Feeling lazy today, so I’ll make it brief and go do something else.
Not entirely sure what it is that makes this one ‘Exotic’ and frankly I can’t be bothered to look it up right now. The leaves have some bits of something blue in them that is probably some sort of flower, and they smell very fruity and yummy. I couldn’t smell any of the actual tea though.
After brewing I can smell that it’s pu-ehr, but I’m not getting the same memory-sparking inspirational cow-stable smell that I did from the orange one yesterday (which btw was quite nice on third steep in my travel mug this morning). This is rather more fruity and there’s a note of something almost cloyingly sweet. It smells nice but at the same time a wee bit over the top. Try as I might, I can’t make my brain recognise any of the notes in this. I want to stay berries but not quite, and I want to say citrus but not quite and I want to say vanilla but not quite.
There’s definitely orange in the flavour though. I’m a little disappointed by how similar it is to the orange pu-ehr I had yesterday. It’s like it’s that one at the base and then they just kept building on it. At this point I have to look it up and see what is actually in it. NBT says ‘natural flavours, orange flowers, cornflowers and raspberry pieces.’ So I called the orange, definitely, and I called something berry-like. I’m still not sure that cornflowers have an actual flavour as such or what they’re supposed to taste like if they do, but they seem to be a fairly common addition in tea blends. Natural flavours of what? That could be anything but I’m guessing the oranges and raspberries.
I would say, yes, it definitely tastes exotic. But I just don’t think the flavours really fit in here. I’m not really sure that I think pu-ehr and berries work all that well together.
