Season's Pick Hint of Rose Blend

A free sample from a recent Upton order. Is it funny that I ordered one, too?

The base is light and smooth, and the rose is light, too. I can see how this would be perfect for iced tea, which is what it is intended for according to Upton. Since it is a Season’s Pick, the price is in the bargain basement…$4 for 250grams (about 8.8 oz). It is a perfect candidate for cold brewing. I will try that next.

For comparing to Rose Congou, the base in Rose Congou is richer and has those coveted cocoa notes, where this one does not. I prefer the Rose Congou over this one hot, and since they are both a pretty good value, I would probably just stick with the richer and more complex of the two-Rose Congou.

A dark black tea with a hint of bitterness and semi-bitter rose. I’m grateful that the black tea base is more powerful than the rose but quite a bit, here, any more of the semi-bitter rose would have been too much rose, I think. Not bad at all.

Cold brewed for about 27 hours.

I wanted to try this hot, but it was recommended to be iced – so much so that hot steeping directions weren’t even on the package. I took that as a sign, since I like cold tea anyway, put in the requisite 1 tsp. per cup, stuck it in the fridge and left it alone for a day.

The scent of the tea steeped is purely floral – you definitely have to taste it to know there’s even tea in there. And it brews up a lot lighter brown than most black teas I drink, but then most teas that I drink are in mugs, not tumblers, so that could have something to do with it too.

Taste-wise, this particular steeping was very heavy on the rose – but there was still a good balance of black tea underneath. It was quite smooth, which is normal with a cold brew, but I really noticed just how polished it tasted. I think that Upton was right – I can’t imagine a hot brew of this blending as well with the rose. I drank this down with no additives very easily.

Floral teas really aren’t my first pick when it comes to a flavored blend, so I probably won’t order it once I run out of the sample. It was really very good; I just can’t seem to shake the idea that flowers are for perfume, not food. However if flowers are your thing, I would definitely give this a shot.

Backlog:

I enjoyed this tea this afternoon while catching up with one of my favorite TV shows. The rose is nice in this one – not overpowering, just a lovely touch of sweet rose.

Having briefly read some of the other notes about this tea, I took care not to oversteep and I didn’t experience any bitterness. The black tea is smooth and pleasant.

And pleasant is the word for this tea … it’s a really nice, pleasant rose tea.