South Seas

Last night was pretty epic! I played my first game of Dungeons and Dragons, yeah I think I lost a little of my geek street cred for waiting so long, but not for lack of trying to play, it just never worked out! In my defense I read Dragonlance as a kid and love it, especially Raistlin, hehe. Of course, because it is me, I managed to almost die and blow myself up in my first adventure. It is a theme in RPGs I am involved in, somehow I come up with a crazy idea and manage to either blow myself or something up, either using magic or explosives, and last night I wasn’t even trying! Maybe giving my Druid ‘Produce Flame’ as a cantrip was a bad idea, only time will tell (if I survive that is.)

So, ‘tis time for tea! Today we are taking a look at the Greek Shop Armenos and their tea, South Seas. It does not appear to currently be in their shop, but there is a note saying to contact them if you need anything, so it shouldn’t be too hard to get your hands on it. The little note that came with my sample of it states that it is made with Mango, Hawthorn, Pineapple, Papaya, and Resin, but examining the sample reveals one of my arch-enemies, Hibiscus. Eek. Ok, not true, I am starting to notice that my tolerance for super tart things is going up, I no longer run screaming from it (unless someone was going to just give me a pile of hibiscus) and can usually finish the cup, if it is mild on the tart, think Sweet Tart vs Warheads, not that I like either of those candies. So, the aroma of this pile of fruit and flower bits is not surprisingly, a bit on the tart side and a bit on the tropical fruit side, it is also a bit sour, like citrus and pineapple. You can certainly smell the papaya and pineapple, there is a hint of mango, and of course there is hibiscus.

Time to steep, one thing I will give hibiscus credit for, it steeps beautifully, if you have a glass vessel to steep in, you get to see little tendrils of red drifting down from the petals. The aroma of the now soggy tea stuff is a blend of tart hibiscus, tropical fruit, raisins, and citrus. I think the raisins notes are coming from the hawthorn, I am not sure since it is not something I have had on its own, I need to rectify that. The liquid smells surprisingly sweet, there are notes of tropical fruit, primarily the papaya and mango. There is also notes of raisins and honey, with a finish of metallic tart hibiscus.

Ok, this tea is not as vibrantly red as it could be, I have had hibiscus teas that turn insanely dark red, but this is fairly light, and I am ok with that. The first sip is a tart doozy, that initial tart kick fades pretty quickly to tropical fruit sweetness. I, at this point, set the cup aside to let it cool. I have found that my tolerability for tart things are pretty much zero when the cup is hot, I like it somewhat cool, though not cold. So after cooling the beginning of the sipping experience is still pretty intense, I find myself having a serious ‘tart twitch’ but that ends very quickly and is replaced with a fruity-splosion. It is a blend of cherry, lemon, papaya, mango, and raisins with a really wonderful honey finish that erases all the tartness away. I actually ended up kinda liking this tea and finished the cup (very rare with me and hibiscus, I really think it is starting to grow on me) I am not sure I want more of it, but I would not feel apprehension if someone placed a cup in front of me. That is the problem with me reviewing teas with ingredients I do not like, I can tell you what notes I taste and if the ingredients are of a good quality (seems so to me!) but giving it my seal of approval is harder since I am only just at the ‘I tolerate hibiscus in small quantities’ stage in it growing on me.

For Blog and photos: http://ramblingbutterflythoughts.blogspot.com/2015/01/armenons-south-seas-tea-review.html