Black Currant Black Tea

So I learned over the weekend that the Bulk Barn has tea. I couldn’t resist! This black and the orange ooolong I grabbed some of were both 2.70/100 g. That is a great price for a black tea, but surprising for an oolong. Obviously, I don’t have high expectations.

I am a big black currant fan, but the only black currant tea I have so far is Twinings bagged black currant (which I love!) The aroma of this before steeping is quite similar – just in your face juicy black currant smell. All things considered, the leaves are pretty big on this tea, though there is some dust at the bottom of my bag which I hope to avoid. Maybe I’ll give it a quick sift at some point to eliminate that.

The steeped aroma has lost some of the juicy smell, and is more like a black tea with berry of some sort. First sips are…delicious! What???? But it’s so cheap! I get a strong berry flavour, which I know to be black currant but could be confused as blackberry or raspberry, possibly. Still very juicy and fruit forward with a hint of tea at the end. I only got 25 grams or so of this in fear of it tasting terrible, but this seems like something that I might just rebuy! We’ll see how I feel as the cup goes in, but this is quite nice. I’m still getting a pretty strong balck currant flavour in the aftertaste. Not as good as the Twinings bags I so love (weird, I know!) but this was a great find. Colour me shocked!

When I saw Uniquity’s note about Bulk Barn carrying this and other teas, I was just too intrigued. I ended up out in my hometown at a time when the Bulk Barn was open over the weekend, to my great excitement. I love Bulk Barn. I bought too many Clodhoppers.

Anyway, I picked some of this up as well as a green tea and am also pleasantly surprised by it. I oversteeped it and it was a little bitter, but still very drinkable. The currant juiciness is really exuberant and translates well from the dry scent into the brewed taste. I think this could be good to keep on hand for when I crave a fruity black tea. That doesn’t happen with great frequency but this is really tasty and so ridiculously affordable.

When we made it to bulk barn recently, I remembered Uniquity’s note about their looseleaf tea and had to try it…this one especially. I’m in love with the black currant from Camerons and I had to know if this was as good.

It wasn’t as good, but it was still damn good. Yum. It was good enough for me to feel like I might just survive when my Camerons supply runs out. Nice and juicy without being bitter…this is what I need in a black tea.

Wow, I was very surprised by this tea as well. I had seen the other tasting notes and thought I had to give it a try.
The tea is actually quite decent. A lot more fruity than I was expecting. A fairly smooth black tea.
And for that price! 66cents for 25g. I will certainly pick up more of it.