Perfect Day

Someone needs to talk to the people at Pukka, since they obviously have severe language barriers. First, they claim on the box of Perfect Day that this is whole leaf tea, which it is not. Second they claim that the box contains twenty sachets, when in fact it contains plain old filter bags. If this is not an English-as-a-second-language communication breakdown, then it’s just good old-fashioned false advertising.

The finely grained (= not whole leaf) tea brews up light golden brown veering toward orange and is said to be single origin Nam Lanh tea from the rainforests of Vietnam. It is also said to be organic and free trade. I’m not sure whether I should believe any of this, since the bags are manifestly not sachets, and the tea inside is manifestly not whole leaf.

The tea is okay. There is a light flavoring of licorice. Again, they claim that there is 18% licorice root here. I frankly doubt it, because the bags do not smell at all like licorice, and as we all know licorice root has a very powerful scent and is extremely sweet.

Perfect Day tastes like a middling Ceylon tea with a smidgeon of ground licorice root thrown in. I tried it three ways: first with cream, which wasn’t very good, so then I added sugar. Then I brewed a second cup and added two large spoons of sugar but no cream. That was the best solution. It’s not very good unadulterated, to be perfectly frank. It’s not bad, but it’s not good.

I am tempted to return this box on principle, given all of the falsehoods of the text. The tea is drinkable but this is not what I thought that I bought. Maybe they thought that no one would notice????

Apparently another oldie (BB 2016.01.10.)

And what is the tea-like in this tea? Almost nothing! Yep, brews dark copper colour. It’s even clear. But rest? It is like black tea with fruit syrup added (my grandma used to do it). Yep, it is black tea – they claim Nam Lanh wild tea; then 14 % of 1.8 gram BAG (not sachet) is licorice root. Yep sweet!

And then there is (should be) ginseng (not in taste), and black maca root (what is it?).

But yeah, it is sweet black tea. Sweet, almost syrupy. Only thing is is is not so viscous. I can finish it, because – yep, it is just sweet without any other bad notes.

I have tried may Pukka’s, and haven’t really found any that I feel Ineed to purchase again. This may come the closest to repurchasing—although I think "licorice " in the description is misleading. I couldn’t tell there was any licorice. Maybe it adds a little sweetness? When my mother in law would visit, she really loved this tea, and drank it black. It just seems like a basic good tea.