Blood Orange

I’m having this iced today. Brewed double strength then poured over ice. It’s pretty good with a little honey, although I forgot my bit of baking soda so it is a little bitter.

I don’t think I’ll get this one again, but it does make a pretty good iced tea. The blood orange is coming across a little like orange cleaner, but I still have that horrible metallic-ness in my mouth which is probably changing the flavour a lot.

Oh well. Breathing is important, so I’ll keep using the inhaler.

This tea has certainly made a trip! It somehow took 2? months to get from BC to ON but here it is! This tea comes with a suggesting on the packaging that it makes a great iced tea. I decided to try it hot first and I’m inclined to agree that iced may work better to draw out the flavours. This is a nice tea…but it’s hard to find the blood orange in this.

I had this earlier today, and I have to say I was surprised by how good it was. I mixed it with a little bit of the Zen Tea’s vanilla, and it was divine. Lots of tang and that tongue tingling feeling I sometimes get when eating an orange, but it was mellowed out just enough by the vanilla. Yum.

This sample is from Cavocorax!

The dry leaf smells very funky but after the steeping process it’s fine. Tastes like a keen Earl Grey. It’s very enthusiastic on the citrus.

I will write more on it later and finish up the sample tonight!

I don’t know if I specifically get “Blood Orange” from this; it’s not very sweet and I get a good taste of indistinguishable sour rind. Although, a little sweetness does creep into the aftertaste. It’s disappointing for a fruity citrus tea but it’s perfectly acceptable, albeit a little sharp, for a Grey. I don’t think this has any bergamot in it but the tea manages fine without.

Another free sample to review!

Dry, it smells amazing! I love orange so I was so excited about this. Too bad it doesn’t actually taste as much like orange as it smells. It’s a nice smooth black but the final product only has a hint of orange to it. For that reason I don’t think I would buy any of it.

Tart and orange and red.

More on this later.

And nope, on day 10 of no caffeine after three, I kept drinking caffeinated until about seven. Ooops. And then this.

Zen Tea continues to impress me with their teas and all I’m sampling from them.

There is nothing really wrong with this tea, I just don’t think it’s my style. I like spicy orange and lemon, but have never tried a blood orange tea. The blood orange does not seem artificial at all, and it does a great job of blending in the background, popping out it’s flavor, without overpowering the black tea. It is not cloying or fake. There is the small taste of acidic bitterness an orange has, but no bitterness in the tea. I’m glad the black tea does not have a bitterness of its own – otherwise that could be a disaster.

The tea also leaves behind a nice taste in the mouth – clean and similar to drinking citrusy drinks. Overall the quality of the tea is quite good, it’s just a flavor that I’m going to keep around as a staple.

Omg you guys, I suck! I fully intended to catch up on my logging, but I fell off the map. And now it’s almost summer here in New Zealand, and thus a lack of hot tea drinking. Our winter was milder than usual as well, so I didn’t drink even a quarter of the normal amount.

There’s a huge storm going on outside, so I’ve pulled down my samples box and picked one at random.

Plain – Yum! Base doesn’t overshadow the flavour. This is great!
With milk and sugar – pretty damn good!
With just milk – I prefer it straight, definitely still good though. Takes milk well.
Plain, with sugar – Good! The sweet and slightly sour notes are bouncing off each other, it’s interesting. I’m also picking up on something that tastes faintly like saffron?

Overall, I was impressed! I always love when there’s a tea I equally enjoy several different ways.