This has been my go-to morning tea the past few days. It’s good enough that I can drink it down easily while I’m getting ready without much thought, but not so good it makes me wanna stop and concentrate on the tea while I drink it. Eventually I want to get my cupboard down to a point where every tea is one I want to focus on and thoroughly enjoy, so this isn’t a tea I’d probably restock.
The scent of the dry leaf is really citrusy and promising, with maybe a slight tangy hint that reminds me of orange sherbet or marmalade. There is quite a lot of orange rind mixed in with the darjeeling leaf so that could explain the marmalade evocation. I’m not a fan of this plain, I’ve found, as the darjeeling is a lot stronger and more bold than expected (even after sitting in my cupboard for a year or so and brewing it below boiling) and has quite a bit of astringency which personally I’m not a fan of – I usually prefer a smooth black tea. I do think darjeeling was a good choice for the base though, and the fruity backnotes of the tea pair well with the orange flavouring. Plain this tasted more like an orange or marmalade tea, but when I added a tiny splash of milk the astringency really pulls back, and the cream flavouring comes through more and it really does remind me of orange ice cream. I’m not sure I’ve ever had a dreamsicle before (do we have them in England??) but this tea does a decent job at approximating what I imagine they might taste like. I originally thought this would be a good dessert tea with milk and sugar, but I definitely prefer it as a bold breakfast tea with just a splash of milk.
The last cup I had of this tasted a bit weird as it cooled – I kinda got a slightly sour milk note coming through in random sips (yeuch) but not in all of them. This put me off a bit but since it’s only happened once and I did add milk to it I’m going to give it the benefit of the doubt and not reflect this in my rating.
