68
drank Black/Green Exotic Fruit by ZenTea
2201 tasting notes

I was emboldened by my earlier success to go ahead and try the other teas from this company. This one I chose because the description noted almond in the addition to the fruits. A quick search yields that it is being sold under the name Pearl of Fruits by a couple of other retailers.

The dry leaf smells pretty much like generic tart fruit candy. I can also get a fairly distinct orange note from it, but not much else. Steeped, it has definitely mellowed, and now I do get a light nutty aroma joining the fruit (which is not so much orange now, more berry-ish). The flavor is pretty pleasant. Is it an almond/fruit blend that can stand up to Dammann Freres or even Harney’s Boston? No. But it’s drinkable, which is good. I’m not sure which “exotic” fruits are supposed to be in this—the description just mentions berries and orange—but they are melding together in a way that is difficult to tear them apart. I was hoping for maybe a bit of florals but I am starting to think I should know better with this type of tea; the fruit flavoring completely obliterates any florals that might have been. There is definitely a nutty, marginally marzipanny almond to this, but it doesn’t seem to work perfectly with the fruit flavoring, and kind of sticks out a bit. I can’t really taste much of the tea base, for better or worse. Overall, not a complete failure (like the unfortunate “Jasmine Lemon”/Macabeo), but not one I’d reorder.

Preparation
195 °F / 90 °C 3 min, 0 sec

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Bio

I am tea obsessed, with the stash to match. I tend to really enjoy green oolongs, Chinese blacks, and flavored teas with high quality bases, especially florals, bergamot-based teas, and chocolate teas.

In my free time I am a birder, baker, and music/movie/tv addict.

Here are my rating categories, FYI:
100-90: Mind-blowingly good, just right for my palate, and teas that just take me to a happy place.
89-86: I really really like these teas and will keep most of them in the permanent collection, but they’re not quite as spectacular as the top category
85-80: Pretty tasty teas that I enjoy well enough, but definitely won’t rebuy when I run out.
79-70: Teas that I would probably drink again, but only if there were no preferrable options.
69-50: Teas that I don’t really enjoy all that much and wouldn’t drink another cup of.
49 and below: Mega yuck. This tea is just disgusting to me.
Unrated: Usually I feel unqualified to rate these teas because they are types of teas that I tend to not like in general. Sometimes user error or tea brewed under poor conditions.

Location

Ohio, US

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