Okay, so I have a lot of backlogging to do today. May as well start with this one!
The first thing I want to say about this tea is that it smells amazing. Like, really amazing. It’s exceptionally fruity. I think I’d say the blackcurrant, strawberry and raspberry are the dominant notes, but it also contains hibiscus, elderberry, papaya and raisin. The fruit pieces are generously sized, probably on a par with Adagio or maybe a touch larger. The colours are amazing and almost jewel like — blood red, burgandy, aubergine, and orange, with the rippled creamy-red hibiscus flowers standing out among them.
In practice, though, it doesn’t actually taste quite as I expected. It’s a lot sweeter than the ingerdients made me think it would be, and the initial sip is almost too sweet — a bit like artificial sweetner. This develops into the taste I’m usually expecting when I drink fruit tea. A slight tartness, a tangy edge of almost-bitterness, and a drying sensation on the palate. The aftertaste offers a hint of pepperiness, I’m assuming from the papaya.
The more I drink this, the more I like it. I wasn’t at all sure at first, with it being so sweet, but it’s actually quite pleasant. More so as it cools. It’s more complex in flavour than any fruit tea I’ve had before, that’s for sure. It doesn’t beat my favourite — Teapigs Superfruit — for now, but it’s a pretty good contender. Definetly one for icing in the summer!