Swedish Cocktail

My tea twin Roswell Strange sent me this and I decided to cold brew half the sample and hot brew the other.

I took the cold brew with me when I went out with my mother and as she became super thirsty, she decided to take a sip and all I saw was her pucker and not look impressed. However, she doesn’t drink tea so that might have had something to do with it given this tea is not that bad. Cold, it is mostly like a watered down apple juice with a touch of cream and a hint of hibby tartness.

As a hot brew, I can see this taking milk very well. The cream element comes out a bit more than in the cold brew but something about the combination of flavors is coming off a bit chalky. When I first tried it hot, it made me think of clay and that is just not something I want to be reminded of when I sip on my tea. Though, with that said, it really isn’t that bad of a tea, just not something I would need to have around.

A lovely sample from Roswell Strange. Thank you!

I cold steeped it overnight. It’s so weird! Fruity, and almondy. That’s what I thought. But it’s apple-hibiscus-coconut? What? IDEK.

I’ll have to think on it some more when I get home and finish the jar. But my initial impressions don’t jive with the product description.

So the first time I had this I thought it was pretty much just kind of decent; there was some creamy coconut to it, and some fun apple notes but overall a lot of hibiscus tartness. I pondered all the ways I could improve it; shorter steep times, milk, and cold brewing. Well, last night I went for some milk!

I have to say; if nothing else this was a stunningly beautiful colour after the milk was added. It was a super aesthetically pleasing kind of mauve/lilac colour. I was kind of sad I hadn’t made it in a clear glass because I would have just loved to look at it. So pretty…

And taste wise, there was great improvement too! It was significantly smoother and creamier with less choppy apple and hibiscus notes. Mostly it was like a smooth, creamy coconut with an almost tropical fruitiness coming from the apple which was sweet but didn’t challenge the creamy coconut – and then some very faint hibby tartness that, with the milk greatly exaggerating the cream factor, really just made the whole cup feel more vibrant. It made the coconut/liqueur aspects “pop”.

I still want to try this one cold brewed, but if that goes poorly then hot with milk is definitely a strong option for how to finish this one off!