To my amazement, a search for white champagne raspberry brought up fourteen different teas! What? This weird combination has been thought up by fourteen different companies?
No, fifteen, because mine (a gift) came from the Lake Missoula Tea Company in Montana. I was actually thinking that this company might already be listed here at Steepster, given the proximity of Montana to Canada, but maybe no one really lives directly north of Montana?
Anyway, this is an interesting flavored white tea blend. The dried leaves look motley and smell very strongly of raspberry. The brewed liquor, in contrast, does not smell at all like raspberries but of safflower. There is a lot of safflower in this blend, and it looks alot like saffron, but the flavor here appears to be safflower more than champagne (which is said to be present as well).
The liquor is bright yellow with a tinge of red—just like a solution of saffron used to prepare saffron rice. I am pleasantly surprised at the flavor, but I would not recommend this tea as a raspberry blend because the fruit appears to have evaporated completely away.
second infusion: I am now drinking the second infusion over ice, and it is rather nice. I have to admit that I would never have purchased a tea by this name, but I’m glad to have tried something with so much safflower, as it tastes unexpectedly good.
postscript: I looked at some of the other companies’ profiles for White Champagne Raspberry. Some of them have exactly the same ingredients list and picture! This suggests that these various companies are sourcing this tea from a third party wholesaler who does the actual blending. I read about this in the forum, but here we have clear evidence!
