Enchanted Narnia

I really want to like this tea but dang, that rose is just too much. I had this with a group of other herbals the other day, and gave them all an extended resteep – bad, bad idea here. It was like a cup of perfume. This one is really only drinkable to me with a very light infusion.

I’m enjoying a cup of this tonight, but I’m not sure it is exactly what I am in the mood for. I don’t precisely know what that thing is, so this will have to do! It is pretty full on with the flavor, so much so that I don’t need to add any sweeteners or cream. The rose is powerful, but well balanced with other things so it doesn’t end up tasting like a mouth full of perfume and high notes. This may be slowly growing on me.

As reviewed at www.tastethetea.co.uk : If using a large mug of water this needs to be brewed for a little longer than 4 minutes to allow the flavours to fully develop. Herbal blends can often be weaker than tea so I find the balance between too strong and too weak is more varied depending what herbs the blend contains. Rose tends to be subtle but isn’t easily overpowered. This blend does well to combine rose with lemongrass, in order to tone down the citric notes that can sometimes be overbearing with lemon based herbal blends.

Thank you Dinosara for a sample of this one! Have to try all the Bluebirds! I love that they have some book themed teas. This one sounds lovely: chocolate and rose… the lemongrass and raspberry leaves sounded a little out of place. The taste is great though! The leaves themselves smell like they were infused with rose. I didn’t want the first steep to be too long as I wasn’t sure if the raspberry leaves would make it terrible as they tend to ruin teas if steeped too long. I didn’t taste any raspberry leaves at all. Instead there is a perfect balance of rose (from the infused flavor) and chocolate from my favorite chocolate ingredient in tea: cocoa shells! I could have used more cocoa shells, but maybe that was just my sample. Why isn’t chocolate infused with rose a thing? And if it is, why don’t I know about it? The lemongrass made itself known just enough to give the first steep some character. The second steep seemed to have much more of a lemongrass flavor that made it very lemony like lemon myrtle – drowning out the other flavors. I think the first cup was steeped perfectly though. I love the idea of a chocolate rose tea, so I could have done without the other ingredients but this is another great Bluebird blend. Hurry up holiday teas!
Steep #1 // few min after boiling // 3 min
Steep #2 // just boiled // 7+ min

Another Friday, another wonderful parcel full of tea samples, this time from Scheherazade! So exciting.

I had to pop this one open for an evening cup. Yum. This is just what I was hoping it would be. I kept a little smidge of sugar on the side in case I felt like I was going to need it, though after tasting the tea it was just fine for me as it was. I threw a bit of sugar in toward the end just to see how much it may have changed things, and it really did pop the drink from being a cup of Turkish delight – inspired herbal tea to being a liquid block of pink jelly. Got it.

I’m going to see if I can sneak a bit of T2 Cocoa Loco into my next sample of Enchanted Narnia and really draw that chocolate flavour out, too. Drive myself a bit crazy. Ok, time for bed. Delicious bed.

Thanks again Sarah! Super keen to work my way through all these awesome teas.

I haven’t had this one in a while, so I pulled it out for last night’s pre-bedtime cup. It’s an interesting one — the main flavour is lemongrass, but there’s also a strong element of hot chocolate. It’s creamy tasting, with strong hints of cocoa, a touch or rose…and lemon. I’m not really getting turkish delight, and I do find the lemon a slightly odd combination with cocoa and rose, but it’s a unique experience all the same. A bit like Narnia, I suppose!

I love this tea so much that it inspired me to bake a cake that tastes like it.

And oh daaaaaaaaaamn, it was GOOD.