I drank the whole mug before I got to writing this, which is a bit of a shame because I tend to forget quite quickly what’s happening with my first impressions of a tea… while there’s a zoo going on around me. You know the drill, a teenager who wants to DO something, a 5-year-old that spilled the liquid chocolate popsicle mix all over the kitchen, a client emergency, and a phlegmy cold. Yep, that’s my Sunday.
The tin for this tea was ingenious, and offered a little cardboard hello as I opened it, basically saying it’s packaged this way to retain the flavors. Neat! I had to slide the top off sideways, then lift a sealed jewelbox -like door to get to the tea, which was filled to the brim. The scent of raspberries wafted up to me, and a touch of… cake?
Steeped, this still smells mostly of raspberries with something else a bit floral in the background. My first taste threw me off, as there was little raspberry. More of a… cakey, minty floral something or other. Intrigued, I drank more, and it evolved. Raspberries did come into the mix, and much more so once sweetened with Truvia. I can taste the rose in there, and the aftertaste is definitely dry raspberries, with maybe, mint? Cooling, dry.
I like this a lot, even though I’m struggling to describe it well. Surprised me, as I was expecting more of a birthday cake kind of tea, like DAVID`s maybe, and this is so much more complex and intriguing.
Felt like this was a long time to steep a black, so I may try for 3-4 minutes next time.
I’m not a good judge of this, I don’t do well with mint. I thought this was pretty much all mint with some fruit in the back. But that’s just me. Hope you find the steep parameters to make this work for you.
I don’t know if I’d like mint and raspberry together anyway. But still sucks if it’s more 2D than expected.
I’ve had this tea a couple of times. I didn’t really keep track of brewing parameters, but I generally don’t brew black teas for 5 minutes and I think this time I used a little less leaf than, the first. First of all I do get mint, but I did taste cream and raspberry. Not really cake but I definitely got cream and raspberry along with the mint. I think the cream note might add emphasis to the mint though as it is a cool bitter cream ( like unsweetened whipped cream ), maybe this is what you’re noting James.
thank you, all three of you for your input. try, try again! either i’ll nail it and figure out how to make it work, or i’ll figure out why i don’t like it!
I’m also in the camp where I had to play around with it (their steeping parameters are so vague). Three minutes max and less than boiling is what worked for me.
i have determined that fauchon and i are going to argue argue over who leads, lol.