I made this yesterday and didn’t seem to get much other than a smokey black base. Caleb from Handmade Tea commented on my post to try it as a longer steep, lower temp and with honey.
So I thought I would give it a go. Except I don’t have any honey. It was one of those things where you use the last of the honey and think oh, I have to get more of this when I do groceries. Then you forget about it until you go to get the honey and it is not in the cupboard.
So I tried the first cup with some brown rock sugar. It definitely sweetened it up a bit and tasted better, but I still really only got sweet, lightly smokey, black base.
The second cup I added real maple syrup. Now it is pretty much a given that I will like this because I am Canadian and liking maple syrup is part of my genetic make up. This did taste much better. It brought out the blueberry flavour. Tasted like smokey blueberry compote. But I was only getting very little lemon flavour.
This is definitely promising. I will have to pick up some honey and continue experimenting with sweetening the tea. But definitely lower temps and sweetener is key.
