Kamba Berry

apparently i’m having a bit of a butiki moment right now. I have to say that this is a pretty disgusting tea to look at after it’s been dumped with water lol. there’s a sludgy pinkish mess of goop in my brew basket…it’s a little weird.

As for the tea? well there’s a sour-ey sweet smell going on here that confuses my nose. The taste however? totally neat. I REALLY want to try this cold brewed as i think that’ the sweet spot for this tea. Hot, it’s not bad but i can feel that this would really pop as a cold brew! A little touch of sugar to sweeten it and the berries would be a delicious mess of bright pink koolaid colour tea of yum. Next stop? cold brewing this!

First note, again?! (Also a mini sipdown, hah!)

I just received my latest Butiki order today and had requested this tea as a sample, being wary of the included hibiscus. Dry, the tea is quite powdery, with a bunch of little raspberry bits, and it smells very berry-ish. Steeped, I can tragically smell hibiscus! But hopefully it’s only an aroma, not a strong flavour…

Ok. The hibiscus is not overwhelming, but I’ve gotta say that this is one weeeeird blend. I can definitely taste what’s coming off as authentic blueberry, a bit of tartness from the hibiscus (which is kind of merging with a raspberry flavour), a bit of a burn from the ginger… and it’s leaving a rather dry yet fruity/sweet taste in my mouth. How odd! I don’t think I’ve ever had a berry blend with ginger in it before, and I’ve not quite come to terms with that yet. The sweet (yet astringent) aftertaste here is my favourite part about the blend, but I would have to say that it’s probably not a tea I’d seek out. I have to wonder how it would be iced, so perhaps at some point I’ll request another sample to try it that way, but for now, I’m glad to have tried it to satisfy my curiosity!

Thanks for the sample, Stacy!

ETA: So it seems there are no raspberries in here, so clearly I was seeing strawberries and/or hibiscus. And I somehow had missed that there was tea in here! I imagine that would be the source of the astringency.

Kamba Berry!

This one is a sneaky tea! Purple tea, lots of blueberry going on, some strawberry, little natural sweetness, some puckery tart (making it remind me of cranberry almost), some herbyness, and some dry ginger. The berryness is lovely and I love all the interest with the herby and ginger. The dryness was SNEAKY in making me want to keep drinking! I’m not a huge fan of tart and dry but I enjoyed this tea for the very good berry taste!

Very good iced as well – I think I’ll continue with the rest of my batch iced.

Full Review with lots of pictures (of owl bears attacking my tea) on my blog, The Oolong Owl http://oolongowl.wordpress.com/2013/03/15/kamba-berry-from-butiki-teas-tea-review/

I got this as a sample with my Butiki order because strawberries, blueberries, and ginger oh my! I’m usually wary about hibiscus, because it often imparts a tartness I can’t get over, but here we are.

First thing I noticed was what a pretty color my tea was. It’s this really lovely pinky purplely almost wine colored color. Second thing I noticed was that it was tart buuuuuut not as tart as I was dreading. Instead it tastes a lot like concentrated blueberry on my tongue with a kind of dryness that keeps me drinking. It actually reminds me a lot of California Tea House’s Blueberry Syrup only with a sweeter strawberry finish. I liked it a lot more after I added a touch of sweetener. It seemed to pop the strawberry flavor and tame the hibiscus a bit.

I’ll probably pick up more of this once the weather warms because I think it would be an amazing iced tea.