Cherry flavoured black teas seem to be few and far between around these parts and I’ve always thought that was a shame because I really wanted one. So when I was in Fru P’s the other day and I saw this one, I spontaneously jumped on it and got 50 grams. I’ve been crazy much looking forward to trying it, but was trying to control myself a bit. Otherwise I’d have had it at five minutes to bed time last night. :D
The aroma of the dry leaf is definitely cherry. Very recognisable as such, but there’s something else in there too which I can only say reminds me of marzipan. I don’t think that’s actually really it, but that’s the closest I can get. It smells like cherry sweeties and the sort of warm cherry sauce that we eat with the Christmas rice pudding around these parts.
After steeping it smells a little less like sweeties, and there’s a certain harsh-ish note to it which makes me think it’s been very strongly flavoured. Like the vanilla one was. I wonder if these are actually completely freshly blended for her shop and that’s why the flavouring seems so strong. That perhaps they haven’t had time to settle and air out the excess yet. I don’t know. I suppose we shall just see over time. I’ll definitely be revisiting the vanilla one, so I’m sure I’ll notice if that one suddenly takes a nose-dive on perfection.
Cherries, when I eat them, always seem to surprise me by how dark and grey-ish they actually taste. It’s like I keep imagening something more tart-ish and cranberry-y for some reason, and then I got surprised when they actually just taste like cherries. I love cherries, but I don’t get them often. We can only get them in summer around here and even then I don’t always buy them at the shop. They go mouldy SO QUICKLY, cherries do, so I’m always rather picky about whether or not to get them.
Like cherries, this cup surprised me. Cherry just isn’t really much of a forefront flavour, so at first I just get a sip of base tea, and then that is immediately followed by the flavouring. I think the base here is either Ceylon or a mild-ish Chinese. It has a certain amount of grain to it and a bit of malty notes as well.
There isn’t really any time to properly try to analyse the flavour though, because the cherry comes in and floods the whole thing. The aftertaste is pure cherry.
I’m not picking up any of that sweetie or marcipan-y notes in the flavour itself, but there is a hint of marcipan on the aftertaste. It suits the cherry quite nicely, really.
Cherry sauce and marcipan. I’m getting in a Christmas mood…!
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yes it’s rare to find a cherry black tea, lucky you to have found a pleasant one
this sounds delicious! I hate green cherry teas….so a black one would be fantastic heh
Yeah, most cherry teas taste like cough syrup, but this sounds like it might have promise.
I have a sweet cherry tree in my yard, & although I always have to battle the birds to get my share, especially the blue jay family that nests in my pin oaks every year, it’s worth it.
Terri, I think the cherry/cough medicine must be an americanism. If I had flavoured cough medicine as a child it was always licorice or anise or some sort. So I couldn’t say if this tasted like cough medicine or not. Maybe it does, but I’ve never made that connection in my life.
Sil, I’m ambivalent on the green ones. I’ve had some that were great and some that were dull, so I don’t know how I feel about them. I think most of the ones I’ve tried were more cherry flower scented than cherry flavoured, though, which may make a difference.
Ysaurella, the closest I’ve come otherwise is as part of a four red fruits blend, which isn’t really the same at all.
in France the medicines for children are flavoured with Banana or strawberry !
In Canada when I was growing up it was cherry, orange or banana
I take it back, maybe it’s an everywhere-else-than-here-ism, then. :) Fact remains, I’ve never to my knowledge had fruit flavoured medicine. Or actually, that’s not true. My father once bought some raspberry flavoured things once, of the sort that you had to dissolve in water and then drink. Can’t remember what sort of medicine it was. Didn’t taste like raspberry at all, though.
I am in the USA. Medicine tends to be grape or bubblegum flavored, though baby aspirin is orange flavor. I think this really horrible but effective cough syrup was anise flavored. I haven’t had it since I was a kid, but since Angrboda said that, I realize that must be what that was – a licorice taste. It was so strong it felt like it burned its way down your throat and all the way to your stomach!
ashmanra, I think I know the sort of medicine you mean. It’s called ‘Norwegian Chest Drops’ in Denmark and only available on prescription. I made a O.O face when I read the label on it and discovered that among other things it contains both opium (a small amount of course) and 34% alcohol. The weird thing was that my doctor told me I was not allowed to use more than 15 ml per day for a maximum of 10 days, and the pharmacy gave me a 250 ml bottle… I kept the bottle for absolute cough emergencies (vile stuff!) and it was still only half full when I took it back to the pharmacy after it passed it’s sell-by date a few years later.
yes it’s rare to find a cherry black tea, lucky you to have found a pleasant one
this sounds delicious! I hate green cherry teas….so a black one would be fantastic heh
Yeah, most cherry teas taste like cough syrup, but this sounds like it might have promise.
I have a sweet cherry tree in my yard, & although I always have to battle the birds to get my share, especially the blue jay family that nests in my pin oaks every year, it’s worth it.
Terri, I think the cherry/cough medicine must be an americanism. If I had flavoured cough medicine as a child it was always licorice or anise or some sort. So I couldn’t say if this tasted like cough medicine or not. Maybe it does, but I’ve never made that connection in my life.
Sil, I’m ambivalent on the green ones. I’ve had some that were great and some that were dull, so I don’t know how I feel about them. I think most of the ones I’ve tried were more cherry flower scented than cherry flavoured, though, which may make a difference.
Ysaurella, the closest I’ve come otherwise is as part of a four red fruits blend, which isn’t really the same at all.
in France the medicines for children are flavoured with Banana or strawberry !
In Canada when I was growing up it was cherry, orange or banana
I take it back, maybe it’s an everywhere-else-than-here-ism, then. :) Fact remains, I’ve never to my knowledge had fruit flavoured medicine. Or actually, that’s not true. My father once bought some raspberry flavoured things once, of the sort that you had to dissolve in water and then drink. Can’t remember what sort of medicine it was. Didn’t taste like raspberry at all, though.
I am in the USA. Medicine tends to be grape or bubblegum flavored, though baby aspirin is orange flavor. I think this really horrible but effective cough syrup was anise flavored. I haven’t had it since I was a kid, but since Angrboda said that, I realize that must be what that was – a licorice taste. It was so strong it felt like it burned its way down your throat and all the way to your stomach!
ashmanra, I think I know the sort of medicine you mean. It’s called ‘Norwegian Chest Drops’ in Denmark and only available on prescription. I made a O.O face when I read the label on it and discovered that among other things it contains both opium (a small amount of course) and 34% alcohol. The weird thing was that my doctor told me I was not allowed to use more than 15 ml per day for a maximum of 10 days, and the pharmacy gave me a 250 ml bottle… I kept the bottle for absolute cough emergencies (vile stuff!) and it was still only half full when I took it back to the pharmacy after it passed it’s sell-by date a few years later.