Pluck Tea
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Since the smell so distinctively reminded me of blueberries, I was really excited to give this blend a try. Blueberries are one of my favourite fruits to be featured in a tea blend. However, after sipping, I found that the tart and sweet flavour notes didn’t mix very well in this blend. They came together in a way that was almost bitter as I felt the ingredients were battling out for who would be the strongest. The best way that I can think of describing the flavour of Southbrook Berry Blend is perfumey. Other than the hibiscus, there aren’t any ingredients that should bring out floral notes, and I wouldn’t say the flavour is floral, it’s just sweet and perfumey. This wasn’t an awful cup of tea, but definitely not a cup I look forward to trying again. I found that the sweet, perfumey taste was extremely overwhelming.
I thought that my turn off may have been due to steeping such a sugary-fruity tea as a hot cup- so the same day, I steeped an iced cup for my boyfriend and gave it a try myself. Unfortunately, the taste was nearly identical- with the different flavours being overwhelmingly perfumey and my boyfriend felt the same. It’s been a while since I’ve had tea with flavours that battle each other rather than blend.
Flavors: Alcohol, Berry, Grapes, Hibiscus
Sipdown (607)!
Finished off the last two perfect spoons of this tea as a cold brew; it was nice having something that I could grab really quickly from the fridge throughout the week when I just wanted a quick cup of something refreshing. Definitely tart, hibiscus heavy with a strong elderberry note – and not like ice wine. I think I go back and forth a little bit on whether or not I’m enjoying this tea – the bottom line is that it’s isn’t very accurate in terms of being a “wine” flavour and I don’t think it’s super high quality but it has that generic hibiscus berry profile that sometimes is just really simple and satisfying and other times feels a bit… hollow and rudimentary?
I like to think that this tea knows it’s not super fancy/high quality though – and it’s not trying to be. So that makes it a little more OK in my mind.
Goodbye generic hibby berry blend! You were nice enough!
Hot cup from earlier this evening.
It’s been a while since I had this one, and it’s definitely quite tart and hibiscus heavy like I remember it being but one thing that I’d forgotten was how sweet it is as well. I mean, that pucker of tartness in the front of this definitely transitions pretty quickly into this lovely mix of sweet berries (elderberry and currant?) and grapes. Also some apple-y qualities. Definitely has some wine like elements, but reminds me more of a sweet red wine as opposed to ice wine. Though I guess ice wine is also quite sweet in and of itself. There’s a difference though.
Definitely a difference…
This one probably shouldn’t be made hot; it’s just a bit of a mess, and the flavours don’t provide their best flavours when made that way. It’s just too much tart hibiscus and an unrelenting taste of elderberries, and not nearly enough grape to be worthy of the “Icewine” in the name, or to be satisfying.
It does steep up to be a truly beautiful maroon looking liquor, though.
Song Pairing: https://youtu.be/udwZO-GqUoU
Ok, so I don’t necessarily think the flavours in the tea and the style/lyrics/tone of the song go together – but when I drink this and look at the beautiful aesthetic of the tea, I can’t help but associate that purple-y maroon shade with this song. It’s almost like i’m more matching an aura that the song is giving off? For lack of a better term.
This is a queued tasting note.
Iced tea;
Something about this one is really familiar tasting to me but it’s hard to put my finger on exactly what that quality is. I mean, it’s easy to say that it could just be that this blend has A LOT of hibiscus in it so it’s reminding me of the many, many hibiscus heavy herbals I’ve tried but I don’t think that’s it. Apart from a really strong hibiscus flavour, this is also pretty raisin-y, with some berry notes too. I don’t find the berry particularly distinct; it kind of just reminds me of elderberries/blueberries and everything else that’s sort of in line with those sort of berry flavours. I enjoyed it, though I wish it was more “grape”-y as opposed to a raisin sort of flavour. There’s DEFINITELY a difference, though it’s a hard one to explain…
I need to double check, but I think that this was apple free too, which means it’s something the boyfriend can have. If that’s the case, I definitely need to remember to bring him some ‘cause I definitely think he’s enjoy it!
Enjoyed this on the go today. The light apple and even lighter cinnamon complement the sencha base well.
I am not the best one to review sencha as it is not a favourite or something I would reach for. The only reason that I reached for this one is that it was in my travel bag. And one of only two that were already bagged. And I was in a rush and needed immediate convenience. If I factored in the above criteria which it satisfied, my rating would be much higher.
Eh, my friend was in town from Edmonton and when I met her for tea, she gave me a small packet of this. I’ve been lugging it around in my daypack as I rarely drink or use bagged tea at home. I found myself out in the world for yet another long day of appointments and activities, so when I ran out of my prepared tea, I stopped into a cafe and got my travel mug filled with boiling water and off I went. Waited a few moments for the water to cool a bit to green tea temperatures, popped in the bag for a bit, waited again for it to cool to drinkable temperatures. It was ok. Mostly green tea came through, sencha to be exact. The apple was vague but real. Possibly a hint of cinnamon, but I can’t be certain. Sure, the steeping conditions were not ideal, but even so, this tea was not all that. Based on this impression alone, not something I need to repeat.
Flavors: Apple, Green
Preparation
Pluck was kind enough to let me pick some teas to try for the blog. Of course I grabbed myself their genmaicha and it wasn’t until I received the package and sat down to write a review that I realized I had this before at a brunch restaurant. I remembered liking it well enough so I got to steeping, both per Pluck’s recommendations, which I felt was rather harsh for a green tea and by my own steeping parameters which I felt was better suited to the genmaicha.
