Blood Orange

I’m pretty sure that my brain checked out today as it took me at least six times to type ‘orange’ correctly to find this tea.

Anyway, this was a sipdown.

I didn’t find this too orange-y no matter what way you sliced it, and hot it was too hibiscus-y, but it’s an okay brew cold steeped with a little rock sugar, which is coincidentally how I finished this off. It’s tart and a bit juicy. The orange isn’t super prominent, but it’s present.

This is good, but not much more than that. It’s a fun little brew to mix into other things for a tart citrus element, though.

Finished up my sample of this last night but was too comfy in bed reading to get up to write about it. The orange, such that it is, is tasty, but this last experience confirms that it isn’t enough for my taste.

The Teavana Wild Orange Blossom is far orangier than this, and if I were looking for an orange fruit blend I’d probably pick that over this, unless I decided to experiment further and find a still better one. But I’m not really looking for an orange fruit blend.

This “tea” kind of makes me angry. So this will be a sad review. Apologies, in advance!

It’s not juicy, yummy, tangy blood orange at all. It’s dusty, chalky, vaguely orange-flavored, chewable baby aspirin!! :(

I find it unpalatable, unfortunately. I tried mixing it with real teas, but it just ruins everything.

Bad, bad herbal blood orange! :P

I know why a full sample tin of this was passed on to me as a “giveaway”—it’s an “acquired taste” only a few can appreciate, I guess (i.e. because it’s awful). This tin needs to move on again—or I may just toss it to save anyone else the trouble and disappointment.

Poor Blood Orange—destined for the trash heap.

Received this in sample form from Adagio. Didn’t love it the first time I tried it – that was hot, steeped 9+ minutes because I forgot about it… This, I’ve iced with a bit of sugar and added a splash of seltzer for a little fizz. It’s good. Not something I want to buy – the hibiscus is a bit too overwhelming, and I’ve tried better teas which are similar – the Turkish Apple Vanilla from Fusion Tea Room comes to mind. But you know, it’s good. I’ll drink the tea, but I won’t order more.

The smell of the raw tea is amazing. The directions say one heaping tsp/cup with a steeping time of 5-10 minutes with boiling water. I’m going for the max steeping time because even with a heaping tsp, it doesn’t look like much. Maybe my heaping is not adagio’s heaping. Who knows.

First infusion: The smell is more floral than citrus. That must be the hibiscus. The first taste is tart but is balanced by a sweetness that complements the tart. Very well balanced. This has the distinction of being the very first loose leaf tea that I don’t need to add anything to or experiment with. Definitely going on my will need more of list. The only thing that could make this better would be just a hint of spice. Maybe I should try blending this with the spiced apple chai.

Second infusion: Very little color to the tea, but the smell has more of a citrus smell. Not a lot of taste, though. I guess this is a one infusion preparation.

Loose
Appearance: dark red-brown hibiscus, large apple and orange chunks

Aroma when Dry: peppery blood orange, fruity
After water is first poured: bright blood orange, tangy notes
At end of steep: warm blood orange tang

Tea liquor:
At beginning of steep: light sunset purple
At end of steep: deeper sunset purple-pink
Staple? No, still looking for a proper tart version
Preferred time of day: unsure, first tasting
Taste:
At first: tart, slight astringency, closing on an odd sweet note, the apple maybe?

As it cools? Apple and berry notes surface, and overwhelm the others

Additives used (milk, honey, sugar etc)? No
Lingers? Yes, the apple high in the palate, some of the orange notes

Blah. This is the one tea in the box that I wasn’t looking forward to. It tastes kind of like this grapefruit chapstick in a little pot that I was given once as a gift at church. I do not enjoy eating grapefruit and so this is a total no for me. I think the only grapefruit or grapefruit thing I’ve ever enjoyed was Lupicia’s grapefruit green, which is simply amazing.
It is sweet, fruity, a bit sour, and a ton of grapefruit. The underlying notes remind me a bit of their citron flavoring that I really love. But nothing can match the other flavors so it is just overpowering. It is not awful or terrible, just not what I like.

Another thing I love about this tea is that is has vitamin C. Hopefully that will help to heal my cold (which came on last night).

Fruit tea to the rescue!

Just one cup of this, prepared in the gravity infuser. Pretty much the perfect amount of water to fill my mug, though whether I put enough/too much tea in remains to be seen. This time I have NOT eaten an orange ahead of time. I tried, but as I peeled it, it was a sad sad dried up orange so I just threw the rest out. So that taste contaminant is out. So is the reason why I chose this tea in the first place other than I’m trying to sip these things down. This one is not close to a sipdown.

I’m timing this pretty close to the end of my workday. I drink this and then there’s an hour in the van to drive back to my car to drive home. Curse you, long commutes.

With some sugar this time, this is…tolerable. If you asked me what the taste was, I would say hibiscus and citrus, but I definitely would not pin it down to blood orange. But this isn’t actually as awful as I expected. Perhaps I should take some home to try it iced. I think this one would be difficult to screw up provided I didn’t forget about it.

Sample 1 from Meghann M!

I LOVE blood oranges, but after their sour apple tasting NOTHING like apple, I’m not real hopeful.

2tsp/16oz boiling water/10min. Half hot, half in the fridge to chill.

This is the hot attempt.

The liquor reminds me of grapefruit juice. Hm… Interesting. The smell does smell like orange, but I can also smell apple and cranberry.

Well, this is better than the sour apple! The orange is actually there. But there’s too much other schtuff in it. Not real accurate, but I think it would be good (again not real accurate though) mixed w/ a black tea. Yes, I know, I don’t even really like non dessert or chai black teas lol.