Aromatica

Backlog:

I liked this blend. The aroma of the dry leaf was STRONG cherry notes, almost to the point of smelling medicinal. However, I’m grateful that it didn’t brew up to taste like cherry cough syrup. I like cherry cough syrup just fine when I need it to control a cough, but I’d rather not drink a teacup full of it when what I desire is tea.

Fortunately, this has a really good balance between sweet-tart cherry notes and tea flavors. I tasted the green tea notes as well as a hint of earthiness from the white tea. Jasmine notes are lingering in the distance. Rose creeps in after a few sips. The coconut offers more of a hint of creaminess to the overall cup rather than a profound flavor.

Overall, a really well-conceived blend from Aromatica … thank you to Amoda Tea for including it in the February box for me to try!

I’m new to finicky teas, which to me means anything other than: drown it in boiling water and forget about it until you remember it again. ;-)
(well, not quite that bad)

But reading the ingredients, I was really curious about this one – the dry leaves smell very nice, especially the cherry smell.
So I steeped this carefully, according to instructions – letting the boiling water sit for 5-6 minutes to bring the temperature down to about 175F (I also tested it with 2 different meat thermometers, just to see; the digital one read 179F), and then timed it to steep for 3 minutes exactly.
I added about 1/4 tsp sugar.

The steeped tea still smells really nice, mostly the cherry. There are subtleties and complexities that I can’t really describe – probably the green and white tea leaves. I’m not sure I can pick out the jasmine, coconut, rose… but the overall blend of aromas and flavours is pleasant.

For me, there is a sort-of acidic or bitter taste that detracts from the overall. I tried adding a little more sugar (up to 1/2 tsp), and a little milk, and that improved it. I just tried eating one of the dry coconut chips, and that was strangely bitter/acidic/unpleasant (maybe stale?), so next time I’ll fish those out of the dry leaves before I add water.

This tea is interesting and appealing enough that I think it could grow on me, once I get more familiar with the flavours of green and white teas. I do love the cherry smell.
And as I get down to the bottom of the large mug, it’s tasting better!

The description says “5 different types of tea”, but I count only 4 in the ingredients list that I copied from the package.