Organic Herbal Cranberry Orange

Thank you, Shelley_Lorraine, for this sample! With the school year ending tomorrow, I’ve desperately needed all my sleep lately, and that’s led to us experimenting with different herbals. I enjoyed trying another member of that group, and an organic one at that!

I didn’t measure the sample, but it looked about the right size for my 24-oz teapot, so I tossed it all in and steeped it for 8 minutes. My quick before-additive sip was very tart, so I dumped in 3 spoonfuls of Sugar in the Raw and served it up.

With the title’s focus, I was a little surprised how prevalent the chamomile is – It didn’t sing a solo, but the orange and cranberry backup singers were more distant than I would have expected. I think I’ll grab another cup, sit back, and watch the husband make dinner. Ahhh… now that’s a way to end a hectic day!

Aw, gee, it’s awful! A super tart/bitter cup of all-encompacing blech.

I wasn’t too motivated to try this one in the first place because herbals, and especially chamomile aren’t really my thing. I don’t hate them, I just prefer tea. However, the whole point of the mystery swap was to force me into trying teas I might otherwise pass by and, cheetah_pita, you did an excellent job of picking them for me! haha.

Cranberry and orange, though, is a combination that I am fond of, so I thought that maybe they would help to make this tea good. Unfortunately, I can’t really notice flavors while I’m recovering from the tarty bitterness. By the time it passes, all I can taste is the chamomile.

Perfect herbal tea – full of amazing flavor, with intense red color. On re-steeping, new flavors open up.

Backlog! My partner and I had a pot of this yesterday (picked from the teas I recieved from LiberTEAS), and she was so amazed by the vivid colour. It reminded me a bit of fruit punch, haha! The tea itself was a bit tart, but extremely flavourful, which was to be expected from the extremely strong smell. I might have liked it better to taste the orange flavours more, but my partner insists that this should be one that I buy again – she loves it!

I know we haven’t been at it long, but this is easily the worst tea I’ve had this advent season, and it’s not even close.

I get no cranberry, no orange at all – just hot water that once whispered to some chamomile. I tried, but I couldn’t finish it.

sipsby bagged advent, day 2

A sample from KittyLovesTea. I quite like orange in fruit teas, so I was interested to give this one a go. Interestingly, there’s a whole lot of chamomile in this blend. I can also see pieces of dried orange peel, cranberries, rosehip and hibiscus. Maybe good or maybe bad. I used 1 tsp of leaf, and gave it 4 minutes in boiling water. The resulting liquor is an odd reddish-grreen, and smells distinctly herbal. It’s hard to pinpoint an exact scent, but I wouldn’t say orange or cranberry.

Similarly with the taste, which is mostly chamomile and hibiscus. The hibiscus comes our first, as it usually does, and adds a tart, slightly sour, overtone. Second to emerge is the chamomile, which is sweet and honey-like. Not a great combination with hibi. I can taste a tiny bit of orange right at the end of the sip, but it’s nothing like as strong as I was hoping. Mostly, drinking this one reminds me of berocca.

It’s not unpleasant, per se, but it’s not a winner with me either. I can’t taste cranberry at all, so it’s mostly a hibiscus-chamomile tea, with an aftertaste of orange. Drinkable, but disappointing.

This raw blend smells very fruity but sour, orange being dominant and waxy. Also has some sweetness to it but the overall scent is very perfumed.

Flavour is very mild compared to it’s raw scent. There is a light herbal taste which is mostly like chamomile ie floral herbal but the after taste is definitely fruity. Orange is light with sweet and sour tones, more satsuma than orange really. The cranberry is mild but it gives the orange more sour notes. It tastes like a fruit flavoured water that’s been left in the sun for too long.

It’s an average fruit/herbal blend but not something I would stock.