I lost track of how many steeps I got out of these leaves. Although the first steep was exciting (there’s always something special about that first sip of a new tea), I think either the third or fourth steep was my favorite: I felt it had the best balance in the taste of the leaves and the tartness of the cranberries.
The flavor and scent are consistent with my expectations of a cranberry oolong. The mix I scooped out today consisted of predominantly tea leaves with a wee fleck o’ cranberry. I am excited to see how much the taste of this tea can vary depending upon the tea leaf/cranberry ratio.
One question for others who have this tea: my pouch has at least 2 large cranberries mixed in that I tried to crush (but instead it just squished, and is now looking at me all deflated and smooshed). I contemplated taking them out, cutting them up and tossing them back in, to ensure a more even distribution of the ingredient, but I’m not sure if there is a reason that I should just leave them whole. I really don’t want to mess with a good thing, at the risk of doing damage. What has worked for you?
