Red Seal Tea

I chose this one (& a couple of their other varieties) because I’m really enjoying cold water infusions at work. As the weather heats up they are more thirst-quenching & less boring than plain water all the time. I’m always looking for other flavours to try, so I don’t get sick of the ones I have, especially since the local supermarkets seem to be de-ranging 2 of the 5 Twinings In’fuse flavours. (Oh no, one of my favourites – Rose Lemonade!)
The other advantage with these is that they can be drunk hot or cold. So they can carry me through to winter again.
And hey, they were on special 33% off, so why not give them a try?
Like most fruit infusions, this one smells divine in the bag & also when brewing. The aroma of oranges is powerful and mouthwatering. The liquor was very deep red, almost ruby.
However, once again like many other fruit tisanes, the taste is not as strong as the scent, which is a bit disappointing.
The first ingredient listed was hibiscus, and that was obvious from the taste. While I’m not averse to some hibiscus (I don’t hate it like some Steepsters do), I’d hoped the orange would cut through a bit more, especially since it’s my favourite blood orange.
There’s a faint taste of rosehips in there, but the apple is almost non-existent. Having said that, the taste was still pretty good, just not orange-y enough to be an absolute favourite.
The other issue I had is with the packaging – The boxes state “Zero sugar”, which is good, as one of the reasons I’m drinking these cold water infusions is to replace the few fizzy drinks I have. What they don’t make obvious anywhere except in the fine print ingredients list is that they DO have Stevia. Now, while I have done my research & Stevia seems to be the least obnoxious of the sugar substitutes healthwise, why imbibe it if there are alternatives you like just as much, or more, without it? So, while acknowledging I should have checked , I feel the packaging is a bit misleading as most products with Stevia state it clearly and/or have a logo.
All in all, I’ll enjoy the rest of the packet, but am unlikely to repurchase this or any of the other flavours with Stevia included.
NOTE – have since been reading their blog & some of the other flavours don’t include Stevia, so I will just concentrate on those (I hope I like them!).

Drank this one at my buddy’s Reqwer’s place.

It’s an oolong tea from China, gave me a lot of surprises!

Really great oolong, much better than any oolong I’ve tried before. Reminded me of a pu-erh a little bit, some earthy and malty notes were definitely there! I drank it with a tad of sugar, but I think it would be great without it too. One more thing that was surprising, was that it didn’t have a strong smell! I expected a fairly rough smell, but it had just a nice little aroma, reminded me of walnuts a bit.

Oolong gets some bonus points from me for this one!