Though both cups were quite different. Both ended up being quite enjoyable, to my surprise.
Check out my full review here: http://sororiteasisters.com/2017/11/30/movie-night-from-pluck-teas/
This afternoon I had brunch at Mildred’s Temple restaurant. The wait was over an hour but the food was pretty great. One plus is they use locally sourced material so their tea supplier was from the local company, Pluck. I have seen their teas at Chapters/Indigo but I haven’t ever tried any. In fact, when I ordered this, I actually thought it was the DAVIDs Movie Night tea. Oh well. This, unlike DAVIDs more elaborate tea, was essentially just a sencha based genmaicha. Nothing too special though it held up well to restaurant style brewing – a small pot of boiling water with one teabag that sits in their for god knows how long. It never got bitter and was just a nice taste of roastiness.
What did you EAT?
I went there for dinner during winter/summerlicious a couple of years ago. The food was good, but I didn’t like the long long row of side by side tables. I don’t know—I might give it another go.
I bought a Pluck rooibos at the AGO. Not particularly impressed. Sounded good, execution not so much.
I split the pancakes and the grilled cheese with a friend. Soo full! As for the tables, I’m sure I wouldn’t have liked it either but we got put at a nice, big round table that was isolated so no joining others for brunch. https://www.instagram.com/p/BBN4GUCvJSEPywROfGLWYjcQrwynwEcEldKIsY0/?taken-by=rachel12610
I had this iced at an Aroma a few weeks ago. If you look at my profile, you’ll see that the perfect peach iced tea is something I’m still hunting down, so when I saw this on the menu, I thought I’d give it a try.
The first half of the tea was incredibly disappointing. There was barely a hint of a peach flavour. But it exploded deliciously out of the bottom of the cup. I’m not sure if this was a result of the brewing technique or the tea, but maybe next time I will try to shake or stir it up before drinking.
Even though this tea was a delicious classic peach tea, I won’t be buying it. I already have a classic black peach tea for iced tea and I really want to find a caffeine-free option for everyday drinking. That being said, I will most likely purchase this by the cup at my visits to Aroma.
ETA: Pluck Tea is also a local Toronto company which is also worth noting as they try to use local ingredients in their teas. They have a few blends available at Indigo but not the peach.
Flavors: Fruity, Peach
Preparation
Backlog:
I had my doubts about this tisane because by the looks of it, it’s mostly hibiscus. The idea of the dried grape skins was intriguing to me, though, but because all the ingredients – grape skins, hibiscus and berries – are all so dark and ruby reddish in color, it looks like pure hibiscus which elicited an “ugh” out of me when I first measured it into my Kati Tumbler.
However, it tastes a lot better than I anticipated it would. A short steep time – 4 1/2 minutes in 195°F water – helped keep the ‘hibiscus effect’ to a minimum. (The hibiscus effect = very tart, syrupy, thick liquid that happens after being steeped too long.)
Anyway, I didn’t taste a lot of hibiscus. It has a strong berry taste to it. Served hot/warm, it tastes a lot like warm grape juice! Served iced, it tastes like grape juice and I suspect this would be a great tea/tisane to serve to kids because of that grape-y flavor.
I liked this a lot better than I thought I would.
Backlog:
This is the second tea from my august box from Postal Teas (aka the 6th edition box). Everything is nicely balanced in this tea – it’s quite enjoyable. The green tea is light with subtle grassy tones and a nice creamy flavor that melds nicely with the crisp apple taste. The apple tastes authentic. I like that I’m not tasting an artificial or fake-y apple note here, and it’s not overly spiced. There’s just enough cinnamon to enhance the apple notes without going overboard.
A really nice blend. The apple is a little on the softer side – this is a green tea with apple notes. The green tea is the most prominent flavor of the cup.
Backlog:
My August box from Postal Teas (Postal teas now refers to their boxes as “editions” rather than by the month, so this was edition 6) included teas from Pluck, a new-to-me company so I was very happy. I love it when I find teas and tea companies that are new to me!
I really like Postal Teas. Their shipping process could probably use some work and I will admit that most other subscription/tea of the month type packages that I’ve received are more effective at getting the teas to me in a more timely fashion (I can count on about when the teas will arrive). But I do like that Postal Teas exposes me to small companies that I might not have discovered without them. And I also LOVE that Postal Teas includes in my boxes a handwritten note that is personalized to me. In edition 6 (the box that this tea came in), I got a handwritten note that said that they appreciate the feedback (ie: the blog write up). I like that. I like that they take the time to write me something personal.
And I really enjoyed this tea. When I opened the pouch, I could smell the peach. It was very fragrant. As I pointed out on my full-length review: http://sororiteasisters.com/2014/09/09/just-peachy-black-tea-from-pluck-tea/ it reminded me of when we stopped at our local produce stand and bought a crate of peaches … the smell permeated the kitchen and it smelled like fresh peaches for days. Loved that. That is the smell that escaped the pouch when I opened it.
Yum!
The black tea is the strongest flavor of the cup (which is the way it should be, it should taste like tea). The peach starts out very subtly and develops as I sip. This tastes like true peach, not some artificial flavor.
A really tasty peach tea.