Blueberry Fruit Tea

Wow! OK… I wasn’t really prepared to like this quite as much as I do. I thought… roselle = fancy name for hibiscus. But… even though roselle is a species of hibiscus, it doesn’t brew up tasting quite the same as the hibiscus I have known and disliked. This … actually tastes pretty darned good. Better than that, even.

Yes, roselle has a tartness to it that is very similar to hibiscus. In fact, someone “blind tasting” this tisane would likely note that tartness as a hibiscus flavor. But… it doesn’t have that same syrupy thickness that hibiscus usually has. And with that syrupy thickness, the tartness sort of clings to your palate and that’s what I don’t like. But with the roselle, it is much lighter and cleaner feeling. Very refreshing.

The blueberries are delicious in this… but what I really like is the black currant, which gives this kind of a wine-like taste … and makes me think that this would be AMAZING brewed with some mulling spices for a mulled wine-less.

Yes… it’s late. I’m creating weird names for brewed tisanes. I need to go to bed now.

First – let me start of by saying – Roselle (for those of you who don’t know) is a species of Hibiscus (MORE INFO: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roselle_%28plant%29) and is popular in Australia.

The plant is considered to have antihypertensive properties. Primarily, the plant is cultivated for the production for bast fibre from the stem of the plant. The fibre may be used as a substitute for jute in making burlap.¹ Hibiscus, specifically Roselle, has been used in folk medicine as a diuretic, mild laxative, and treatment for cardiac and nerve diseases and cancer.²

The red calyces of the plant are increasingly exported to America and Europe, where they are used as food colourings. Germany is the main importer. It can also be found in markets (as flowers or syrup) in some places such as France, where there are Senegalese immigrant communities. The green leaves are used like a spicy version of spinach. They give flavour to the Senegalese fish and rice dish thiéboudieune. Proper records are not kept, but the Senegalese government estimates national production and consumption at 700 t (770 short tons) per year. Also in Myanmar their green leaves are the main ingredient in making chin baung kyaw curry.

In East Africa, the calyx infusion, called “Sudan tea”, is taken to relieve coughs. Roselle juice, with salt, pepper, asafetida and molasses, is taken as a remedy for biliousness.

The heated leaves are applied to cracks in the feet and on boils and ulcers to speed maturation. A lotion made from leaves is used on sores and wounds. The seeds are said to be diuretic and tonic in action and the brownish-yellow seed oil is claimed to heal sores on camels. In India, a decoction of the seeds is given to relieve dysuria, strangury and mild cases of dyspepsia. Brazilians attribute stomachic, emollient and resolutive properties to the bitter roots.³

Above are the uses

Here is what they say about the TEA infusions…
In Africa, especially the Sahel, roselle is commonly used to make a sugary herbal tea that is commonly sold on the street. The dried flowers can be found in every market. Roselle tea is also quite common in Italy where it spread during the first decades of the 20th century as a typical product of the Italian colonies. The Carib Brewery Trinidad Limited, a Trinidad and Tobago brewery, produces a Shandy Sorrel in which the tea is combined with beer.

In Thailand, Roselle is drunk as a tea, believed to also reduce cholesterol. It can also be made into a wine – Hibiscus flowers are commonly found in commercial herbal teas, especially teas advertised as berry-flavoured, as they give a bright red colouring to the drink.

NOW…For my thoughts on THIS specific TEA from TEVIVRE***

It smells like a combo of Blueberries, Raisins, Cherries, Currants, and/or other berries! There are tarty, sweet, juicy, and bitter fruit aromas morphing while infusing! It has a slight roasted aroma to it too!

The post infusion color is different than I expected! I was assuming since Roselle was in the Hibiscus family it would be intense purple or pink or red in color but it’s a bit of medium brown, purple, red, blue-ish.

It has a vibrant fruit-tart flavor but it’s a different kind of a tart…it’s a good kind of a tart! It’s fruity and berry. I can taste the Currants, Blueberries, AND Grapes – individually but also together – blending nicely. I really LOVE the grape addition. It really contributes to the overall flavor! I think the Currants help tone down that stereotypical hibiscus flavor unless this Roselle is NOT as intense as your “default hibiscus used in most teas”…if that is the case…I prefer Roselle to Hibiscus and hope more companies start using THIS species of it in teas and tisanes they feel they need to add hibiscus to.

So…apparently…I want to ramble about this tisane.

I feel I need to point out different ingredients when they are used to give respect to not only the ingredient itself but the companies that use them, promote them, and bring them to the forefront. I love things I have to Google and Wiki…I LOVE learning about them!

