Something Different

From the Samurai TTB
I can taste the underlying tulsi here, and maybe a bit of fruit sweetness. Can’t really distinguish if it’s strawberry or pineapple, but it’s a generic fruit sweetness. What brings it all together is a lingering spicy note, peppery and cayenne or cumin? Not a bad cup at all, but I’m not sure I need it in my cupboard.

I took this tea with me to work and left it there alongside some tea sachets. It’s been abnormally cold here and snowing since the beginning of September so I wanted something warm and comforting on hand. I’m not a huge fan of tulsi but I’m liking the addition of juniperberry. The fruits are very mild. Only the strawberry shows up for me. It’s not extraordinary but it does the job of keeping me hydrated at work.

A fruit salad tea.

This is a bit of an odd tea, It claims to be something different, and it is, but it is not exactly what you would expect from the description. I expected it to be spicy, with long pepper, cayenne pepper and black pepper.

It is not spicy.
It is also not peppery.

It has a slight sweet tulsi taste, which is similar to the other 52 teas with tulsi.

The most prominent flavors are strawberry and banana.

Wait……. there is no banana in this tea?? It taste’s like strawberry banana jello.

It is a very drinkable tea. If you have tried any of the tulsi teas by 52teas, chances are you will like this as well. I do recommend it iced rather than hot, it just suits the fruity flavors!

Sipdown (588)!

Welp, after what I’m pretty sure was well over a year I am FINALLY finishing off this sample. I can actually thank my coworkers for that; we were talking about Tulsi as an ingredient in tea blends and that sort of prompted us all to bring any tulsi teas we might own into work today to share – so it was the perfect excuse to rummage through my stash to find this blend.

I’m actually not tasting a lot of tulsi in this today – it’s mostly fleeting hints of fruit notes (strawberry/orange – kind of fruit salad like?) followed with a surprisingly forward and lingering spicy pepper finish. Not my jam. This blend has never really been my jam.

Glad to have shared it though, and let it become a sort of speaking/teaching tool in our tulsi discussion…

This week’s tea of the week! I enjoyed January’s Fruit Salad blend, but it was just a wee bit sweet for the spicy side of me so I thought – what would happen if I made a fruit salad green tea and added just a little bit of spice (with some black peppercorns, long peppercorns and cayenne pepper)? Of course, with the heat of these spices, I figured that some warm, herbaceous tulsi would add some interest to the overall cup.

And YUM! I love this blend! The green tea is a blend of Fair Trade, single estate Zomba Steamed green tea from the Satemwa estate in Malawi and organic Chinese Sencha and Gunpowder teas and the tulsi is a blend of green, purple and wild leaf holy basil. I added strawberries, pineapple, limes and some melon essence. Then I added some crushed black peppercorns, long pepper and cayenne pepper to spice things up and some juniper berries because – why not?

This has a sweet, fruity background with an distinct peppery note. I find that the first few sips tend to strongly introduce the pepper, but after those first few sips, the palate becomes accustomed to these peppery tones and the fruit flavors begin to really shine through. I don’t find the heat to be overpowering or too assertive – but if you’re one who tends to be sensitive to peppery flavors, this may not be the tea for you.

But if you like the combination of spicy and sweet – I think you’ll like thi one!