191/365
Finally getting back to Bluebird’s spring collection, now the weather has improved. I’m not a huge liquorice fan, so the idea of this one as a hot tea filled me with trepidation. Instead, I decided to cold brew 4 tsp in lemonade, and I’m actually quite pleased with the result. It’s sweet, for sure, but I was expecting that; what I like is that the sweetness is mostly coming from the lemonade. Even though I can tell there’s liquorice root in here, I’m not finding it as cloying as I usually do. I’m not really sure why – maybe lemonade and liquorice are just a good combination? It’s like the impact of the liquorice has somehow been toned down, and that’s something I can definitely appreciate!
As for raspberry liquorice laces? I don’t think it’s quite there in flavour terms. The sweets are so super artificial, and the raspberry flavouring here is almost too natural to really nail it. That seems like an odd thing to say, but there you go. Taken out of context, I actually like that the raspberry is fresh and flavour-accurate; it’s a touch tart, a touch sour, fruity, and refreshing. Basically, an ideal spring/summer cold brew. The sweetness of the liquorice and lemonade bring things towards a sweeter, more candy-like conclusion, but it’s not a flavour doppleganger for the sweets. I don’t think it would even be possible to capture that flavour exactly in a liquid, unless you were willing to use more chemical or artificial flavour constituents, and that’s not something Bluebird do. Instead, it’s a sweet, fresh-tasting, raspberry lemonade, and I’m happy with that. It’s another I’ll be sad to say goodbye to this weekend, when the collection retires.
