Red Ruby

Continuing with the today’s Toronto Tea Festival theme. This is a sample I picked up there.

The tea has a pungent aroma of honey, flowers and dried fruits. Taste is also strong and quite bitter, at least the way I brewed it. Flavours are overwhelmingly malty and woody, but the overall profile is a mix of sweet and bitter. I also get a hint of dried black currants, grapefruit and blackberry leaves, even though I wouldn’t call the taste fruity. The aftertaste is a little leathery and has nice dryness to it. I like the mouthfeel too, it is bubbly and the tea has a full body.

Another one from the tea festival tasting box.

Fascinating and confusing. The taste is like Honey Black, without the dryness that can sometimes come alongside, but the dry leaf is rolled, like an oolong.

The packet that it was in irritated me though. It contained 15 grams or so, but had no way of closing it once it was opened. There was a bit of a notch on the end which suggested that it would easily tear open, but in fact, when I did this, the packet ripped open down the side and the tea pebbles scattered. A small thing, but when one is unfamiliar with the blender and trying this brand for the first time, this detail embeds in the tea experience, at least initially. So, before I even had a good look at the beautiful dry leaf, I was scrambling around for a ziplock baggie to contain the mangled packet.

The tea festival tasting deadline is rapidly approaching. I’ve tasted all the teas at least once, selected my favourites, and ranked the rest. I will be reviewing the teas further as I make my way through them again. It was a bit of an odd assortment though, containing teas that I would never group together, but the process is still fun and I am delighted to be a part of it.