Watermelon

This is GOOD! I think I may have just found my favorite fruit tea (that is, fruit infusion, not a tea blend or a rooibos or honeybush blend, but a blend consisting of only fruit, and perhaps a little hibiscus). This tastes just like a jolly rancher! It doesn’t taste sugary sweet like a jolly rancher, but it has that watermelon flavor like a jolly rancher.

Yum, Yum, Yum!

So, I am not normally an herbal infusion fanatic (fruit blends that have no tea leaves in them whatsoever) but since the weather is hot and I can’t eat icecream all the time, I have been trying out some fruity ways to make a refreshing tea drink.

I tried this out with a friend after shopping in Soho and I really loved it. Rather than adding a splash of lemonade I added sprite and some wine to make a sangria like watermelon tea…. the tea on its own is also delicious but this a great mix up!

Mixed this with some assam black tea and half a teaspoon of rock sugar.

This tea is delicious, a very fresh and juicy taste that splashes in your face.

It is especially great that I can recall memories of mid summer when we usually start buying large quantities of watermelon and end evening Summer picnics sharing slices with everyone.

Sipdown no. 218. A sample. The last of the Sanctuary T Sanctuary Sampler.

I have been out and about and haven’t had much tea today, and the tea I did have didn’t provide the best of experiences. Ah well. There are days like this.

This one is pretty funky. The dry mix looks like freeze dried apple to me rather than watermelon, not that I’ve ever seen freeze dried watermelon. It smells like dried fruit mix, with a rather appley note.

The steeped tisane has the most amazing color. It really is the color of a watermelon Jolly Rancher! It has a sweet, fruity aroma, though I’m not sure it’s watermelon I’m smelling.

Amazingly, though, in the flavor, I’m tasting watermelon. It’s more apparent as the brew cools down, mostly, I think, because it’s unusual to taste watermelon hot. And it’s not an in-your-face sort of watermelon or a watermelon candy flavor. It’s a subtle, sneaky flavor that seems like it’s going to be just a generic fruity something or other until the aftertaste kicks in, when that fresh, watery sweetness that’s a bit cooling in the mouth shows up.

I don’t think I’ve had a watermelon blend before and it strikes me as a fairly unusual flavor to attempt. Though I don’t know why I think that, especially since searching for watermelon on Steepster brings up a ton of products. I’ve had some Lupicia teas that do cantaloupe and honey dew pretty well. In any case, I’m pretty impressed that this pulls off the watermelon flavor, especially considering that watermelon is only one of several ingredients.

So I’m rating it pretty high because it lives up to its name.

You’ve got exactly 75 cents. You want a coke.
You put the change in the vending machine and you quietly wipe the sweat from your brow and exhale a breath of relief. Your coke is coming, you can hear the little mechanisms going inside the machine and its eventual tumble down the chute. You gasp.

It’s a pepsi.

Maybe I was a tad overexcited upon brewing this, but I was slightly let down. It just didn’t shine as brightly as the other teas in the tea sampler set. Don’t get me wrong, it’s an excellent tea! (Please don’t hurt me for saying so). It tastes just like a jolly rancher.. just like the description says, and no I’m not talking about that sickly syrup sweet taste (although I do love a good hard candy), but a real, refreshing and freshly sliced watermelon. It brews a hello-kitty pink color and smells divine.

However, I do think that there are other teas from Sanctuary T that sort of leave this one in the dust.