Pirate's Blend - Rum & Cream! Black tea

So this was another impulse buy on my Florida Vacation, and I am still trying to curb the tea purchasing and opening new ones while others live on my shelf unfinished. I am happy to say, that today I was able to finish off other teas and open this one!

The smell of the dried leaves is overwhelming. It smells creamy, strawberry, coconut, a hint of hibiscus and rose, some lavender. The leaves are beautiful: little black curls mixed with red pieces, small slivers of coconut, and purple-blue leaves.

I took two heaping spoonfuls and added them to my pot, hot water, no additives. I originally intended to infuse for the full five minutes, however as it was infusing the lavender/hibiscus/rose scent liberated and I got concerned of bitterness, so I cut my infusion to three minutes.

The liquor is a dark color, somewhat like spiced rum, guess that was intentional. The odor is still the lavender and hibiscus with the powdery rose note and unfortunately, I am having a lot of trouble getting passed that smell. The flavor seems to not really be anything, a bit of strawberry, a hint of coconut, and then the familiar bitterness of lavender/hibiscus and a smack of black tea.

I do not like rose, I do not seek out hibiscus on it’s own either, and to be perfectly honest, I cannot stand lavender. I wouldn’t say this tea is bad, because it’s not, it’s just not my cup of tea (pun intended) – I would not typically drink/enjoy this regardless of the name because it is just too floral for me.

Oh well…

I’m not the biggest fan of fruit teas and I don’t like the cream ones I’ve tried, but I loved this one. It doesn’t seem like a cream tea at all to me, so not sure if the blend is now different from the title or not. Mine just says Pirate’s Blend Black Tea. It does have the same ingredient list.

My son and I drank a cup and loved it, I steeped one Tbsp five minutes, and that was more than strong enough. I would think two tablespoons may be overpowering. Very dark and flavorful, reminded me of a tropical island with a nice breeze while lounging on the sand, sucking on the remains of some hard candy. Has coconut but I didn’t taste it, which may be a good thing.