At first I was thinking I would like this better iced…which still may be the case…but the more it cools at room temp and the more I sip on it…the more I am enjoying and appreciating this fruity tisane. I don’t over infuse my fruit tisanes so I only let this one go for about 2 to 3 minutes.

Because this different in many ways I am scoring it a bit higher than I would “average” fruit tisanes…I like this. I think it’s a neat offering. I am sure it could be tinkered with to your liking, but I like it just fine this way – my first attempt – and I appreciate the ingredients they way they are placed in there and how they work with eachother.

Neat!

Thanks to Angel at Teavivre for this WONDERFUL tea!!

I LOVE THIS TEA! I just wanted to put that out there.

Smell: It was a colorful mix, and I smelled lots of blueberry, a bit of grape, and a tart smell that hinted at that sneaky hibiscus. But it was a lovely berry blend! Steeping it reminded me of wine or even blueberry juice.

Taste: I was worried about the hibiscus, thinking this would be VERY tart. But IT WASN’T!! It was very, very yummy!! It had a nice, strong blueberry flavor, which had a sweet-tart mix provided by the grape, and then it had a smooth tart where the hibiscus was. I loved it hot, but after drinking a few hot sips, since I had to go to an outing, I poured the rest in a glass and let it sit in the fridge. Upon returning, I drank it cold and it was even more amazing!! I LOVE A TEA THAT CAN DO BOTH!! Truly, it was a perfect blueberry tea! :-)

Oh, I put in two spoonfuls of sugar, kindof medium in amount. It was a lovely tea, really!!

Thanks to Teavivre for another stunning package of Samples!

I’ve had a fun day! First I was off to post some samples to TeaFairy, and then to Happy Lucky’s Tea House to purchase a small wooden gongfu tray that can handle my little water spills. (It only cost $24.95!) Andy always serves me free tea too! I ended up purchasing a little Yixing Gai Wan with a handle and strainer (turns out I’m not much good at pouring and straining from my other gai wan…clumsy me). Now I’m ready to rock and roll!
With all the caffeine during the morning and afternoon, I was in the mood for a gentle evening without caffeine. I finished some brown rice California rolls…(WASABI !) and decided on one of the new Teavivre tea’s I had requested (yes you can ask for items you are interested in trying!).
The steep time listed is 8-9 minutes. Nice and long…and fragrant! It was hard to wait those last few minutes as the room filled with bold berry scent. The liquor was very dark purple blue. Had I gone too far and steeped this too long? I hate bitter infusions!
Taking a tentative sip, whew! there wasn’t any bitterness.
This fruity tea was full bodied and juicy like Knudsons Real Fruit Juice. The juice that’s 100% non- reconstituted, not mixed with anything else and coats your whole mouth. There was one element I could not identify so I looked at the wet mash in the basket. Blueberries, currents, grape and woody stuff that’s redish. What’s this red stuff? I read the packet…Roselle and Googled it. OK. This is a variety of Hibiscus…a more fibrous, woody variety with very small flowers that is grown in China. Evidently, you can steep it longer without it being as tangy as the Western Hibiscus I’m used to or Australian Hibiscus. Whatever the case, this Roselle addition mellows the flavors so that the tea becomes a blended fruit tea but not a distinctly blueberry tea.

I drank 24 oz. pot of tea hot this evening and then put a bit on ice to see what the flavor would be like. Very good. I’ll do an iced version for the next tasting since I received a generous portion from Teavivre.

Of all the caffeine free tea’s, every berry type satisfies me. The fruit used in this blend is big and bold. No tiny blueberries but large round fruit mixed with plenty of currents and grapes. I finally found a tea that I rummaged through after steeping. You can see the rehydrated fruit all plumped and I couldn’t resist popping the berries in my mouth.

Tomorrow night my tea shop is having a free tea ‘Happy Hour’ Near East Dance Performance to raise awareness to stop human trafficking. This shop supports this and other causes with 10% of store profits. I like that. One nice thing about small towns.

I bought a sample sized pouch of this and made a quart of iced tea with it last night. It was probably only enough for really half that, but I let it sit for a nice long time so I think it all worked out in the end.

I feel like this is what that “blueberry merlot” tea from TeaForte should be. This definitely reminds me of a red wine. I was worried I was going to need to add sugar, which I completely forgot and wanted to do while it was hot, but it’s perfect. It’s tart, but not mouthpuckering tart. It could probably use being a little sweeter, but I like it how it is. Definitely tastes like it’s been sweetened by blueberries.

