Superberry (Organic)

Nom.

That’s pretty much all this tasting note needs, as far as I’m concerned, because isn’t nom the whole point? if nom can be achieved, what else even matters?

So….

nom.

Seriously, I hope this tea isn’t at risk of being discontinued, although the fact that it isn’t listed on David’s site anymore doesn’t exactly bode well.

So the smell and the taste actually reflect one another perfectly: so if you don’t like the way this tea smells, you certainly won’t like the way it tastes. Either way, you get a fresh blast of jumbled berries, mostly blueberry and raspberry, I feel. I can also very distinctly taste the acai powder. By that I mean that I haven’t tasted actual acai (I’m not even sure what it is), but it tastes like other things that are flavoured with acai. There’s a bit of tartness in the aftertaste, and I imagine this comes from the juniper berries, which you can’t directly taste while you sip. The whole composition also tastes as though it should be a bubble tea with tapioca balls in it, because that’s what I was instantly reminded of when I began sipping. I honestly don’t know why this tea has such low ratings. I mean, I doctored it up with some milk and sugar, but it still tastes exactly how it smells. It would seem that today would be the day for berry tea!

This tea I also got when I was in NYC. Back logging everything, as I said before, is going to take a long while… But anyways… I was done buying tea for the trip, or so I thought, until I sniffed at this one. It smelled so spectacularly fruity that I really couldn’t resist. It also was pretty and full of tasty fresh-looking berries. Ok… 2 more ounces isn’t going to do anymore damage to my pocket than was already done.

So the dark tea leaves and the red berries (much redder than they seem in the picture) made for a beautiful tea. The scent was all berry, it reminded my of the blue raspberry jolly rancher flavor in sent. I wasn’t entirely sure that it was going to work with the black tea base.

Once brewed, the burgundy tea smelled a tiny bit like tea and a whole lot like raspberry jello. Not bad, just not something that I would chose on a normal day. Unsweetened it was slightly sweet and very confusing. Very much needed to be sweet to work for me. Sweet it was a happy treat. (Completely unintended rhyme…) The only berry flavor that I love I tea seems to be blueberry, so this is going to drunk up quickly and probably never replaced.

If you are looking for a sweet and fruity berry tea with a super intense flavor, this is what you are looking for. :) Sadly, this isn’t what I am looking for, but happy to give it a try!

Also, since I promised… Here is the link to the video of the last ice skating show! Not me at my best, but it was fun to skate again for the first time in years! http://youtu.be/HV6oUTeduFA

I am so used to eating the plump berries out of my Blueberry jam tea post-steep, that I popped one of these berries in my mouth!

It was a juniper berry.

So I quickly drank the tea to get the piney-tasting bits out of my mouth. Beware the juniper berry!

Other than that – it’s a berry tea! Not my favourite but makes a nice summer iced tea, or creamy berry latte.

Thanks to courtney for letting me know that this was on steepster but as one word. Only reason i’m logging this….GROSS!

Seriously, this is really not up my alley. I think this is maybe 1 or 2 teas that i’ve ever taken a sip of and simply spat it back into the tea cup. If i could rate it as a negative number i would.

ick. I’m sure there are reason, and maybe this would be better cold but never again. no way, no how. gaaaaaah yuck!

Sipdown! A big cup of meh. Random-fruity black. Not even as much interest as Fantasy Island, which I care little for as well. Glad it’s gone – I just figured I’d go for a random sipdown tonight.

Backlogging from Wednesday

I made this the suggested DT’s iced method.

As much as I really enjoy berry teas, this one seemed a little bit off to me. I think the acai berry powder maybe gave it a funny taste, kinda like I could taste the powder…..or maybe it was in my head….I don’t know, I am probably just crazy!

Anyway, there was something about this tea that was a bit off for me. I did like the juniper berry taste though.

Caffeine! Yay!

This is one of those difficult flavored blacks from DavidsTea. It’s hard to get it right, it’s either too weak or it seems to immediately become bitter. I figure the water I used was around ~200 degrees, knowing from the steep time I should probably not use boiling. And still, it seems to have gotten bitter from 3 1/2 minutes at that.

Beyond that, it has a blueberry-açaí flavor to it. I really don’t get the açaí hype because blueberries are pretty high up there in antioxidants too, and you know, far cheaper given they don’t just grow in Brazil. Plus they’re far more likely to actually contain all those touted antioxidants because they don’t get processed to death, like in this tea alone where they are just a powder. Still the flavor is okay, but I’d take Blueberry Jam over this one.

Thanks Kittenna!

I can’t remember who traded this to me, but you know who you are and thank you very much! I’m assuming the little tiny berries in here are juniper berries? I’ve never had any, but hopefully they’re not too tart.

I made this iced, and I don’t think I made it quite strong enough. It was a bit watery. I went to put in just a bit of sugar to being out the taste more and a giant pile of sugar accidentally fell in :( Despite all that, the tea managed to taste pretty good. Nice and fruity without any tartness. I didn’t really taste any of the black tea itself though. I’m thinking it might be easier to taste that when this is hot.

This was part of my order that arrived yesterday. I steeped this to have with breakfast, but was running late so I both ran out of time to drink it and make sure I was steeping it properly. I put it in mydouble walled aladdin plastic tumbler, but the chilly apparent 1oC outside cooled it right down by the time I got to work to room temperature.

First thoughts: smelled berry like, but I think it was the acaici that gives it a bit of tartness. Hot, I think I’d oversteeped it because my one mouthful tasted a bit bitter. Cold, the bitterness is gone and there’s a soft berry taste.

Going to give this a proper go later, and an icing and see what happens.

This was a pleasant surprise! I liked the smell, but was a little concerned about the taste brewed up. I tossed in a pinch of sugar and, like magic, I had an amazing cup of tea! The berries all play nicely together and the black base works to anchor them together without the least bit of astringency. After a long (long) day at school, this was the perfect cup to unwind with. I am super impressed and look forward to trying this more often!

I am surprised how much I like these fruit and berry based blacks. I also thought that black tea was more the home of toffee, spices, and chocolate, but it is such a versatile base tea. The fruits bring out its sweeter nature and I find it has just enough strength to anchor them together in an overall blend of flavours. I have learned to be open minded with teas. Just because it doesn’t immediately strike me as a great idea, it might still work really well!