Lemon Youkou

Another sample from denisend, and again, I made it up into iced tea.

Wow, this is very, puckering-ly, lemon. Who needs taste-buds lemon. Their description notes that it is a sweet and sour brew – I mostly got sour. Even when I sweetened it, it was still very “sour-lemon”.

I think I want to try this blended with something else (I know that’s what denisend does) because I can see how it would blend well. But I don’t know I’ll be drinking it straight again.

Special Thanks to Meghann for this one, too!

This tastes like Lemon Water. Plain and Simple. Don’t get me wrong…I like lemon water and since this tastes like lemon water, I do like the taste of this…but…there isn’t anything tea-like about it…or in this case tisane-like. If there was another flavor I could pick out on this one other than the lemon – I would say a hint of apple.

Not bad tasting but not really what I was expecting or hoping for, per say.

Finally picked this up after wanting to try it since my odd crave for lemon tea which doesn’t make sense in the first place because I don’t like lemons in my water..

Anyway, here goes real-time tea tasting..

It definitely smells lemony. And it certainly tastes like one! woa. I am officially drinking a lemon. Surprisingly it doesn’t have a strong tanginess to it… it’s pretty much just hot lemon water.
Dare I add honey? Yes, lets. Ok… now it just tastes funky and tangy. ew. Sorry about that. I don’t know if I should apologize to the tea or the honey..

Later: Blended it iced with a black tea, its still weird but my boyfriend liked it.

End: Best enjoyed by itself brewed light and sipped after something really chocolatey.

Today the two lemon Teavana herbals recommended by denisend arrived. This is one.

They’re both pretty amazing looking. Huge hunks of fruit mixed in with other ingredients; very colorful, multitextured mixtures. I kept wanting to pull handfuls out of the bags and chow down on them. They really remind me of trail mix.

The variation in the size of the pieces makes me wonder whether different servings of this will taste differently since it’s very likely that no two steeps will be identical. One might be half taken up with a two inch dried orange slice, for example. The dry fruit smells tart and citrusy, though the first ingredient is listed as apple bits.

When brewed, it smells slightly sweeter, and is a clear, pale yellow. The dominant taste is citrus, and I’m definitely getting lemon which I find interesting since there’s nothing identified with the word lemon on the bag. The description on the page here must be from a previous blend. My bag says: apple bits, roseship peels, citrus peels, orange slices, apple slices, citric acid flavoring and marigold petals. I guess the citrus peels could be the lemon variety of citrus so maybe that’s where it comes from.

Unsweetened, the lemon flavor is on the tart side, but not bitter, and (yes!) not at all soapy. A significant improvement from my lemon myrtle experience. It’s a little too tart in my book to be my perfect lemon. I did try to sweeten it up a bit, but a small amount of sugar didn’t make much of an impression on it and I suspect the amount of sugar I’d have to use to bring it into the ballpark would make me not want to go there. However, there are times when tart is called for, and besides, the next cup could be completely different given the distribution of the ingredients. For now I’m liking the Strawberry Lemonade better (wombatgirl recommended that one, too), but I’ll save that discussion for another note.

Tried this hot several months ago, when I was feeling under the weather and feeling like a lemon tea might perk me up. It was too tart, and adding sweetener to it made it taste like hot lemonade.

Now that the weather here is sweltering, iced tea is a lovely treat. Unfortunately, I drink so much, if I’m not careful, I will be awake all night. An herbal tisane is an ideal iced drink in the evening.

It makes a lovely, pale yellow cup of iced tea. I can definitely taste the lemon and lime, though I’m not sure what the marigold did besides add color. I didn’t find the need to add sweetener, as it’s lovely enough on its own, though I imagine it would bring out the citrus flavor even more.

Blended with Adagio’s Dragonwell & iced. Pretty good! But still, a slight bitter aftertaste. Probably from steeping the green tea too hot/long.

2009-11-22 2pm
Preparation Details:
Zarafina Tea Maker: Black, Loose, Strong, 2 cups water, 1 scoop Lemon Youkou, 2 scoop English Breakfast (Teavana)
Sweetened with 1/2 cup sugar, then iced and water added to make 1qt tea.

This is my husband’s concoction. It’s an excellent sweet southern tea. The black tea taste is mellow and dominates, but there’s still the slight tang of fruit (lemon mostly).

Great tea iced or hot. Veeerrrry lemony :) Mixes well with Raspberry Riot Lemon Mate (Teavana). I drank mixed with silver needle and a lot of honey when I had a soar throat and it was very nice

Did not care for this one.

Oo. So not happy with this. I love lemon, but I find this tea so very sour. It’s not just the tartness of the lemon, but there’s something else, maybe the rosehips, that I find unpleasant in taste.

Before I give up completely, I promise to try adding plenty of rock sugar to the tea maker as suggested by a number of you. Perhaps proper sweetening will save this tea for me.