Bellevue tea

Varieteas Box (October) – 6/30

I’m surprised at how strong this tea tastes, especially from a bag. There’s a really nice lemon curd aroma wafting from the cup, which I wasn’t expecting, with a little ginger-ness that follows.

First sip, and this is really nice. The ginger is more pronounced and it melds with the lemon curd to give it a sweet, cake-like flavour. It reminds me of those slices from Mr. Kipling! If they brought out a gingerbread and lemon curd one, this is how I imagine it would taste.

This is far nicer than I was expecting. To me, lemon and ginger blends are usually somewhere closer to a cold remedy drink, but this doesn’t fall that way at all. It’s far more dessert like, than medicinal.

I’d happily drink this again!

255/365

If mint isn’t usually my thing, then lemon and ginger certainly isn’t, but I have a few of these tea bags so I’m going to try my best with them.

In practice, it’s not as unpalatable as I thought it might be. This particular version reminds me of ginger biscuits; really heavy on the ginger upfront, but with a clean, bright lemon flavour emerging towards the end of the sip. Homemade ginger biscuits, with the inclusion of a generous quantity of lemon zest. The ginger packs quite a punch!

I reckon this one would be pretty good iced; maybe kind of ginger-beery? I don’t really have enough left to do that idea justice, though, so I’ll have to content myself with imagining. I think my aversion to lemon and ginger as a flavour combination in general is that it reminds me of having a cold; the lemon is usually kind of fake and reminiscent of lemsip or strepsils. No so here; the lemon is really fresh-tasting and flavour accurate. I wouldn’t say I’d hurry out and buy more of these, but I wouldn’t approach them with quite the trepidation I’d have had previously. This could be a new dawn for me, with both mint and lemon/ginger herbals back on the table!

250/365

I didn’t have particularly high expectations for this one, and it’s probably just as well. It’s a bagged fruit infusion, heavy on the hibiscus, and reminiscent of many other similar teas. I’m reminded most of Twinings Cranberry & Raspberry, which is actually really nice as a tea pop, but otherwise is too tart/sour to really be enjoyable.

This one starts in the same way, with lots of hibi up front. It’s not too sour, but it is pretty tart. It’s hard to pick out specific fruit flavours to begin with, but the one thing that redeems this one for me is a the strong blueberry note that develops at the end of the sip and lingers deliciously into the aftertaste. It’s sweet and clear, and impossible to mistake for any other fruit. Otherwise, it’s fairly meh.

I really like this tea. Took a chance on it and tasted amazing deep and flavorful.