When you first open this bag, the fragrance of the pineapple and mango are REALLY strong. It’s not artificial or unpleasant, just very up front. If you asked someone to smell this with their eyes closed, they’d have no idea they were smelling a tea. It’s closer to a bag of candy.
Once brewed, the fruit fragrance is still powerful but you can just start to pick up the sweet, plumy, floral smell of the tea underneath.
While this is fruited, the tea is highlighted and provides the predominant flavor. I haven’t been into tea long enough to really pinpoint the origin of “black tea,” but I’d guess there’s at least some fairly high quality Keemun in here. The fruit flavors help brighten and sweeten the tea and bring out its natural fruity-floral qualities.
While I prefer green teas and herbals iced, this black tea rocks on-the-rocks. Typically icing a tea enhances the fruit notes, which it does here as well, but the tea is of such good quality that it stands up to the treatment and you can still taste it as well.
I’m not a black tea person but this sounds good!