instant date tea (honeyed)

Steep Information:
Amount: 1 packet
Water: hot spigot water, 16 ounces
Served: Hot

Tasting Notes:
Dry Leaf Smell: very sweet!
Steeped Tea Smell: sweet, fruity, black tea, honey
Flavor: very sweet black tea, fruity, honey, hint of fruit
Body: Medium
Aftertaste: sweet, honey
Liquor: translucent orange-brown

A co-worker let me have one of hers. It is delicious! I am not exactly sure what kind of tea it is trying to be but I suspect black. I need t find where to get more of this.

images: http://amazonv.blogspot.com/2010/05/assi-brand-instant-powder-instant-date.html

A HUGE thank you to AmazonV for sending me samples of these teas!!!!!

I had just arrived home from a few errands including donating mah blood (O neg woot!) when I checked my mailbox and found a package awaiting me. Squeee!!! I went inside and opened it up and almost fainted from a combination of both AmazonV’s generosity and the blood loss. ;) There was also a funny handwritten note on a beautiful butterfly postcard (I loves butterflies!).

With much contained excitement I opened this tea and gave it a wiff. Here’s where AmazonV may be able to attest to the fact that I have the oddest scent associations: I smelled graham crackers. Like, if you took a honey graham cracker and schmeared it with some generic fruit spread. Color me even more intrigued!

I boiled water and used my large 16 oz mug to mix up this very fragrant concoction. Wow — the smell is even more intensly sugary-sweet/graham crackery! Then the first sip: woah! That’s some sweet stuff! It’s been years since I’ve had full-out sugary Kool-Aid (is that even still available?), but that’s the closest thing that I can liken this tea to. I wonder if it’s possible to ice this sort of tea? It doesn’t taste graham-crackery, but that smell still lingers. I can’t say that I’ve had a straight-up date before, so I can’t say how datey this is.

Then a taste-assosciation occurs to me and it sticks in my mind for the rest of the cup: envelope paste. Like when envelope manufacturers changed from the bitter yuck to the sweeter taste in the paste. Only much much sweeter with a bit of fruit thrown in. I’m in this limbo land of “sweet yum” and “errrr…”

Ultimately I’m very grateful to have gotten a chance to try this tea before buying a large box of it. I would eventually drink it all, but it’d take me a long while. I’d have to be really really craving something uber-sweet. Oh — and it was great in helping me feel better post donation: all those vitamins and stuff giving me a recovery boost! :D NE

Yay! High roller last night. Must have needed the boost after my two 11 hour shifts. This tea was quite a curiousity. I’ve never had dates or date tea. Also it looked quite different from other instant teas i’ve tried. It isn’t a powdered instant tea it’s a crystalized instant tea. After brewing it smelled of honey and fruit and a little bit of black tea. I took just a few sips of this brewed as it is sooo sugary I just couldn’t drink it. I passed along to my husband who ha it gone in a few sips. If he weren’t diabetic I’d find where we could get more. He liked it so much it would be great to get it for him as he hardly enjoys my teas. I’m not sure how to rate this one yet.

Thanks Rabs for the chance to roll the dice and play the game.