Caribbean Dream

I made this tea for a little experiment inspired by the “offbeat uses for tea” thread¹. Before I used it for that purpose, though, I tried it, both unsweetened and sweetened.

I’ve read that our olfactory sense is the one most strongly tied to memory. There’s a hookah joint in NYC called Sultana², a wonderful place where I’ve spent many an hour sipping iced hibiscus tea and chatting with friends. This herbal “tea” smells just like that place. It’s quite nice.

If you generally like “tropical” concoctions, things with pineapple and coconut and things of that nature, you will probably like this. While I love (non-alcoholic) piña coladas, I’m not a big fan of that mish-mash of flavours that falls under the (mini) umbrella of “tropical.” As such, this isn’t really my thing. The tin says there’s rose in here, and hibiscus, but I didn’t get any floral fragrance or flavour. There’s also orange peel in here, but nothing citrusy stands out. Finally, there’s no actual tea in here, which I rather like in my…tea. =] All that said, it does have that very typical tropical vibe to it, and a nice enough flavour.

¹ http://steepster.com/discuss/3374-lets-find-some-offbeat-new-uses-for-tea#forum_post_51847

² http://yelp.com/biz/sultana-new-york

I can’t believe I’m the first one to try this! It has a really nice tart hibiscus flavor. The other ingredients don’t come forward and say “Hi!” but they do kind of moderate the hibiscus.

This is a nice tea, and it will be a good afternoon treat.