Yes We Cran

Day 22 of tea! We are nearly finished, oh my word.

I’ve been hoarding some of this, since it was a part of last year’s fall collection, and it was one of my favourites from that lot. I still like this one a lot, and it was nice to brew after coming in from a couple of hours of shovelling (guess I’m not in the part of the country experiencing a milder than normal December?). I love all things cranberry in the winter, and the I find the flavour of this one really yummy. So my high rating is staying.

Fall Collection Tasting #1:

For me, this is not a restock. It’s not bad, but it is another heavy tea.
The smell is fantastic and the taste isn’t bad, but I guess I’m not that big a fan of ‘Big pieces of fruit’ teas. It’s a tad tart for me, but if it is your thing, I say go for it!

Disclaimer: this tea note is based on two of the in-store samples. Yes, I got two. Cuz I asked and smiled pretty.

I thought it was unusual that one of their teas of the day was iced, since their iced tea promotion ended yesterday. Why could I not bring my cup today and get a $1 iced tea if you have pre-made iced tea?! Come on, now. Hook an addict up. Anyway, somewhat of a moot point.

The other reason why I thought it was weird to be iced was that the tea guides in the store yesterday said all of the teas were better hot than iced. So why do you right away give people a tea they’ve never had before in a form that’s not as good as another form? Seems weird. But, of course, I’m going to drink what you put in front of me. I’m a student. We’re good at this “free” thing.

ANYWAY. Still not quite on topic…

This tea was good. It was weird, but it was good. I would never in a million years think to combine cloves with cranberries. Apples, sure. Oranges, absolutely. CRANBERRIES? No. Maybe that’s my “I like my cranberry sauce with cranberries, sugar and water, thankyouverymuch” talking, but that’s a weird combination. And my mouth screamed “THIS IS A WEIRD COMBINATION!!!” as soon as the first sip hit. And then…it grew on me. And it grew on me. And it grew on me. It didn’t grow enough for me to buy a cup of it today, but I probably will sometime soon. I may or may not actually purchase any of the loose leaf, though. We’ll have to see.

Verdict: it was…weird. I don’t think I could stomach too much of this at once because it was so weird, but it wasn’t unpleasant weird. You can REALLY taste the cloves, so if you don’t like cloves you will not like this tea. At all.

Dry Leaf Nose: Warm spices with tart cranberry and sweet apple shining through

Liquor: Dark red liquor with fruity and spicy aromas mingling

Flavour: Prominent fruit presence supported by warm spices. The cranberry is more sweet than typically tart.