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This tea is an interesting one. Of all the three limited edition blends released for T2’s #gentea campaign, this was the one I wanted to try the most, all of the ingredients looked like they would appeal to me immensely. I bought all three on a whim at T2 today, and this is the first one I’ve opened (naturally, since I wanted to try it so bad). It wasn’t on tasting in store, so I had no idea what to expect.

I opened the box (which is beautiful, by the way, I would buy them for the boxes alone, but that’s just me), and took a whiff. I almost fainted. And not in a good way. The first thing that hit me was this scent of chocolaty cream, which the first thing I was reminded of was Baileys Irish Cream. And I am NOT a drinker. It could be an olfactory response triggered in my system somewhere but this made me almost feel sick. Not a good start for poor Bree.

However, if YOU love Baileys, and other creamy sweet related liqueurs, this scent will be right up your alley. Unfortunately I couldn’t smell much else, as going in with the nose seemed like I was daring somebody to make me puke, so I decided the trial would be in the tasting.

My best description of the brew colour is a gorgeous caramel-ey orangey red, unlike anything I have ever seen before. I love my fruit infusions, but this was something different, looking into it you can’t quite figure out what it is. But it IS pretty.

The Bailey’s scent has died down a tad now. I’m brave enough for a proper smell, and I can smell rose, chocolate and strawberry. Quite pleasant.

This was brewed quite strongly, for the amount of water there was, but I wanted to try get as much out of my first taste as possible. First sips I immediately could note rose petals, strawberry, tartness from the apple pieces, sweet chocolate flavour and a hit of beetroot. The apple flavour lingers in the back of your mouth after swallowing, which is quite nice if you’re an apple fan like me. All other florals mentioned in the tea description seemed lost, to me, but then again my palette might not be quite trained enough to sense them yet.

It was nice. Drinkable. Sweet, naturally. For a name such as Rose, I wish the rose and florals were more prominent. The chocolate and fruit flavours working together is a welcome surprise though, for so long I have longed to taste chocolate and strawberry together in a drink, and I got my wish with this one.

This is definitely a fruit tea to me and I think more than anything the other florals were included to bulk up the volume and add a range of colours to the dry leaf to make it look enticing. Which is totally does. It’s just a shame I can’t smell the damned dry leaf without wanting to rush for a bucket.

As I said all along, this tea is interesting. I’ve never encountered something which was so horrible (IMHO) in some elements, and downright delightful in others. The taste is lovely, only thing would be certain elements get drowned out, and are probably there for show. Smell, well, you know. And the liquor itself is the prettiest thing I have seen in a long time.

I can honestly say I’m glad I bought it and gave it a go. And I will definitely be finishing the box. But is it worth stocking up before limited time is up? No. I don’t think. Not for me anyway. Having my cupboard smell like Baileys would probably kill me.