Fruit Medley

Tea #8 from the ’Here’s Hoping’ teabox.

Last tea before bed. I have to say that today has been a highly enjoyable tea day. After having so much caffeine I knew my last tea would have to be an herbal. Otherwise I would never get to sleep tonight!

I was hesitant to make this tea because I’m not a hibiscus fan, but I loved the idea of all the different fruits so much that I brewed a cup anyway. I timed it carefully it wouldn’t be too tart, and I added a little bit of sugar. The result was a fruity concoction that almost tasted like the juice from a jumble berry pie. Very fruity, and while there is a touch of tartness it’s nothing overwhelming. This was a perfect way to wind down and get ready to sleep.

I’m sure I’m going to dream about tea tonight, but at least they’ll be happy dreams!

Thanks for including this one in our trade, Starfevre! I was hoping there wouldn’t be so much hibiscus in this one. I steeped it for 10 minutes (which I know makes the hibiscus taste even more tart, but otherwise I wouldn’t get any flavor at all.) Yeah, it was pretty tart and sour. There was a piece of strawberry I saw in the infuser, and there were hints of that, but the hibiscus just drowns everything else out. Gah, hibiscus. I’ll try taking some of it out of the infuser before I steep it next time. ALL of it doesn’t need to be in here, Adagio!

This [was] one of the Adagio herbal sampler samples back when I ordered my sampler. It appears they switch various samples out from time to time, as the Adagio web site no longer lists this among the herbal sampler offerings. It’s one of those chunky fruit mixtures that looks vaguely like trail mix, but significantly smaller in chunk size than the average Teavana fruit mixture.

I went easy on the amount of fruit this first time and I suspect I’ll need to up the quantity to get the depth of flavor I’m looking for. Not really this tisane’s fault, it seems to be true of all such mixtures. I can tell it’s not enough, though, because the liquor has that watermelony color that hibiscus mixtures have if they’re too dilute for me. I predict that a more concentrated version of this will be a dark magenta from the hibiscus.

The flavor, even in a somewhat more dilute form than I think I’ll prefer ultimately, isn’t bad. It did have a tartness to it as I started to sip it, but it wasn’t nearly as tart after a few sips as the initial impression led me to believe it would be. The strawberry, as seems to be typical with these, adds a sweetness that tamps down the rose hips and keeps this from being too tart for me. The hibiscus is, surprisingly, mostly MIA. I can taste a slight earthiness, but nothing on the order of, oh say, Tazo’s Passion. I can get some other berry, mostly raspberry I’d say. Not sure I know what elderberry and bilberry taste like, so I can’t vouch for those. I’m not getting a lot of blackberry, but it could be pumping up the other berries in the background.

Will be interested to give this a try in a stronger version, but I’m not finding fruit mixes overly interesting these days. Getting jaded, I guess. I’d have to have a really spectacular one these days to make my head turn.

This is taking away the bitter, yucky taste from the bizarre stuff I just tried. Nice to have some sweet hot koolaid.

If you don’t like koolaid, you won’t like this.

so this is one of the maybe 2 or 3 herbals i have. it reminds me of juice and i actually drink this unsweetened as it doesnt need it. its a nice tart flavor and very sweet. you can taste the berries. the tea itself is a really pretty redish pink. the scent smells like hot fruit punch lol. i love all the fruit pieces in the tea itself too. i think my fiancee made this for me because u cant mess it up, and he burned my tangerine white by adding boiling water and it turned out bitter.

Opening this packet was a pleasant surprise. I was immediately greeted by the strong scent of dried fruit, and the sight of the pieces, which are larger that I was reasonably expecting. I can clearly pick out orange peel, pieces of strawberry, cherry and apple, and rosehips. There’s also something that looks suspicuously like a whole hibiscus flower. I’m not the greatest fan of hibiscus, but you’ve got to admit that the quality’s there. This is definetly an improvement on some brands I could mention. The smell is very tart, but I was expecting that. It’s something I can even enjoy in a fruit tea, from time to time, provided it’s not overwhelming.

