Oops, I did it again. I opened the new packet and stuck my nose in. Really bad idea with this blend, the fragrance of which immediately reminded me of cough syrup. Yuck. Undeterred, I doled out a bit into my infuser.
The dry leaf in the infuser smells less like cough syrup than it does when you inhale the entire packet at once, but there’s still a pretty strong chemical component which I found pretty unpleasant. Thankfully, it’s mostly absent from the brew’s fragrance.
I’m pretty sure this is my first blueberry tea. Its flavour redeems it greatly, as the chemical nature of the fragrance is absent from the flavour and you’re left with a creamy tasting blueberry tea. The one thing that I learned is that I quite like this flavour, so I’m looking forward to trying other blueberry blends. But this one? Well, even if it were the only one, it still wouldn’t be my favourite, but it’s a pleasant enough introduction to the flavour profile.
My resolve to drink a full, unsweetened/unadulterated cup of any tea of which I have more than just a cup or two has already broken down and I’m back to taking just a few unsweetened sips before adding whatever I want to make it yummier. While I’ll probably still try to give it a go with straight tea, it doesn’t make sense with flavoured blends. Why fully enjoy five of six cups when I can fully enjoy six of six, amirite? =)
So. Blueberry Afternoon is fine unsweetened. Contrary to my expectations, I didn’t detect any tartness at all. I mean, I figured the “creamy” bit would offset most of the natural blueberry tartness, but I still expected a little, and I was happy to be wrong. And then I sweetened it and was even happier. =)
Tea amount: 1 tsp/~4.75g
Water amount: 6oz/~175mL
Additives: ¾ tsp/~3.5g Demerara sugar