Briar Patch Brew

2024 Advent Calendar #2

This day suggested making paper snowflakes, which I might have the kids do since it’s pouring rain here and melting the little layer of snow we did have. But first a warm mug of berry tea to start the day. This is the only tea of P&L that I’ve have tried before. At that time, I drank it cold brewed in mason jar on a sunny summer deck. With a rainy, raw day, I wanted to try it out warm. It steeps up a deep red and tastes like tart blueberries and blackberries. The hibiscus is very prominent. I don’t get a sense of the elderberries or sage.

From this weekend during the Steepster freeze.

Usually I make fruit teas cold brewed and drink them ice cold, but for some reason tonight I had a strong craving for a deeply fruity hibi tea, warm and deliciously puckery and tart, the sort of red cup that is the nightmares of the majority of Steepsterites. Found this sampler in my stash and brewed a small pot of tea.

I got this back in 2018 and notice the ingredients on their website are slightly different than what is on my packet, but not by much… the description does say it uses “seasonal berries” and the main difference I’m seeing is my packet lists raspberries which is replaced by elderberries on the current website ingredient listing. So I’m not sure if the blend itself has just been (slightly) updated, or if the difference is a seasonal one and has to do with whatever time of year it was that I happened to have ordered back in 2018. In any event, I don’t think there is going to be much difference to the flavor.

This is a deeply red pot of tea, that smells divinely fruity. Has that lovely thick mouthfeel and sweet-tart berry flavor I was craving so deeply. I think I’m mostly getting a blueberry flavor, but the tanginess of blackberry and currants, and a bit of that warm and thick fruit punch flavor from the hibi base. I can barely make out a hint of sage toward the end of the sip, but it is very subtle (I wish it was popping just a bit more).

Came for warm red berry tea, got warm red berry tea. Nothing particularly different or special about it, but it ticked the box exactly for what I was craving. Not recommended for the hibiscus-aversive or those that don’t like drinking tea that resembles a mug of blood.