I needed more fruit after having some peach Pinkberry for lunch (SO GOOD.) and now I think I’ve had enough for at least now. I’ll go have my fruit and added sugar to yogurt sugar high somewhere outside!

This may just be the best smelling tisane of my whole life. The beau and I steeped up a pot of this in the afternoon, enjoying another generous sample from Teavivre. The dry smell is fabulous – strongly blueberry, hint of tart and a hint of something raisin-y behind that. If I could smell only one fruity thing the rest of my life I would choose this. If this were jam, I would eat it by the spoonful. Oh man, it smells like jam!

I steeped 4 heaping tsp. in 12ish oz of boiling water for about 8 minutes, basically following the Teavivre directions. Lately I have found ymself pulling away from fruit based teas, but berry tisanes still hold a place in my heart, and this one smells like the queen of them all. Oh man, am I excited.

The brewed liquor has a tart smell from the roselle, but there is still distinctly jammy blueberry and raisin underneath that. The first sips are very tart, so we added a drop of honey and that made this lovely. The tartness is there, but it is muted a bit by the honey and the blueberry flavour becomes more rich. It still reminds me of jam and has a lovely aftertaste – this is a treat! I look forward to enjoying the rest of this sample, and likely will be ordering it at some point in the future.

EDIT: Made a second steep (10 minutes) and that was really good – the tartness was totally gone, and though the berry flavour was obviously light, it was naturally sweet and deicious, like over-ripe berries. Loving the lighter second steep to go with the bold first!

Wooooaaaaah. This is way too tart for me. I thought 3.5 minutes would be enough to tame the hibiscus, but apparently not! I can tell that there is a berry flavour in here too, but mostly, TART. I can see this being ok sweetened/as an iced tea, but this is not for me, sadly.

Thanks for sending some too me, CHAroma!

I have to admit, I did not have high hopes for this tea. After googling roselle and learning that it’s hibiscus, I was ready to hate this drink. Then my husband requested an iced tea for dinner. So I brewed this up sort of light hoping to mitigate the overwhelming tartness I was expecting, poured it over ice and sugared it up. Wow. This is good. Is that really hibiscus? Is it because I made a light brew? Is it the sugar? Whatever it is, it’s good. It’s softly tart. But mostly, it’s fruity and delicious. Lightly blueberry and more grapey. The juiciest fruit tea of all time.

I ate the berries after brewing. They were tasty and very sweet. I would have eaten more of them, maybe saved them for oatmeal the next day, but they were full of seeds. I probably could have made a second steep. I have enough for a cupful another time. More experimentation laaater. I usually don’t buy fruit teas because they tend to disappoint, but this is certainly one I will consider.

Thank you, Teavivre, for this sample!

This is a very nice blueberry tea. Not too tart, but not so sweet that it taste like Kool Aide. I could taste the grape at odd moments which I thought added to the fun of the tea. Definitely enjoyable and something I would try again. Next time I’ll also try it iced.

My order from Teavivre arrived (yaay) I decided to try this one first. I think it would be better iced. I tried this straight and didn’t like it much so I added some splenda. A little too much splenda but it taste better sweetened I just have to balance the splenda a bit better :D

Sample from my first Teavivre order! I do love me some blueberries, so fingers crossed!

Dry: This smells like sweet blueberry, black currant, and maybe because I had grape tea earlier – grapes. I’m also picking up a bit of the roselle. It’s sweet, tart, and bursting with fruitiness!

Brewed: The blueberry scent has pulled back a bit, and I’m smelling mainly black currant. Don’t get me wrong,t he blueberry is still there. It’s just not standing out as much. Hints of grapes and other berries are present. It’s more tart smelling this time around, but maintains the sweet scent as well.

Taste: Very tart in the front, and slightly sweet at the back of the sip. I’m tasting more black currant and roselle than anything else. The blueberry is very faint. The grape is gone. I don’t think I’m diggin’ this one. I don’t know if it was me and my brewing or what, but this one is just too tart, not enough sweet. It’s almost sour. =(

I’m glad I tried a sample instead of buying a bag of it. Maybe I just don’t like fruit tisanes? Not something I’d repurchase, unfortunately. Wish it tasted more like it had smelled. Not undrinkable, but not somehting I want to finish, either.

The dry “leaves” smell amazing! Just like blueberries and raisins in a berry trail mix! Eight minutes later and the brewed liquor is a deep purple. The aroma is more subdued now than before.

