I gave it a fair shake but must sadly conclude this is not my cup of tea.