Reassuringly, this tea takes a while to colour, and doesn’t turn instantly red as heavily hibiscused fruit teas tend to. To taste, it is, of course, tart. I find I can identify some of the fruit flavours, though, which is a definite point in its flavour. The strawberry is quite prominent, giving it a sweetly delicate, summery flavour. This isn’t at all the cloying, deep red drink I was expecting given my experiences so far, and I’, very pleasantly surprised. There’s also a slight tang from the apple, which cuts through some of the natural fruit sweetness, and provides an interesting counterpoint to the red fruit flavours.

All in all, I’m really impressed with this. Far more so than I was with Adagio’s Berry Blues. I’m still holding on to the hope that one day I will find a red fruit or berry tea which doesn’t include hibiscus at all, but until that day this is perfectly palatable. A hit, rather than the miss I was dreading!

Backlogging from this wknd…

Sometimes I think I am one of the few people in my steepster feed who like hibiscus. I really like this fruity blend. I used a little extra leaf (er…fruit…) because my husband likes his fruit tea TART. I think it is a good blend…I also like Harney Fruit Tea for example which is similar…

Tastes exactly like Kool-Aid.

I think I may not be a hibiscus girl. The tea smells amazing, and the light reddish tan liquor is beautiful, but the flavor just isn’t my favorite. It’s definitely better than most of the other teas I’ve tried today. (It’s been a banner day – a work friend gave me three Tazo teas I’d never tried, and an Adagio sampler pack showed up today).

I think I have to say I liked this, and I’ll enjoy drinking the rest of the sample, but I don’t know that I’d buy more of it.

A pleasant break from caffeine.

I first stumbled upon this tea in Whole Foods. They have it in the tins under the name of Fruit Sangria. I bought the tin & wished I had bought more!

First off, this tea doesn’t work well for me hot. I can only drink it iced. And I love it! No sugar or sweetners needed. Just natural on its own. I’ve been making it iced all summer & it’s been a big hit. Now when people come over they naturally expect it to be in my fridge.

For the record, I went through about 4 pounds of this tea in one month. I will definitely need to stock up on it before next summer!

I got this in the mail from wombatgirl today! Thank you!

The dry mixture (dry tisane? Is that an oxymoron?) smells very fruity, as it should. It steeps to a nice pink/red color. It smells like warm cherries, and tastes like very tart cough syrup. How unfortunate.

Even though I didn’t particularly care for it, it’s not a bad flavor. It’s incredibly fruity and tart, so I’m sure somebody would like it. I’m glad I had this experience, because now I know what I don’t like. So once again, thank you, wombatgirl!

This was a very light and refreshing cup. Suggested if you want a more intense fruit taste: be more liberal with the fruit or the steep time. Great aroma throughout almost all of the drinking process.

Goes well with a sandwich or bagel.

~1tsp for 8oz cup

I had this for breakfast at my friends house (wow does she have a nice tea selection!). She didn’t have a lot of it left so I didn’t put too much in the tea leaf ball. Can’t say I was super impressed with this tea, especially considering the name of it. I was expecting a lot of different fruit flavors, but I ended up not getting much of anything at all. Which was disappointing. IT HELD SUCH PROMISE!

A little tart for my taste. I sent this one on to a friend as I knew I would never finish it.

Found this at my local grocer so I gave it a try. I liked it, it was very tangy and the dominant flavor is of lemongrass. I can see why others would think it tastes too medicinal but it is not unpleasant at all. I would pick this up again, nice every now and then.

I ordered an IngenuiTEA gift set from Adagio, with the Herbal sampler pack. I’ve tried them in various combinations now, and I’m very impressed with the Fruit Medley. I steep it stronger than recommended and add a little sugar, otherwise it seems a bit weak – that sugar brings out the fruit flavors quite well.

This is an awesome tea, although I tend to ignore the suggested steeping time entirely, and use more ‘leaf’. It ends up being pretty stong and tangy, but that just makes it taste better. This is a great tea for work, because it dosn’t matter if you forget when it’s done steeping (at least for the way I like it) .