Cherry Cola (Organic)

This came out of my “try this already!” box. And since everything else I had set to brew up tonight (aside from re-steeps) was an unflavoured tea, I felt like a bit of flavouring… although this wouldn’t have been my first choice given the negative reviews of it I’ve seen.

To start with, the aroma from the dry tea is a bit offputting. I would agree that the aroma is reminiscent of cola in a… chemically sort of way. But, I don’t like cola (and especially not cherry cola) to begin with, so who knows, maybe it smells normal to all those pop lovers! Brewed up it smells pretty similar, though not as bad as I was expecting.

The flavour, though, is where it massively crashes and burns. There is just something WRONG with the initial taste. It’s quite strong, and chemically, and truly terrible. Bleeeech. I’ve had seriously oversteeped greens that are more palatable than this!! I’m finding that the aftertaste isn’t completely terrible; it does remind me of coke, but unfortunately, I’m not willing to drink another terrible sip in order to achieve the aftertaste. I was contemplating trying this one with sweetener, but I think that would be a waste of sugar.

My advice? Avoid this tea at all costs unless you have an affinity for drinking chemicals. I’ve complained about flavouring oils and chemical flavours before, but no tea I’ve tried has been quite this bad (ok, other than the vomit-flavoured Pina Colada from Adagio. I would drink this over that.)

Down the drain this goes! Perhaps I’ll run up and grab a Persimmon Tree or Whispering Pines sample that I have yet to try, since I’m still craving something flavoured.

I’ve been trying to fight off a cold for the last little while, but it looks like it finally got me ~ drat! Since my sense of taste and smell are not at their best today I figured I’d get rid of the last bit of this tea that I never really liked.

UGH!

Why does this taste so bad. There is nothing too wacky listed in the ingredients, so what gives? The first few sips are the worst. It leaves that gross coating in my mouth that makes me want to pressure wash my tongue :P

Booooooo!

Lowering my rating

p.s. If you didn’t already notice, sometimes I get a little cranky when I’m sick ~ lol!

Thank you to Dexter3657 for this sample!! When I smelled this brewed I thought “this is soda” and then I sipped it and it was like hot flat soda…which actually was kind of better than it sounds. This tea has ridiculously awful reviews which is funny because I didn’t hate it. It was weird for sure, but like the note that came with my swap package said “everyone should try it at least once”! It is very cola like, I can’t understand how they get it to taste like that. It isn’t something I would purchase if it ever came back, but I am definitely glad to try it!!

I bought this in the summer when I was new to tea and thought I could judge a tea by its aroma and that I needed to buy 50g or more. I’m still trying to drink all those teas. :p

I think I still have 20g less, and it’s actually worse than I remember. All I can taste is the stevia. Hey! DavidsTea!!! I’m perfectly capable of adding my own sweetener if I want any.

But then what else should I expect from tea named after pop.

This tea has gotten some really low marks from the Steepster community. Therefore, I had low expectations but was holding out hope nonetheless.

There is a surprisingly potent aroma and flavor to this one. But honestly, it does taste like Cherry Coke in my opinion. The cherry is prominent, as is that classic Coca-Cola flavor: overly sweetened cola nut with a caramel aftertaste. I’m drinking it hot and sweetened by Truvia. It would probably be more enjoyable and Coke-like as an iced tea.

However, just because this tastes like a tea version of Cherry Coke doesn’t mean that I like it. In general, Coca-Cola upsets my stomach since I stopped drinking soda a few years ago. This tea is similar. Although I don’t necessarily feel sick, it doesn’t make me feel 100% right as rain either.

My body anticipates feeling ill just by tasting the flavor of Coke it seems. So although it was fun to try a new tea, I think I’ll avoid this one in the future. Thanks to Kittenna for the chance to try it!

When I first saw this tea I was really intrigued, especially since I am a former soda addict (specifically Wild Cherry Pepsi!)

I logged on to Steepster and checked the reviews of this tea (my ritual before posting my own), and wow – this tea got a lot of negativity. Now I feel kinda bad for it (is it possible to feel bad for a tea?). I cold-brewed this for 12 hours and had high hopes after the delicious Root Beer. I took a sip this morning and … meh. There’s definitely cherry flavor in there, but it’s really just a mishmash of stuff and not working at all. One of the problems, I think, is the stevia. It just gives it this weird sort-of-sugary aftertaste. It’s supposed to be sweet, but it’s not. It’s just not working, at all. The tea is certainly drinkable, but it’s not as enjoyable as I was hoping it would be. I think the tea might have been better had DT just left it off.

