First smell of the dry leaves and the pineapple pops! right up in your face. You can smell some apple and floral notes underneath but if I kept my nose in the dry leaves much longer I’d probably get a headache from the overwhelming pineapple. I used 1 1/2 teaspoons as directed per 8 ounces at 212 degrees for 5 minutes. Steeps to a beautiful golden colored liquid that smells like pineapple apple cider with light floral notes. First sip and it hits my tongue with a sharp tang, but as it rolls to the back of my mouth I notice how naturally sweet it is. It makes my mouth water the more I drink it, but I’m not liking it. It’s just kind of missing something for me, I can’t taste much other than pineapple. As I near the end of the cup the tartness is starting to becoming annoying to me. I am going to have to add some sweetener. I would have purchased their Blueberry Bliss to mix with it, as that’s what I’d tried in the store, but they were out at the time I ordered this. This tea seems to either need to be mixed with something else or sweetened to make it enjoyable; it can’t really stand well on it’s own.
Edit
I just added a spoonful of raw honey and poured over ice as it’s cooled down by now. Completely different. The tart pineapple is toned down and it’s actually pretty refreshing. It’s sweet and smooth. I can taste more of the other ingredients now. I’ll be drinking this iced only. The hot version about turned me off completely, I was about to pour it down the drain. Interesting how much it changed as an iced with a bit of honey.
I’m confused on how to rate this tea, as I couldn’t stand the hot version’s cloying tartness, but the iced version with sweetener is pretty nice.
