My latest 52teas order arrived today!
I’m starting with this one, because out of the new ones, this is the one I was looking forward to the most. I have rather high expectations of this. Fruity and berry-y green and white blends have consistently been a hit with me from 52teas, and that alone is reason enough to give this one a try as well.
I really like raspberries and I really like watermelon, but the raspberry/watermelon combination isn’t one that would immediately have popped into my mind. I don’t think I’ve ever had a watermelon flavoured tea before, but I have had your various sorts of cordial or squash and such with watermelon in it. And always it seemed rather plastic-y and synthetic to me.
Please let this be different. Please.
The leaves have a funny sort of aroma. Fruity, but neither raspberry or watermelon. It’s a sticky, sweet smell. A little bit like… if you can imagine fruit-flavoured butter, that’s more or less it. If I concentrate, I can recognise it as primarily watermelon, but it’s a little difficult. I think it’s the aroma of the sencha mixed in that’s messing with my nostrils.
After steeping the fruit-flavoured butter is more cream-y. I’m reminded of ice-cream here, and the sencha is standing out more on it’s own here. Slightly salty and slightly vegetable-y. I like the steeped aroma better than the dry aroma, I think.
Now, the important bit. The flavour. The flavour really works! It’s summer-y fresh, but still a bit heavy on the sweetness so it’s got a lot of body.
I’m getting a lot of the sencha flavour profile primarily, but the fruity-ness sort of wraps around it and becomes a secondary thing. A companion piece, if you will.
This is not a bad thing. I’m a Kusmi fangirl, remember? I like it when it’s not totally in your face.
It’s not that it doesn’t have lots of fruit flavour, because it does. It just doesn’t cover everything.
I’m getting a lot of the watermelon, but again the flavour is a little twisted by the natural flavour profile of the sencha. Lots and lots of almost pure watermelon on the aftertaste, though. LOTS!
Not so much raspberry other than a creamy note on the finish, especially, and, to a smaller degree, aftertaste, which is a bit of a shame I think.
All in all, I’m quite pleased with this, and it’s totally living up to my expectations. And not synthetic at all.
