Last night I was up late at a company dinner. It was a ceremony were they gave out prizes to the best companies in Ecuador (it is called EKOS awards if you are interested…). It was great to see everyone so happy and proud of what we had achieved this year. Unfortunately, it was really really long… By the time I got home all I wanted to do was get in bed and didn’t get a chance to review this tea. So, when I woke up this morning I made myself another cup and finally am going to write about it!
I am actually glad I waited on it, considering that this second cup I like significantly more than the first one I had! I guess something about the strong black tea flavor is just more enjoyable in the morning after a long night…
The smell of the dry tea is majorly black tea with a hint of raspberry jello. All in all not bad. There were a few dry green leaves in the tea which made it prettier than just plain flavored black tea.
I used 2 teaspoons for 16oz of boiling water, 3 minute steep (once again avoiding the bitterness that a longer steep gets out of Adagio’s black teas) and a teaspoon of brown sugar. As it steeped tea raspberry became more prominent. The cup was dark and rich. The smell reminded me of the filling of raspberry filled chocolates!
The taste was a lot of black tea with a hint of artificial raspberry flavor. It did not remind me of the real fruit at all. There was no tartness, which for me automatically made the flavor a bit artificial. But, artificial raspberry isn’t necessarily bad! I really really like raspberry filled chocolates and the flavor also reminded me of it! Maybe this tea would be great mixed with some chocolate tea!
I don’t think I will buy this again, but I will enjoy what I have left of it!
