New August Uncommon Teas!
I’ve been waiting for what feels like ages to see if AU was going to do a summer collection, and a few weeks ago I got an email asking if I wanted to preorder the new teas before they officially launched on the website and, guys, I jumped on that shit so quickly. The collection came yesterday, so of course I had to try something immediately.
I went with this one because it’s the herbal/caffeine free one from this collection and by the point I was ready to make a cup of tea after work it was pretty late into the evening.
So, I’ll be the first to admit that I’m the tiniest bit sick of melon teas; we’ve just had so many come out at work this summer than it feels a little played out to me. However, honeydew/mint? That’s a bit more different so I definitely WANT to get on board with it. I cracked the bag though and was a bit disappointed; something about the dry leaf smells VERY weird to me. It’s maybe a bit too harshly minty and the watermelon smells off. I can’t place it; it’s just off.
I brewed it up anyway though, and I’m glad I did because the steeped tea is definitely a step up from how the dry leaf smells. The peppermint actually IS very strong; however as strong as it is it’s also quite soothing. It’s very cooling/refreshing and definitely has the more herbaceous sort of taste of natural/actual peppermint versus flavourings. The juicyness of the melon is a bright contrast and I think that contrast actually pleasantly highlights the cooling elements of the mint and then the sweetness of the melon. I will say that it’s arguably more watermelon like than honeydew, though. Not that I particularly mind.
Of course this IS August Uncommon we’re talking about so the packaging is filled with all sorts of artistic imagery tied into what flavours and moods are supposed to be evoked by the tea. Supposedly this one is kind of like ‘sunbathing on a boat’ or some such similarly worded thing. I don’t think that’s it at all though: I certainly found myself strongly thinking of something specific when drinking it but for me it was a lot more ‘having a picnic in the middle of a thunderstorm’ like.
Overall? Not bad! The “herbal” teas from AU have been a bit hit or miss for me and I think that trend sort of continued with this one – though I definitely didn’t dislike it either.
