Mango is one of my favorite flavors, and I’ve casually been on the lookout for the perfect mango black tea. Ok, so I haven’t tried that many yet, but I decided to order a sample of this tea with my last order. The black tea has a ton of little calendula petals, but no hunks of dried mango like Upton’s Mango Indica, for example. The dry tea certainly smells very mango-y, but a bit more like mango candy or even sweetened dried mango than a juicy fresh mango.
This tea brewed super dark. It’s a deep dark brown like the finish of walnut furniture. The primary aroma is really the black tea: strong, a bit malty. A juicy, somewhat concentrated mango smell is present, sometimes in the background and sometimes melding more with the black tea aroma.
To be honest, whenever I get a black tea aroma that strong it worries me because sometimes it means a tea that contains whatever black tea variety of blend that I really dislike. However! Totally not the case with this tea. For one thing, the black tea carries with it not a smidge of bitterness (confirming my other experiences with Tea District blacks), and though it’s fairly bold, it’s also very smooth. The initial part of the sip is a slightly tart mango flavor, which quickly is joined by the malty, rich black tea, which reminds me of a Keemun. The mango flavor is present throughout the sip, but it doesn’t ever completely overtake the black tea. I was hoping the calendula flowers might give it a floral note, but they didn’t seem to add much (except making the tea look very pretty). Overall a nice blend, though I might wish for a bit more fresh mango flavor. Otherwise it’s another tasty tea and I continue to be impressed by my selections from Tea District.
