Fruits d'Alsace

Ashmanra’s sipdown challenge – March 2023 Tea #10 – A tea you won’t repurchase

I am usually a fan of Harney’s fruit black teas, but not so much this one.  I can live without this one.  Personally, my tastebuds only find fakey cough syrup cherry here, when I would love to find all the other stone fruits that should be here.  So it is usually a disappointment.  Not quite a sipdown.

I got a tin of this for my Mom for Christmas and we had a cup after dinner tonight. It is delicious, with a creamy flavor that reminds me of black cherries. I let it cool a little as we took for the dogs for a walk and it was still very good even after it cooled down. Great cup of tea to end a beautiful Christmas Day!

People seem to love or hate this tea. Me – I haven’t had any for quite awhile, and have been missing it. Yep – I still love it. I don’t know why, it just really works for me – as do most of the Harney teas that I’ve tried.
MMMMmmmmmmmmmmmmmm fruity black on a cool fall evening. Drinking this fun little tea out of my favorite hot chocolate mug.

http://instagram.com/p/uwT-YQOE03/?modal=true

Tea of second breakfast….

I added a sample of this onto my last order at Harney & Son’s. So far, I find it very similar to Tower of London. I would say it is very close, but minus the honey and bergamot. Good, but since ToL is probably more my speed, I will stick with that one. I am thankful to have been able to try this one. I think it is a good choice for those that are not fans of bergamot. It is more subtle than Black Currant.

Steeped by the norm. Lightly sweetened.

This is good – it manages to be creamy and fruity at the same time.
Otherwise it’s fairly unremarkable. I don’t really know what to say about this tea. Pleasant but eminently forgettable.
I know this is a short note, but that’s all I really have as a reaction!

My mom got me a sample of this tea in her last order. Now, fruity blacks and me have a love/hate relationship, in that I really like some, but don’t like others. This is one in the latter group. The tea base isn’t bad, but I don’t really like the cherry flavor. That could be because I’m not big on cherry flavor in the first place though. I really like REAL cherries, but not cherry flavor. I gave the last cup of my sample to my coworker, who liked it much more than me. So, I’m calling this a SIPDOWN! :)

TY out to Rachel Sincere for a sample of this tea!

This tea looks fun – an interesting blend of fruits (apricots, cherries and plums – I don’t see plums often in tea) with a black tea base.

STEEPED: Swirly black tea and fruity smells. Light brown coloured tea.

TASTE: Not too strong earthy black tea base with a moderate level of fruityness – I get the cherry taste and an apricot after taste, which is quite nice. No bitterness, tart or astringency.

Sweetened, wow – much more fruity! It’s like the fruit takes over a bit (maybe 60/40). I get the bite of cherry and maybe plum. I prefer this tea sweetened.

COMMENTS: This is a good tea to show a fruity green/white drinker an interesting fruity black that isn’t a berry black tea. I like the combination of fruits used in this tea. Not up my alley for me to be in love with this tea, but I will enjoy every cup!

Now this is more like it. Harney & Sons, you have never let me down. This tea is a perfect even blend of cherry, plum, apricot, and black tea. There is no astringency, there is no “all I taste is fruit,” likewise there is no “all I taste is tea.” I always sweeten my tea, FYI.

And even though it’s lukewarm at this point, the way it’s going down, I’d highly recommend this one for the iced tea people out there. This one would be a luxurious iced tea.

So, I had a nearly complete tasting written up, got distracted by a video on youtube that ended up crashing my computer (been happening too much lately…not sure what’s going on) and so in the reboot, I lost it all. :(

So anyhow, I got blinded by Teavivre’s package arriving this morning that it totally slipped my mind to check the regular mail for the day, but I did so as I came back in after being out with a friend for a few hours, and boy am I ever glad I did! Oh happy tea day! Joyous tea day! There in my little mailbox was the USPS priority mail box with a number of teas to try from Jenn! :)

I pulled out the ones that were sachet style, and am reserving them for work, since I don’t have a proper steeper there at the mo…and the baggies are easy to use. But this was not one of them. I decided on this one after reading about it as I was cataloging them to my cupboard. I figured this would go well with my dinner (pizza with chicken, red bell peppers and basil-ultra thin crust) so I made a cup.

I admit, looking at the tea in the bag, there’s a hint of disappointment, because I’m so accustomed to seeing bits of things in my teas of late. But make no mistake, when I put my sniffer up to the opening of the bag, there is an unmistakeable apricot smell. Ahhhh…

Being that I am still out of milk, I ventured to go black on this one, though I did add some raw sugar. I did try it plain at first, and it was fine I guess, but I always find that lightly sweetened tea enhances the fruit tones. Or, maybe I am just addicted to sugar. :P

Fully brewed, I can’t pick out specific fruits, but that’s ok to me, since they all balance well as a sort of collage of flavour that is super juicy and tasty. This one most closely resembles my poor times tea (Tetley Black Currant) and it is as tasty, if not moreso. Much better than The Earls Garden from DAVIDs, which I found overpowering and floral. This one has a nice balance.

I’m guilty and will admit that I do still want to try this with milk. I’ve got another tasting or two left in the package. I’m finishing the last little bit of this cup, and it has cooled off a bit, but I think that this would make a wonderful summer iced tea.

Thanks again to Jenn for sending this, and I can’t wait to try more of them.