60

This smells like faintly spicy lemons. Also, it consists mainly of cubes. I deeply desired to eat a cube. I fished out a small one and bit down. Oh. My. God. It took all of my willpower not to continue eating the cube. Steeping, it smells precisely like a freshly opened bag of Haribo ‘Fruit Salad’ gummies. Let me be clear: this is not tea. It is barely even a tisane. I didn’t try to appreciate it as any of those, but instead as hot citrus candy juice, and in that category, it could have be stunning. But, it isn’t. This stuff smells so good and tastes so good as dried cubes, but brewed, it’s. . . lackluster. I can’t tell if it needs to have bigger deeper citrus notes or more sugar, but as it stands, it’s reminiscent of lemonade left in the sun. It isn’t transcendent. It should have been. I was worried the minute I poured it- it was so pale. Successive cups, the product of longer steeping in less water, were better, suggesting this would benefit from being boiled twenty minutes in a small volume of water. I would try this again if I got my hands on another sample. It’s got probable merit.

Flavors: Lemon, Sugar

Preparation
Boiling 5 min, 15 sec 2 tsp 16 OZ / 473 ML

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

People who liked this

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

Profile

Bio

Getting back into tea after a hiatus of a few years, thanks to some friends. Aside from tea, I enjoy zoology, fish and orchid keeping, writing and the odd bit of art.

My ranking criteria:
100: Floors me. Something I can drink over and over again without it ever becoming routine. Things I’d buy again without hesitation after running out.
90-95: Impressive, very solid. Something I’ll drink more than once, although I might not always drink it while paying attention. Things well worth buying again when the mood strikes me but not things I always pine for when out of them.
80-85: Good, enjoyable to drink casually but still interesting enough to have a meditative session with. I don’t really care to utilize anything I like less as a daily drinker. I’ll rebuy these if I find myself missing them but don’t always miss them.
70-75: Nothing wrong with them, but they don’t really hold my attention long. I don’t rebuy these when I run out of them, though I might look for a ‘better’ version if I felt they had merit that could be brought more to the fore. I usually reserve them for times when I want my tea but will be too distracted to notice anything fine.
60-65: Okay. Not repulsive or extremely disappointing, but nothing special. Things I’ll drink if I don’t have to pay for them. They don’t inspire my feelings towards either pole.
50-55: Has some flaws, usually limited to disagreeable dry smell or lack of complexity. Still drinkable, but does not clear the bar. Did not upset me.
40-45: Committed the unforgivable sin of grabbing my interest and then letting me down. Bland, one or two note teas. Not bad tasting so much as boring. I’m much more likely to score an unimpressive tea here than an unmemorable tisane, which usually land a category higher due to my lack of emotional investment in them.
30-35: Bad notes on the tongue that can’t be overlooked, or a funky order that throws everything off. At some point I consider putting it down the drain, especially if they’re tisanes.
20-25: Probably would score a notch or two higher if they succeeded in avoiding my scorn, but for whatever reason, they’ve bothered me. Not expressly terrible but drew my ire.
10-15: Major flaws. Gross.
1: Wretched, miserable sinful waste of vegetation. Major flaws and it made me angry.

Location

Massachusetts, USA

Following These People

Moderator Tools

Mark as Spammer