52Teas Send Message

I’ve been at work most of the day getting the subscriptions ready to ship (shipping out on Tuesday since tomorrow is a holiday) & I decided I needed a little break. And of course, what break is really a break without some tea? Since this is the tea I just finished processing, I decided to go ahead and brew some of it – mostly because it smells so amazing that I was craving it by the time I finished packaging it all up.

Dry – it smells amazing (as I’ve already mentioned). It smells like sweet cola with fruit. Brewed, the smell is still there – but it is a bit softer than the dry leaf.

The flavor of the cola is a bit different with a green tea base than with the black tea base. The natural fruity tones and sometimes malty tones of the black teas seem to match up really well with the cola notes. The green tea is a bit less fruity and a bit more grassy/vegetal, but that’s not to say it tastes ‘bad’ or even “less than” in comparison to the black tea . . . just different. It’s less of a ‘sticky sweet’ cola and more of a light cola, like maybe one you made with club soda and perhaps half a shot of cola syrup. Less sticky sweet, but still sweet and cola-like in flavor – which makes it an ideal choice for hot summer weather (which we haven’t actually gotten much of up here in the Pacific Northwest, I’m happy to say).

The cherry and lime are also a bit more delicate than what you might encounter in a sticky sweet cola – but those flavors are definitely there and I find them to be more noticeable if I add just a teensy bit of sugar (about a half teaspoon?)

I really like this – I did hot brew it this time, but I really prefer it cold-brewed. Perhaps I will brew some overnight tonight to enjoy tomorrow.