Thé des Gourmets

Palais Des Thes Advent Calendar Day 7:
So this tea is supposed to be steeped at 195F but my tea kettle doesn’t have that setting so I decided to steep it at 200F.
I found it kind of funny that today’s tea was a Almond Cherry Cranberry Black tea when my Harney & Sons Boston(Cranberry Almond Vanilla black) tea came in the mail today.
The packaging for this one is so pretty and really caught my eye.
The dry sachet smells very strong and reminds me of the Cherry flavored Benadryl that I used to love as a kid. I’m not so sure I want a Benadryl tasting tea tea haha so hopefully this one turns out okay.

Once steeped the smell and flavor are much more mellow than the dry sachet. I’m not a fan of this one though. The cherry flavor is still very medicinal tasting. I think they were maybe going for a boozy cherry flavor but it doesn’t quite work imo since it’s not coming across as a dessert kind of flavor. I can’t taste any cranberry in this in terms of sourness. Perhaps there is a bit of floral cranberry flavor that is just hidden among the cherry and almond medicinal notes. Maybe this tea would be better steeped at 195F but I think it would be pretty similar since it’s only a slight temperature difference. I haven’t tried many cherry teas so this was kind of disappointing.

Palais des Thés Advent Calendar – Day 7 (from November backlog)

Blech, this smells like a cheap cherry-flavored lollipop. I feel like I’m at the doctor and about to get a shot, LOL!

It tastes less sweet than I was expecting, but there’s still that cherry candy flavor that I assume is coming from the marzipan/amaretto-like almond and cherry together. I’m not sure whether I get cranberry, though there is a touch of tartness here. The base is slightly bitter with the recommended steeping parameters.

Nope, nope, nope…

As my kids would say, I haz a sad. I found some stray bag of this tea, only to discover that I really like it and it’s no longer available. Very strong almond but the fruitiness of the cherry and cranberry cut it so it’s not cookie-like, just warm and sweet. The smell is wonderful, like cherry pie in a cup. I wish I wish I wish it was still around!