Sweet Love

This is like a licorice chai, two things I am not a fan of, however The Teaist was so sweet to send me over a bit to try that I decided to give it a taste. Unfortunately, with my first sip, I immediately know this is not for me. The licorice is simply too strong. Although, thank you The Teaist for the chance to try something new.

Another wellness blend from Kusmi. I steeped this for 4 minutes and that seems about right to me.

I hope I’m not making a mistake by drinking this late in the day but I just woke up from a nap (gotta love Saturdays!)

It’s a black tea blend with some chai like spices including cardamom. There’s also licorice root in here, why is Kusmi so nuts over licorice in these wellness blends? Fortunately it isn’t as strong here as in some of their other blends. The pink peppercorns are a nice touch. I admit I don’t really know what guarana tastes like.

I decided to drink this with soymilk and it’s tasty but I don’t think I would go out of my way to buy it again. I’m into herbs and I googled the health benefits of licorice root, it has some fairly impressive claims made for it, so I guess that might be one reason to drink it on a regular basis.

(Note seems to no longer be available online)

Steep Information:
Amount: 3 tsp, 12.2g
Water: 750ml filtered 212°F
Tool: Breville One-Touch Tea Maker BTM800XL
Steep Time: 2 minutes
Served: Hot

Tasting Notes:
Dry Leaf Smell: potpourri, floral, citrus, spicy
Steeped Tea Smell: cardamom, pepper
Flavor: black tea
Body: Medium
Aftertaste: spice
Liquor: translucent dark brown

This tea smells spicy, and when you start to sip you only taste the black tea, but as you swallow you are hit with a melody of spices.

I don’t not like the tea, but I really don’t like the tea either. It’s almost a chai flavor but lacking some of the homey spices that would make it my kind of chai.

Images: http://amazonv.blogspot.com/2010/08/kusmi-loose-leaf-black-tea-sweet-love.html

This tea is spicy w/strong licorice flavor and sweet undertones. As I am a fan of licorice, (can’t resist Sambuca), this could turn into a favorite of mine. And who could resist the welcome caffeine boost from the guarana?

This! This is the tea I wanted and didn’t know I wanted today. Got a set of Kusmi’s woo-ey well-being teas in mini-tins, and this is one of them.

It’s kind of like a very light chai, with a bit of licorice which is blended really well. I really like it, though I think it would be easy to over-do it. This is maybe a once-in-a-while tea, not an everyday tea.

Made it as a latte, with splenda & half&half.

I got this one on Valentine’s day, in sachet form. The only time I reach for sachets is usually when I’m offered tea somewhere or I’m having a bit of nostalgia for myself. Hello, red rose? However this tea is in chunks, not powdered to death.

This is better than I expected. Then again, I like pink peppercorn and I’m a cardamom fan. I wish there was some sort of complimentary rose/lavender flavor in addition to the spices because they went quiet on the peppercorn (shame!) and marketed it as a love tea. Despite that the tea comes off liquoricy, and has a nice added touch with the ginseng.

If you like liquorice, you may fall in love with this for some reason.

Blech. Tastes like liquorice. There’s some other spicy flavors too, and I think I can taste the guarana? But mostly liquorice, or which I am not a fan.

The dry tea smells incredibly strong – a very heavily spiced black, with equally heavy sweet scents. I bought this tea pre-bagged in a set and I’m so glad I did. The individual tea bags are little fabric pouches that are one part convenient and three parts adorable.

The steeped tea has a very light, almost chamomile-like scent. The tea steeps to a light, brownish orange.

From the first sip, Sweet Love is incredible. I can taste a little spice which gives way to the liquorice root’s sweetness, and then the spice comes back and lingers. It’s really unlike any other tea I’ve tried, it’s incredible how long I can taste the spice after sipping. A little milk brings out the sweetness even more, and I feel like I’m drinking a fancy 300 calorie drink and not a good-for-you tea.

Adding sugar is in my opinion unnecessary, but I’ll try it anyway… And unnecessary is right. I find that the sugar distracts from the lovely sweetness that’s already there.

This tea might become a new favourite. A black tea with a natural sweetness and a lingering spice, served best with milk! Seeing as I only started with two teabags of it, it looks like I’ll have to order more!

This tea smelled like chai when it was dry, and like chai when it was brewed. With sweetener and no soy milk, this tasted like what I would describe as a “chai and friends” kind of tea. It was like a weaker chai with a little something extra. Some bitterness, some natural sweetness, some very slightly soapy kind of element. It was fine without soy milk, but it was so reminiscent of chai that I felt like it was begging for soy milk. It’s very heavy indeed on the cardamom (which I love about it), and I think the cinnamon and pepper really just create an aura of warm spiciness rather than contributing identifiably to the flavour. There’s almost something vaguely Coke-like about the aftertaste.

If you plan to use this as a latte base as I did, it will be satisfying to you if you like chai and especially chai with a lot of cardamom. Surprisingly (perhaps in a pleasant way), I didn’t really notice any of the flavour I generally associate with licorice root (i.e. licorice!) with what I tasted, but the flavour is obviously more easily perceptible when the tea has no soy milk, and I drank most of mine with milk. I found with tea quite stimulating, which makes sense given that it has tea and guarana, so don’t try drinking it in the late afternoon. It’d be interesting to do a comparison between this and Kusmi’s regular chai, with both being served without soy milk so that the difference is clearer.

Sweet Love’s spicy aroma pulls you closer and your tastebuds anticipate the ginger, cardamom, cinnamon and pink peppercorn setting them ablaze. Yet, the liquorice roots add a smooth and very sweet layer to this chai’s flavor profile that needs no additional sweeteners.

For those chai stalwarts who prefer spicy to sweet, Sweet Love is exactly what its name implies. This black tea pairs excellently with dessert and definitely adds a romantic air to its atmosphere (read: keep used leaves as potpourri).