I’m not fond of the scent of this tea in the can, which I took as a bad omen. Sort of a strident, sickly-sweet cherry… and it takes a lot for me to describe something as “sickly-sweet”. It doesn’t smell much better when brewed either, and I only used one bag. A heaping teaspoon of sugar and a generous splash of milk later, I took a sip and immediately questioned that gratuitous use of sweetener; “If it smells sweet already, dummy!” My first impression was that a sugared cherry-bomb had gone off in my mouth.
Subsequent sips had me reevaluating though – once the initial shock had worn off, I found it to be very pleasant. As others have noted, it does taste a lot like a cherry cordial candy. I’m very glad this has a base of black tea and not rooibos (as many other Republic of Tea chocolate blends do), so that makes it stand out in my cupboard. Too bad the scent is so off-putting to me, otherwise I might’ve rated it higher.
