Sipdown, 241 (yeah, I only ended up adding a few new teas so my count didn’t go to high!). Thanks to Nina’s Paris for the sample of this tea!
Rose and apple; I knew I had to request this one as one of my samples. The smell of the steeped tea is kind of odd, and I guess it’s just the rose and apple combining somewhat strangely. If I smell closely enough, I can pick out the two scents independantly, but it’s not easy.
Unfortunately, this one was not as successful to me as it was for other people. It comes across as bitter and perfumy to me. I am not sure what people are talking about when they say that the bitterness reminds me of biting into an apple and getting apple skin… apple skin isn’t especially tart or bitter to me, and I just ate an apple for lunch this afternoon. There is definitely a good amount of really appley flavor here (although it is perhaps more apple candy than fresh apple), and some herbaceous rose, so I think that perhaps if I steeped this one for a shorter time or at a lower temp, it would come out smoother and work better, but if the astringency is built in for some reason, I don’t know.
I steeped mine for only about 2 minutes – maybe that would help to try it like that if you have any left.
Yeah unfortunately I just had enough for the one cup, but I would steep mine for 2 minutes next time for sure.