First sample from my swap with Dustin! I’d only tried one 52teas blend prior to this one—Blueberry Cream Cheese Danish with the black base—and didn’t care for it at all, mostly because I thought the base tea was just gross. I’m pleased to say I like this one quite a bit better.
I love genmaicha in general and find it relatively hard to mess up, so that’s a point in this tea’s favor going in. Dry and while steeping, the aroma’s all genmaicha—I love that combination of toasty rice and faintly seaweedy sencha, so we’re off to a good start. The initial flavor’s all genmaicha too, but the cherry comes through in the aftertaste. It’s candy cherry—it makes me think of cherry popsicles, actually—but it’s done well; not cough-syrupy at all. The cherry’s on the faint side, and I find I have to really focus on each sip to detect it. I used 1 tsp./8 oz. of water here, so I think I’ll try going a little heavier with the rest of my sample to see if that makes a difference to the strength. It’s by no means bad as is, though. I’m not getting cheesecake (or creaminess), but I think there’s enough going on here as it is.
Cherry and genmaicha doesn’t strike me as a natural combination, but it works pretty well. I still think I prefer straight genmaicha, but I’m glad to have had the chance to try this blend and certainly wouldn’t object to trying it again.
