Picked up some of this yesterday from the London Tea Room (99% sure that their non-tea room created blends are Rishi). I’m a sucker for anything orange or orange-related so I HAD to try this. I’ve had no tea today and so I need something but I feel like it’s about 9pm (even though it’s not) so the thought of having something caffeinated makes me sad. Conveniently, I have this!
OMG, I hope this tastes like it smells. It smells like a just peeled a tangerine (I should know – I’ve been working my way through a 3lb bag of them the past week and a half). Honestly though, it’s an herbal. I don’t EXPECT to like this.
The herbal juice is a dusky rose/brown – which is good because I always end up with the bright red herbals and those taste like cough syrup. There’s a touch of warmth that I think is the ginger in the smell but looks like this won’t be too overpowering. We are on the right track!
Hmm. Well, after taking sip I check out what Rishi says is in this. Yep, hibiscus. That’s pretty much the cough syrup taste I fear from herbals. This has a slight hint of it but it is right on the front end – it hits the tip of my tongue. So enough that I know it is there but not enough that it makes this icky. Mmm, though taking a larger sip I get more tangerine taste. The ginger is warming and cuddly but not like eating pickled ginger or anything. And as it cools I don’t know if I’m ignoring the hibiscus or it’s fading but I’m pretty much fully on board with tangerine ginger now.
For an herbal this is pretty darn good. I can’t say I’m totally in love with it but I do like it and think it is good. I’d probably even buy more. It does make me want to experiment a little with blending this with a mild black because I think if I could get this flavor into a real tea plus the added depth of actual tea taste, we might have a winner.
ETA: 2nd steep @ 5:30. The tangerine is pretty much gone, but so is the hibiscus. Now this has a lovely candied ginger taste.
