Kuda Tea

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This is my last sample from Kuda. I saved it for the end because I knew the large slice of dragonfruit would create a simply stunning final cup, and I think I was totally right in that call! The taste is nice too; very soft and mellow with the gentle sweetness of apple and the delicate floral notes of the dragonfruit!

Tea Photo: https://www.instagram.com/p/CiTOLpuuUrO/

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJQjsArihJE

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It’s finally starting to feel realllyyyy hot and humid here in Montreal this last week – AKA Summer time at last! So, I’ve been gravitating a little more towards brighter and more fruity flavours, and that inspired me to dig out this long forgotten about fruit blend. It’s the penultimate one left from the Kuda Tea sampler I bought quite a while back.

A lot of these teas, while beautiful, have been kind of flat and either stale or bland tasting. This one was not, which was nice! Really bright and hibiscus forward with a juiciness to it and a hint of tropical dragonfruit and sweet apple. Plus, of course, gorgeous as always with these tisanes!

Tea Photo: https://www.instagram.com/p/CdePyntucl4/

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5UH6_OEF0OM&ab_channel=FlowerFaceVEVO

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Not super impressed by this one but it was better than I had expected it to be, and that’s not nothing! It’s got that same weaker/watery stale fruit note that a lot of these Kuda Tea blends have had, but it also had some sweetness to it and flavours of soft creamy apple and tropical pineapple. Soothing, and medium-ish intensity in a pretty okay kind of way. Plus, eating the rehydrated apple slice afterwards was actually very tasty!

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Still have a few of these fruit blends from Kuda to finish – had this one in the early evening yesterday and I was actually really impressed with how flavourful it was! Definitely a very mixed citrus sort of taste, and it reminded me of Five Alive in that is had this “leaning orange” sort of tangy sweet tropical/citrus kind of vibe. A little lime-like at first but after letting the fruits sit for a while it was much more grapefruit prominent – just a smidge pithy but mostly a sweet pink grapefruit.

Photo: https://www.instagram.com/p/CPeLvxJhfs2/

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w31pC-A6V3c

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This ended up being another surprisingly flavourful and delicious tea from Kuda! Maybe I’ve just somehow managed to leave some of the best ones for last? That would be funny, if it turns out to be the case…

The strongest flavour is, despite the very purple looking tea liquor from all the blueberries in the mix, orange – and a nice and clear orange with a bit of natural sweetness to it. A bit of bitter pith as well, from the rind leaf on the outside of the citrus wheel, but not enough to outweigh the sweetness coming through. Plus, I actually like the texture that bitterness/astringency gives to the cup. Despite seeing the blueberry a lot in the steeped out liquor, I don’t taste it much – but they do add quite a striking visual!

I made this in the antique teacup that I purchased from Tea with Jann – a good IG tea friend, and also a Youtuber who is now selling tea themed stickers and curated antique teacup boxes! The box came with a locally made mini pot of honey, and I decided to add some of that into my teacup of tea as well – it complimented very nicely.

Photo: https://www.instagram.com/p/CLAvWA1gNSN/

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hqAH11cbrs&ab_channel=geographermusic

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I was wary of this fruit infusion because the other one from Kuda that I’ve tried with these whole rose buds, Infinity Rose, was so floral and unpleasant that the taste reminded me of baby wipes and old lady perfume. However, this was a SHOCKINGLY delicious cup!

The rose was ultimately very subtle, and the majority of the flavour was super fresh tasting and juicy pineapple – it was hands down the most fresh and flavourful of any of the Kuda blends I’ve tried to date. Usually they just taste like stale fruit flavoured water, but this one!? Yeah, there’s something to it. I know I have a few other blends I’ve not tried yet with the same pineapple “wheels” in them – so I’m excited now!

I even ate the pineapple afterwards, and it was delicious.

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Made a hot cup of this after I wrapped up work for the day, and it was alright but not really anything exciting. I’ve already talked at length on other Kuda tasting notes about how dried/dehydrated fruits don’t often actually have that much flavour and steep out sort of like stale fruit, so that’s pretty much what happened here too. A bit more apple-y with some papaya – almost more of a “baked apple” than anything else. A little sweet. Not unpleasant, but just more flat/underwhelming.

Might have actually been kind of nice with some honey to add a bit of sweetness and perk up some of those fruit notes.

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A little surprised by how flavourful this tea was, especially after the first two I tried from Kuda. I wish I could say that I enjoyed the flavour – but it was a bit like drinking potpourri. I don’t think I’ve ever experienced that strong of a rose flavour from just rosebuds. Sure, teas with rose flavouring/oils used in them but typically the blossoms don’t pack that much intense perfume-y florals…

Thankfully, I think, this is the only flavour with roses in it – never have I ever felt so much conflicting emotions about a rose tea. I normally love rose! That said, it was a stunning tea – something about watching the slice of dragonfruit rehydrate was breathtaking, and I did eat the slice after I finished off my cup of perfume. The dragonfruit was very tasty even if the tea was less so.

Photo: https://www.instagram.com/p/CHtENxfgj-c/

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVSGzk2O7p4&ab_channel=SilverSphere

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I didn’t like this one as much as the Fruity Pop I had earlier in the week. It also had the same papaya flavour, but I think it was the orange that detracted from my enjoyment. It was basically just orange rind in this particular flavour, and I felt like it added a subtle pithy quality that lessened the overall enjoyment of the blend. I wish I would have tasted more pear, but I’m not surprised that I didn’t – dehydrated pear really doesn’t have much flavour at all.

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So, Kuda is a company I’ve been following on instagram for a while pre-site launch and this last week they finally launched their site/opened up for sale. I ended up ordering their sampler, which included one cup worth of all their tisanes. All of their teas are fruit infusions, made from very large cut/aesthetically pleasing dehydrated fruits and are intended be be added directly the a cup without a filter. They’re gorgeous looking which is what initially attracted me to the company.

The thing with dehydrated fruit, in tea especially, is that it generally doesn’t have much flavour at all – most of the time when you see large fruits in tea blends they’re there to either look pretty or act as flavour carriers, because the spongy nature of most dehydrated fruits makes them good vessels for soaking up flavouring and then releasing it once steeped. As such, my expectation for each of these teas is pretty low – but I knew that when I purchased the sampler, and I’m mostly just intrigued by the visuals of each tea…

This was the first flavour I tried, and it’s mostly papaya and strawberry. The smell of the “dry leaf” when you open up the packet reminds me of opening a package of any type of dried/fruit leather type food you’d pick up from a Whole Foods or Natural Foods store. Fruity, but with that sort of borderline stale-ish kind of note. Steeped, that’s pretty true. I think that of all the fruits used in this tisane in particular, the one that steeps out the most flavourful is the papaya – but papaya isn’t exactly a super flavourful fruit to begin with. It tastes sort of like someone sliced up a papaya, dunked that in a cup of hot water for thirty seconds, and then took the papaya out. To be fair, that’s sort of what’s happening here…

It doesn’t taste bad – just very light/mild. It’s actually sort of refreshing in how light it is as a subtle and gentle way to sip something hot and soothing without any harsh or intense flavours. I feel like this would be a fun way to wind down for the night…