My mom picked up a couple of ounces of this one when she was in Minneapolis for the GIG (Gluten Intolerance Group) Conference earlier this month and when I was visiting the parents last weekend she let me swipe some of it.
I think the smell of it is pretty nifty – sweet, citrusy, fresh… it actually smells like a fizzy fruit flavored drink, carbonated ‘tingle’ and everything. Once brewed, the carbonated fruit beverage smell is joined by a more herbal-y smell that makes me think of chamomile and grass (neither of which are in this tea so I’m guessing it’s the verbena).
Taste-wise, it’s more in line with the chamomile/grass smell, not the fruit fizzy smell, but there’s a fruit fizzy aftertaste which is nifty. It’s fairly obvious there is mint in this, but it’s tamed down nicely by the other stuff going on. There’s also a nice (but again not overpowering) lemon flavor to this – more of an herbal-y lemon instead of fruit or candy lemon. There’s a gentle warmness that I’m guessing is the ginger, but like all of the other flavors, it’s nicely muted. And every so often I get a bit of a woody taste that is very mild but makes me associate this tea with autumn.
There’s a lot going on in this tea – sweet, tingly, herbal-y, fruity, minty, citrus-y – but no single flavor dominates. Instead they just all sort of mesh together in a mild but sweet and fairly enjoyable way. It takes a lot for me to like a full on herbal blend, but this stuff is pretty good. I don’t know if I’d go out of my way to buy it but I might steal some more from my mom.
