Cold Drink Bamboo Passion (No. 732)

I have to admit that I’m quite wary of this on. It’s so WAY out of my comfort zone you wouldn’t believe it! Maybe Wombatgirl is secretly trying to do me in…

We’re definitely in Tisaneland here. And even that seems a bit far fetched because there aren’t actually any leaves in here. Or flowers for that matter. Well, that’s not true, there are some few leafy things that look sort of like bits of grass. The rest is dried fruit. Dried fruit. I feel like I’m steeping up a health snack bar or something here.

The aroma of it has something in it that is extremely sharp. I don’t know what it is but it’s really really sharp, stabbing at the nostrils and very unpleasant to be honest.

As it’s poured it also takes on a certain specific red colour that all the members of the Anti Hibiscus League out there would be able to spot from a mile away. I’m hoping very much that it’s caused by beetroot here, though. Also, difficult to pour as the fruit bits kept wedging themselves into the spout.

After steeping that stabby sharp note is thankfully gone. It smells sweet and fruity. Like… warm juice. I’m not sure I really want warm juice… whimper

Oh.

Oh dear.

This is tart. But it’s not hibiscus-y tart, but still kind of tart. All I can really taste other than the tart note is apples, and really, apple juice? I prefer that cold thank you very much. I don’t think this blend was invented with me in mind.

I’m very sorry Wombatgirl but this just won’t go down on it’s own. I shall try the remainder of the sample that you sent me as additive to plain black, but as it is, I can’t drink this. My face keeps screwing up. Are you sure you’re not trying to poison me?

The Kool-Aid tea was indeed really good iced. I didn’t sweetened it at all, although I think it could be nice with a touch of agave nectar to counterbalance the tartness. It’s very refreshing this way with a lightly tart, crisp bite to it that cleansed the palate.

I’d love to buy more of this just so I can experiment with make more iced tea out of it – so this is staying on my Shopping List. :)

Again…this is my challenge day. :)

Dry “Leaf” AKA Chunk, in this case BLEND smells like V8 juice.
Wet blend smells like carrots and apples.

It’s a pinkish-orange in color.

I could wait 10 minutes to steep so I did 7.

Sipping…

hum…WOW! This is really quite nice…surprisingly. I’m drinking it hot…but it says COLD DRINK…is that against the rules!? Regardless it’s fairly tasty. Just when you think it is going to be vegetable tasting it switches up to fruit – but more apple than anything. I can taste a little bit of the papaya as soon as the liquid touches my tongue but as I swish it fades away.

This is one of the most unusual teas/tisanes I have EVER had but I am pretty darn shocked that my palate is excepting it as well as it is. WOW.

I mean…it’s not a million dollar winner by any means but it’s just….SHOCKING. SHOCKING that is all seems to work.

One question…since I am seeing CHUNKS of stuff in this blend…can I nibble on the carrots??? I’m hone-grrry! LOL

Classic case of – you don’t know – unless you try!

Fruit candy. Fruit salad. High end fruit cocktail. Extra fruity!

The, um… So, what is the official term for the unbrewed tea bits in a tisane? They aren’t leaves, it’s not actual tea It’s not coffee, so they’re not grounds. This has so much fruit you could almost call it chunks, but that just sounds bad. I’ll go with bits for now – but really, I need a better word for this.

The bits, they smell amazing. Another one of those teas where you want to strap the bag on your face and just walk around all day smelling it.

The beetroot bits give it a lovely pink color as it brews, and since I was using my ingenuiTea, it was fun to watch the bottom of the cup turn bright red while the top stayed fairly light. (Side note, my ingenuiTea is driving me nuts – the dang filter keeps deciding to float out while I’m trying to brew tea. Grrr!)

I expected a sweeter flavor with the candied fruit bits, but it wasn’t overly sweet (at least not to me – and remember I do like sweet teas). To me, no one fruit flavor stands out, they just blend and make a lovely flavor.

I like this a lot. (And considering I got it on 75% off sale on line earlier this week, my wallet likes it too!)

Thanks to wombatgirl for sending me this! I’m developing quite a backlog of traded teas, but this one smelled the strongest, so that’s what I went for.

Wow, I’m loving this one! It’s sweet and tangy and fruity but still light; it’s not the super strong fruit flavor of many of the tisanes that I like. This tisane has depth as well as sweetness.

I’m definitely going to have to purchase this one. After I make my way through my pile of tea…