Sipdown (123)!
Just ordered more samples from A Quarter to Tea! The Smoky Sweet Potato Keemun really sold me on doing so; I mean, there were several that I was really curious about but the idea of that one had me salivating – and I don’t even like Keemun! So, I should probably get my reviews up for the blends from A Quarter To Tea that I’ve already tried…
This is my second sample from A Quarter to Tea! I chose it for a couple reasons; the big one was that the other two samples I picked out were oolongs and I wanted to get to taste at least one of Lauren’s other tea types. However, I was also interested by the fairly unique ingredients. I’ve never seen Sangria with blueberry, for starters. Finally, I wanted to find a Sangria tea that was an improvement on the other two I’ve tried. DAVIDsTEA had a seasonal Sangria blend which I didn’t mind but didn’t love, and Red Leaf Tea has a Sangria flavour of matcha I currently own but don’t particularly like. And the idea of Sangria with a white base sounds awesome, too!
It was hard to form much of an impression of the tea dry: I could see several chunks of the dry ingredients in the blend, but there wasn’t a distinct aroma. Part of that, I feel, is that in the package Lauren mailed to me the Cherry Chocolate Latte was really a dominant flavour and I think possibly may have contaminated the other teas it was packaged with or, at least, “cancelled out” their aromas – which weren’t as potent/strong. Since Lauren suggests on her Etsy page to ice this and since Sangria really is a drink best consumed cold I decided to go with a cold method of preparation. However, instead of icing I went with cold brewing because that style of preparation is a favourite of mine.
I do find this tea to be very mildly/delicately flavoured overall, with softer and less prominent notes of apple and blueberry and a jammy stonefruit quality which I suppose is the cherry. I want to point out that mild and subtle isn’t actually a bad thing, however Sangria doesn’t have a ‘delicate’ flavour to begin with so it’s not reading as the most accurate flavour profile. Plus it’s a little odd for me to neither taste “orange”/citrus which is such a common Sangria flavour or the wine/rum. As such, while I really like the flavour that I do taste, I find it very hard to drink this and think of it as ‘Sangria’ flavoured. The name just doesn’t seem to match, you know?
I’d be interested to see this tea rebranded as another flavour, maybe even some kind of ‘punch’? This is a refreshing, light, fruity cuppa but in my ‘quest’ for the perfect Sangria tea my expectations just haven’t been met.
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Admittedly this was kind of based of an extremely usual Sangria my husband and I fell madly in love with! It was white white, rum, apple, and macerated berries. It could probably use a rebranding to that effect.
I’m working on a red wine inspired blend for later this month though, because I think a mulled wine tea would be amazing. I’ll try to work in a more traditional sangria, as well!
Thank you for reviewing :)
Admittedly this was kind of based of an extremely usual Sangria my husband and I fell madly in love with! It was white white, rum, apple, and macerated berries. It could probably use a rebranding to that effect.
I’m working on a red wine inspired blend for later this month though, because I think a mulled wine tea would be amazing. I’ll try to work in a more traditional sangria, as well!
Thank you for reviewing :)