But, as I started to feel bad for the tea, I thought I would try to see what I could do up the rating. Adding honey definitely helped, but I really don’t like adding sweetner to my tea if I can help it. I also decided to add some seltzer. I don’t think that worked either. It was just not working at all. I don’t even know if it’s worth finishing.
When I got this order at David’sTea last month, I didn’t realize this tea was so new. I have a feeling this one won’t be staying around.

So in conclusion, this is probably a tea you should pass on. This is exactly why I’m glad I bought a sample size of this at DT and didn’t make a full order online. Sometime you win and sometimes you lose.

oh my bloody he’ll. Steepster at my note.

anywho, I’ve had this forever and am now trying it in hopes of cleaning up my stash.
I don’t hate this like everyone else, I don’t love it, but quite enjoy it. it reminds me of those pop bottle gummies.

I put the rest in the fridge to try it cold.
as my cup cooled to room temp, it wasn’t quite as good as it is hot.
Also there is a kind of strange taste at the end of the sip. maybe the stevia?

I am so, so sad. You all know me. You know I’m a DavidsTea fangirl, through and through. I will try everything they put out, but this…this is horrible. It starts with cherry cola taste, but then switches into horrible musty, dusty flavor. The aftertaste is cherry cola, which is especially cruel because I keep thinking “maybe it’s not that bad” and I take another sip. Yup, it’s that bad. I’m glad we only got 10g and I used all 10 to cold steep a pot.

Tre left today for his Christmas trip with his Dad (although, not before they had both sat down for some tea first) this morning, so I now have the apartment all to myself until about the 30th. That’s kinda exciting!

He also left his bus card for me to use, so that’s almost equally exciting! Now I can take the bus to work and downtown without worrying about using up all my rides

However, as soon as I got to work things turned around really fast, and now I’m having a kinda crummy day. First off, my most incompetent employee (honestly, she’s so nice and hard working, bless her soul, but she just doesn’t understand how to do ANYTHING on the till and has the worst cash handling skills I’ve ever seen) screwed up a whole bunch of refunds and didn’t keep any of the receipts so I have NO CLUE what was and wasn’t supposed to be refunded and I have no way of fixing anything. It
s infuriating, really, because now out till is thirty dollars over which means I not only have to report all the stock/inventory/refund issues to head office (my boss) but have to fill out a giant stack of paperwork because are till is (significantly) off. I’ve explained how to do refunds to her at least six times and each time I tell her that if she doesn’t understand she needs to let me know so I can keep going through things with her, and each time she says she understands but then the very next refund she does she completely fucks up the very next refund she does! Urgggg!!!

And, someone also sprayed a WHOLE BUTT FUCKING TON of cheap, perfume right next to my stand and now I can’t stop sneezing and everything smells absolutely disgusting. Urghhh…

I received this tea in my very first swap with VariaTEA and I’m only just now having it. Ultimately I had wanted my first time drinking this to be as a direct comparison with Della Terra’s Cherry Cola and Cake but I kept putting off brewing them up at the same time and now I’ve swapped away all of the Cherry Cola and Cake so there was nothing preventing me from brewing this up other than my own procrastination.

So, for 8 oz. of boiling water I used 1 1/2 tsp. of leaf steeped for five minutes. That used up about half my sample. Smell wise, there was definitely a cola scent and some mild cherry notes too – but everything was very chemical smelling. Ultimately I’ve heard only bad things about this tea, so I’m only trying it to have tried it – I had low expectations well before brewing it and do not expect to love this.

Taste wise, I am very right to have kept my expectations super low. This tastes God awful. The words that comes to mind are “burnt” and “tobacco” with some very butchered and nasty cherry/cola taste. It’s SO chemical, and just… no.

So, not a great addition to my lousy work day but at least I wasn’t expecting it to be. I’m definitely not finishing off what’s left in my water bottle, and I doubt that I’ll be the one drinking the rest of the sample I have. I guess, when he returns, this was be something I make for Tre and get him to choke down…

I rarely have a problem with tea. Black, green, white, red, herbal, it takes a lot for a tea to disappoint me. I can count on one hand the teas in the past that I have brewed then dumped, Forbidden Fruit, Jumpy Monkey, and The Skinny amoung them. Sadly I now have to add this one to the list and I’m probably just reiterating what the other reviews have already said…

This tasted really, really strange to me. Initially it tasted like the tea was musty or fermented, and AFTERTASTE started to taste like Cherry Cola, but first you’ve got to get past the strange flavours. I tried it both hot (blech), iced (Cherry Cola flavour came through a little more) and iced with sweetened condensed milk (addiction much?). The only tolerable way to drink this was the latter… and even then I really had to force myself.

Sigh. Now I’m sad because I was ever so hopeful that this tea would be amazing…