Surprise de Noël (Christmas Surprise)

This nurtures a strong craving for POG Juice. Oddly enough, spiced carrot cake may be in the cards as well. It’s strange but very tasty.

Thanks, MissB!

Thanks MissB! Wow, this tea is interesting. Very tropical-fruit-y, but in a way that I haven’t previously tasted. There’s an interesting depth to the flavour, and I can’t pick out the exact fruits. Looking at the description, it makes sense – definitely tasting guava, though not really picking up lime, and the cacao must be the depth in the background. Surprisingly, I kind of like this tea. I’m not sure I’d want it more than a couple times, but it’s really interesting. And completely not related to Christmas. At all. Glad to have tried this though, simply because of its uniqueness!

I am getting lime and guava. It’s actually quite nice but every now and again the cacao creeps up and makes for a very strange cup. It adds an earthiness that takes away from the brightness of the exotic fruit flavors. Also, the base can be rather vegetal at times which leads to even more competition for the fruity goodness. It’s nice though not something I would stock up on. Still, thank you MissB for sharing and Sil for passing some along.

Oh, also, I laughed when I read one of the ingredients was “a piece of carrot”. Just one piece? That seems very specific.

Sipdown (128)!

The ‘original’ tea I started drinking today; and if we’re getting really technical I actually started it yesterday – though I only had a sip from my timolino after getting home from work before popping it back in the fridge.

This one comes from MissB though, and because it smelled really fun and fruity I cold brewed it! It definitely smell quite lime-y. I’ve got to admit that I was kind of naive in that when I saw “Cacao” in the description I just assumed, like, chocolate without even realizing that cacao is an actual fruit with a flavour separate from chocolate. It wasn’t until I actually tried it today and didn’t taste chocolate that I took the time to do a bit of research.

Taste is pretty good; it’s super lime-y with a little bit of bitterness and pith; but not enough to make it unpleasant or affect the mouthfeel in any way. I also taste other tropical fruit flavours like guava or a really punch-like orange? And, my first impression was slightly tart raspberries – though the more I drink the less raspberry like this tastes. I don’t actually know what the cacao fruit is supposed to taste like though? Anyone who does know want to fill me in, because I feel like I’m missing out on a pretty integral part of what this tea should taste like…

But overall it’s good, if not a little perplexing. I don’t really taste the base at all which I know would be a negative for some though for me it’s almost a positive. I don’t understand why this is “Christmas” themed though. NOTHING about it makes me think of Christmas; it’s actually a borderline piss off. You can’t just go “This is my Blueberry Muffin flavoured tea – I’ve named it Halloween Scare” and not an explanation to back it up. Just ‘cause it might ’go well’ with holiday food doesn’t seem good enough to me. I think apple juice is tasty with stuffing – I don’t call AJ a Thanksgiving beverage…

Another tea from MissB I couldn’t get past this one today. Something about the blend of “exotic fruits” and cacao that just didn’t work for me.

Strange tea. Smells powerfully of lime, faintly of something like papaya or guava. The cacao throws me off because I can smell it too. It rounds things out a bit, makes it smoother, creamier, and at times its the strongest note drinking it. Can’t quite be sure what to make of this one.