I keep being disappointed by flavoured herbals. I keep seeing people say things like, “It tastes just like [thingummy]!” and it never, ever does. Not to me, anyway. Being flavoured like something doesn’t usually mean that it tastes just like that thing. It just means that the flavour is reminiscent of that thing. Am I being too picky? Probably. I mean, if something tasted just like [thingummy], it probably would be [thingummy].
Anyway. This tea. It’s supposed to taste “just like” a pina colada. It does not. It just tastes very similar to a pina colada. But really, once you get over the disappointment, it’s actually an impressively close imitation.
The dry smell is amazing. Bang-on pina coladas, basically. Nothing less!
The taste is a bit weak. I discovered that this tea is chunky enough that the 26g I bought basically make one pitcher at best, so it could be that I really needed more of it. But I cold-steeped it for 14 hours, and my first impression was that it tasted very, very much like a pina colada at the back, but was a bit weak at the front. I also felt that I really needed to put too much sugar in it to bring forward the tastes that I wanted – there’s something a wee bit tart (the apple?) at the forefront of the taste that I did not care for. I originally added what I felt was (accidentally) too much honey to the pitcher before I placed it in the fridge to steep, and still added white sugar when I went to drink it by the cup. Still, it’s a re-purchase, even a tin or two’s worth.
I also discovered that it’s really amazing with the addition of (what else?) rum and some half-and-half. I certainly can’t add the rum to my work Timolino tomorrow, but I’m seriously debating the cream.
I get what you are saying about the “just like” I think it sets us up for heightened expectations for sure.