Berry Blues

Wow. I may have put a bit too much in this time! I used almost 3 tsp for 16 oz and it is super powerful. This tea does not mess around in the flavor department. Like I’ve said, the closest thing I’ve tasted to this is Kashi cereal; which isn’t a bad thing! It is strongly blueberry and a little tart. Great for relaxing and pairs well with toast.

The weather is starting to pick up here in the UK and the first promises of sun and hot weather have given me a craving for fruit. No fruit in particular just something sweet and juicy to relax with.

This fruit tea looked fresh and tasty in raw form, there were chunks of apple and berries that looked so soft and sweet that I had to munch on a few to try. :) Very yummy and fresh.

After the long 10 minute steep the tea is red in colour (from the hibiscus) and has a tart berry scent.

The taste is refreshingly fruity, with sweet apple being the strongest flavour followed by a sour/tart berry taste. It’s not very strong overall despite using 2 tsp of raw mixture and leaving it for 10 minutes to steep. It’s similar to one of those flavoured waters you can buy that have a slight fruity after taste.

I received this as a free sample in my last Adagio order. To be honest, I didn’t think I would like it, but I have to say this was pretty good. It had a fair amount of blueberry flavor even though my brew basket was filled with apple pieces. There was a lot of sweetness from the apple and then a light trartness from the berries and hibiscus. The overriding flavor was definitely berry as the sweet note from the apple just registered as generic sweet. I didn’t add sugar, but if I had I’m guessing this would have morphed into a juice/kool-aid kind of herbal. Sans additions it was tasty and a nice before bed treat.

This was a happy find. A good blueberry herbal will always be welcome here!

Killed this tin today, so this will be a fond farewell.

Apparently I have quite the sweet-tooth, because I LOVE this tea! It’s mostly sweet with a little sour, and tastes like an Apple Jolly Rancher. If you’re looking for something to snap you out of a funk, or just don’t want a typical tea flavor, then grab some of this and enjoy, because it’s as close to candy in a glass as you’re going to get.

Plus, it’s easy to steep because you can’t really over-steep it (more time just makes it even sweeter) and it doesn’t need any sugar or other additions, so it’s the perfect cup to make when you’re not looking to keep a close eye on a picky pot.

In sum: I’m definitely sad to see this one go!

haha, so here I was complaining about a high rated tea just before this note and now I’m about to rave about a less popular one (so like me…)

Super yummy hibiscus-dominated fruit blend!!! I LOVE hibiscus! and I love blueberries and apples.

Thanks for sending this sample my way Linnaete (^o^)

Let me preface this review by stating that I am not a blueberry fan. The berries themselves aren’t too bad but I generally hate anything with blueberry flavoring or actual berries in it; muffins, pie, etc. My husband got me two adagio tea of the month clubs for my birthday, herbal and black and this came with the last shipment. Given my feelings about blueberries I wasn’t terribly excited and figured it would go up for swap. Then I opened it and smelled it. Hmmmm…it doesn’t smell evil.

One night I was in the mood for tea but none of my typical desserty herbals and rooiboses (rooibosi?) sounded appealing so I figured, what the heck, and gave this a try.

It’s not the little cup of grossness I imagined. In fact, it’s kinda tasty. I’ll chaulk this up to the fact that it was made from real blueberries. I may even consider getting this again.

And I finished another sample!! It’s a good no caffeine option; which I guess would be obvious since it’s the only herbal one I’ve finished up at this point. It’s still berry-licious! :)

A friend got a sample of this and I got to finish off his sample. I’m not sorry there isn’t any left. The dry tea smells clearly of dried blueberries. That is important, because I know that (to me) blueberry juice is just a sweet ho-hum… On to the tea…
It brewed up surprisingly dark for an herbal, reddish like a Ceylon. Blueberry = Sweet in my mind. This tea wasn’t sweet — It was sour! A direct kick to the back edges of my tounge with no apologies. The true components of the tea shine through…rose hips and hibiscus (I looked it up). I don’t get blueberries out of the this — I get cranberries! There were a lot of dried apple pieces, easily 1/3rd of the bulk of the tea mix. I didn’t detect any apple flavor directly..the other components were just too bold, but I think the apple smoothed over the sour components and kept the result from being puckering sour.
Bottom line: I’d drink this again, but I think blueberry isn’t an accurate representation of what it delivers.

Note: one taster below seemed to think this has rooibos. It doesn’t.

When I sleep until noon on a Sunday—especially now that I’m getting middle-aged and my sleep patterns are changing—I have a lot of trouble getting to sleep on time Sunday night. Hence my zero caffeine policy on Sundays, which makes me a little sad because Sundays are when I have time to sit and sip tea and ponder what kind of tea I’m craving (generally oolong or Youthberry or the Taiwan Red Tea I got at Jade Mountain, all with caffeine).

So Sundays I tend to bring out my tisanes and other non-caffeine drinks, and this one is a winner in my book. I set my electric teakettle to boil, and steeped for 8 minutes (the package says 5-10 min.), and was greeted by a deep pinky-purple brew. I added copious amounts of rock sugar—3 tsp.? Not sure, I’m a sugar addict—and let the sugar melt for a minute.

The result: fruit perfection. It is definitely the chunks of real fruit in this that gives such great fruit taste, though my chunks were not HUGE as one reviewer’s were! You can’t go wrong with apple pieces in a fruit tisane, and there are lots in this. And I did see a few petals of hibiscus, but not tons, so you don’t end up with something unbearably sour (though I can’t vouch for what this is like without sugar).

With the sugar this might as well be fruit juice, with a deep berry taste that really satisfies. It’s warming and richly flavored hot; bet it would be amazing cold! I’ll have to try that next time…!

I wonder if this kind of tea will always let me down. Every time I open a bag of fruit tea, I’m overwhelmed by the scent. Berry Blues is no exception — I can smell fresh blueberries, maybe a slight twang of apple. It’s mouthwatering. Put it near water, though, and it all disappears.

It’s not that this tea is bad. It’s naturally sweet, and has a wonderful tartness that’s not too OTT. It just doesn’t taste of Blueberries in the way I was expecting it to. I’m tempted to blame the hibiscus for overpowering the blueberries, but it might just be that I’m expecting too much. Perhaps no blueberry tea is ever going to taste as divine as it smells. I think I might try brewing this with cooler water and a little honey next time, and see what that does for the flavour.

In the cup, this tea takes on a deep berry red/pink colour, and smells generically fruity. The chunks of fruit are generously sized and easily identifiable. It’s pleasant enough to drink, but the scent had built me up to expect something I wasn’t going to get. Blueberries. Badly.