Blackberry Tart

I am so behind on my tasting notes! This was a cold brew from 2 days ago that I totally forgot to log, I’m working my way through my Element teas and I think this is the last of them (though I didn’t log one!). I love blackberry but was worried since this smells SO artificial in the bag, like someone crunched up blackberry hard candies and threw them in. Pink Sonoma smelled a bit artificial too and I ended up loving it, so I wasn’t too worried, just a bit nervous. And hot this is, ah… shall we say “not good.” I was determined to make it better and less candy-like, and since I’m kind of addicted to cold brewing stuff I thought I’d try it out with this blend.

Now warm, this tea is a hot mess. The black base is totally lost, and it’s very artificial tasting. Iced, it’s the exact opposite—the tea itself pops, and that overly-sweet blackberry taste vanishes. In fact, this doesn’t really taste like a berry tea. There’s a tiny hint of it, but the blackberry leaves are far more prominent, adding just a touch of berry goodness and a lovely herbaceous quality. It reminds me of berry picking in high summer, when the air smells sweet and fresh and grassy and your fingers get stained purple. It’s not the best tea out there, but it brings back a lot of memories and I don’t think I’ll have any trouble finishing it off.