Passion Fruit

I’m always on the lookout for a good passion fruit black. Passion fruit is one of my favorite flavors, and sometimes you just want an unadultered version of a flavor you love, you know? thepuriTea used to carry a quite good passion fruit black, but they are out of business now, so if I want one I will have to find another good one.

This one smelled promising. The steeped tea has a good amount of sweet and tart passion fruit scent, with a nice hearty black tea underneath it. However, I have to say this is a no for me. There is something about the black tea base that is too strong and almost savory. The beginning of the sip is good, with nice passion fruit flavor (though not quite fresh passion fruit), but then the black tea takes over, masks the passion fruit, and gives it a weird salty-savory and slightly bitter note. Will definitely be cold brewing the rest of this.

I love the name passion fruit, but until recently I wasn’t sure I’d ever eaten one as opposed to just tasting it as an ingredient in juice. Then last summer, we vacationed in Costa Rica, and pretty much every breakfast buffet featured these little guys. Still, it’s not a flavor I grew up with so it isn’t strongly imprinted in my mind. In other words, I am not qualified to say whether a tea accurately captures the essence of passion fruit.

This morning, the BF, who seems to be getting into tea some as a result of the most recent bout of horrible winter illness, asked for something fruity. So I decided to break out my sample of this.

The aroma of the dry leaves from the packet is not as strong and juicy as was the apricot of yesterday, but it’s still very nice-fruity, with a freshness and cleanliness to it. And of course, there are flower petals so I’m happy with the look.

The liquor brews to a reddish amber, almost a mahogany color. I suspect this is the same base used in the apricot. There’s a light, fresh, fruitiness to the aroma.

The taste is very pleasantly fruity without tasting artificial. It fit the bill for the BF’s fruity request. He said, “I’m not sure I taste passion fruit, but I taste fruity and I like it.”

That about sums it up.

Time to tear open a sample packet. Passion fruit is a favourite fruit of mine. So tart and bursting with flavour. For me, the more sour the fruit, the better. This is my first passion fruit tea, and by the looks of it, I’m definitely going to have to continue my search for a good one.

The scent of the dry leaf is very subtle, and the very little fruity flavour that I do get does not resemble passion fruit at all. It’s more like peaches, with maybe a tiny hint of dates. Actually, it’s my mom who first picked up on the date-like smell, and once she mentioned it, I started to see where she was coming from. But that said, no passion fruit.

You know how I’m certain? Because I’m sitting next to a freaking sliced-open passion fruit right now. Not that I need to refresh my memory or anything but since I happened to find them on sale, I figured this would be the perfect time to compare the nuances of the tea with the actual fruit.

Sipping on the tea first, the base is quite robust. For the first five minutes or so, without any additives, it basically just tastes like a plain black tea, as the strong base overrides the delicate fruity notes. I went ahead and added some light cream to mine wondering if it would tone down the base and bring out the fruity notes. Nope, big mistake. Now it basically tastes like Tim Hortons. Hmm. But just now, I had a sip of my mom’s, who left hers as is, and sure enough, as the additive-free tea cooled down, the fruity flavours come out more. Again, I detect mostly peach more than passion fruit.

I’ll drink the rest of the sample black, and let it cool down slightly. I’m sure it wouldn’t be bad iced, but regardless, I’m definitely going to have to continue my hunt to find that perfect passion fruit tea. A teaspoon of pure passion fruit goodness reassures me that this needs to be done.