Wasn’t sure what to expect from this blend because it was my first time experimenting with oolong tea, but the smell of the dry tea was pleasant enough and all the fruits listed in the ingredients sounded promising. The steeped tea unfortunately doesn’t smell as good as the dry tea did and I ended up a medium orange colored tea with greenish undertones.
To prepare, I downsized the suggested amount of 1 tsp per 8 oz, to 0.5 tsp for my 12 oz cup. I wanted to start out small, as I tend to find most teas to be too strong. Not really sure if that was a good idea in this case, however, because that only allowed for three fruit pieces in my infuser basket. The steeping itself I did at a temperature short of boiling since the package suggested 90C. I left it steeping for 3 minutes as the listed time was 2-4 minutes.
The tea tastes different to what I’m used to, but not really unpleasant and not overly bitter—maybe the fruit pieces sweetened it up a tad? If they did, they didn’t really leave much of a fruit flavor in the tea, but I also didn’t end up with any of the strawberry in the infuser—the three fruit pieces I did end up with were mango, apple, and peach, one of each. I was curious, so I fished them out of the infuser basket and ate them. Despite the lack of fruit flavors in the tea itself, the tea was moderately bitter and still flavorful enough for me despite using far less than suggested.
Would I buy this tea again? I’m not sure yet. As it stands, it’s not amazing, but it’s not bad. I think I’ll up the amount of tea I steep next time to see if it makes for a better experience since I feel this may be an unfair assessment since I didn’t end up with all the fruit types in the infuser. I do like that the tea isn’t so bitter that I can drink it fine without milk or sugar though. (The site doesn’t specify whether or not milk, sugar, lemon, or mint are recommended additions.)
Current cup count (12 oz) from 8g sampler size: 1. Still plenty of tea left in the sampler.
