Cranberry Mango

Backlog:

A really delightful flavored green. The tart and tangy cranberry contrasts so nicely with the sweet mango notes. A very invigorating green tea – it tastes great iced.

A natural fruit taste here – it doesn’t come across as artificial. The green tea is sweet and creamy.

Just a really good green tea with a rather unexpected flavor combination that really works well. Here’s my full-length review: http://sororiteasisters.com/2013/03/11/cranberry-mango-green-tea-from-zen-tea/

Thank you Zen Tea for the samples! I decided to go with this one first because I want iced tea, and I assume I picked this one out for that reason. I actually completely forgot about picking out these samples so it was a nice surprise to get them.

I was surprised by the water temperature called for, but went with it, and there is definitely no bitterness to be had! Yay!

The Chinese sencha is the predominant flavor on first sip before it gets super fruity. I added a bit of agave and it made the fruit flavors pop more. Beforehand, it just seemed like I couldn’t even pinpoint that there was cranberry and mango. Now, it’s very apparent that it’s mango, although I think it probably lost a bit of the tartness from the cranberry.

It’s nice and refreshing to drink this one. I love the combination of these two fruit flavors. It makes them taste more exotic than they really are!

This should be great even hot, which I’ll try next. And I definitely need to cold steep it too.

I love fruity green teas in the afternoon. They’ve got a nice mellowness to them that makes me feel relaxed and ready to face the rest of the day ahead.

This one is nice, and I have to admit that I like it better when it’s warm, rather than hot. It’s on the light side, but that works with the mix of grassiness and sweet fruitiness. It’s relaxing and blends well. I look forward to more afternoons with this tea.

Pouring out the dry leaf, I was greeted by an intensely rich, juicy, fruity smell. If I hadn’t known the mix was supposed to be cranberry-mango flavoured, I would have had a hard time guessing. In fact, the whole thing smelled like gummy bears! The aroma was sweet, tart, juicy, and very vibrant.

I mean, are you surprised when you look at leaves like these? Dark green needles of broken up leaf interspersed with chunks of dried cranberry and mango. This is pretty sweet!

I took this loveliness, filled my pitcher halfway up with cold water and let it steep in the fridge for about 12 hours. The resulting brew was a golden yellow-green colour with an aroma that matched that of the dry leaf.

The taste was pretty good to match! Juicy, fruity, sweet, with a hint of the earthiness and vegetal flavour of the green tea underneath. The interplay between the base and the flavouring was really solidly balanced. The green tea flavour was kind of sharp, but not so sharp that it became bitter or seaweedy — it was fresh-tasting and green in a way that complemented the fruit well.

Full review at: http://booksandtea.ca/2016/07/fruity-iced-teas-zen-tea/

additional notes: Another mango tea I forgot about! And how nice it is! More mango now than cranberry but I’m glad half the flavor is still there anyway. My original note says I didn’t notice cranberry THEN either. I also was drinking David’s Mango Lassi today without realizing it is yet ANOTHER mango tea. I think I should probably look up why I might be craving mango so much lately…