I ate a bunch of fresh blueberries before I brewed this tea so I could compare the tastes. My first tiny sip of this tea was tarter than the entire bowl of fresh blueberries! It does taste like blueberries, but that’s more of a secondary note. When it first hit my mouth, it was pure tart hibiscus.

I know this doesn’t actually have any hibiscus in it. But it might as well. Still, this is waaaaay better than the herbal teas I’ve had that do have hibiscus in them. It’s a significant improvement. If you like tart, you’ll love this! But it’s not the blueberry tea I’ve been searching for.

This tea was generously provided by Teavivre!

Oh man, this tea.

Seriously, guys. This tea.

But first, a story.

My wife and I ran out to pick up this package today and decided to stop for lunch too. You know that while I was waiting, I had to rip into the package. Oh tea, glorious tea! There was tons of it. I open the first pouch – TGY. My wife’s favorite. I sniff it, sigh happily, and then sniff it again before looking up at her and turning the pouch upside down, dumping it all over the table.

What I forgot to mention to her (and to you, dear reader) is that the tea inside the pouch was individually vacuum packed. Yeah, I’m evil. She nearly had a heart attack.

Anyway, on to the tea. This is delightful. It needed 2-3 teaspoons to seem like enough, but oh, it was worth it. The dry tisane smells like, well, blueberries!

Knowing about the hidden hibsicus (aka Roselle), I only let it steep for four and a half minutes. It is plenty strong with just that steep time.

The smell…well, to be honest, the smell worried me. It smells like hibiscus, and overly hibsicus teas make me ill. I girded my tea-loins and took a sip anyway and made a little sound of happiness that I’m sure worried my wife. I took another sip and immediately rushed over here to add this tea to my shopping list. Mmmmmmm.

It’s juicy and sweet like a berry, a touch tart but not overly so, and overall amazing. If you’ve ever had that blueberry pomegranate juice found in the funky bottles, this tastes like that, only without massive amounts of sugar. So much yum. When my bottle of Goji Pop that’s currently living in my fridge is gone, I’m so making a bottle of this to try cold. It’s practically begging for it. I need to have some of this in stock by summer, end of story, y’all!

I have to agree with the others that while the roselle is a bit tart, it isn’t the punch in your face from hibiscus tart. I did add some sugar to this, and I’m sure that helped mellow it out some. I got interested in this one when I saw aislingoftea write about it, and I knew that I wanted to try this in my next batch of samples from teavivre. So thanks to Angel for sending this one to me.

The smell in the bag is simply intoxicating. My palate isn’t as refined as some to be able to pick out the individual fruits, and as the roselle offers that bit of tartness, it masks the other flavours a little bit for me. But I can say that the fruits all blend seamlessly into a nice fruity concoction. I can only imagine how awesome this will be as iced tea come summer. I wonder how it would be cold brewed. This tea makes me want one of those clear tea tumblers so I can show off my cheeky fruits!

Overall, I’m pretty happy with this one. I had a feeling when I first requested this that the roselle might be a bit hibiscus-like, so I was a little nervous, but the other fruits just sounded so yummy, how could I not try this? :P

Thank you Angel for this generous sample. :)
I’m in a fruity mood today during my lazy Saturday afternoon and I’m hoping that this will quench my fruit thirst.

The tea itself smells sweet and fruity in a way that reminds me of jelly babies. Yum Yum. The hardest part is to leave this brewing for the whole 9 minutes. The tea soup is a very dark purple in colour with a berry fragrance.

The tea itself is heavy berry without being too tart and fruity whilst remaining quite light and refreshing. Usually with fruit tea’s I am reminded of cordial with hot water but this tea is different, the fruit tastes natural which brings that fresh and slightly sweet characteristics alive. It picks up strength a little the more I drink but it still remains with the same balance of flavours.

Overall I think this is surprisingly tasty and pleasing. I would recommend this tea to any fan of Teavivre or fruit tea, perhaps even to someone who just wants to wash their pallet between other tea steeps.

Thankyou TEAVIVRE for this generous sample!!
4teaspoons of dry leaf with 24 oz water, cold brewed for about 18 hours. I didn’t really use the recommended teavivre amount because it was brewing so long.
Dry leaf: looks fruity purple and smells wonderfully sweet
Liqour: red/purple
Taste: I was worried about tartness with the roselle, but it was appropriately tart. I definitely got the grape flavour with hints of blueberries and black currants! What a great tasting iced tea. I will certainly have to order more of this to have this summer. I will be making this by the pitcherfull!

Second review for TeaVivre’s samples.

I guess I should share how I brew my tea. Most of the time I brew it in my Noble travel mug from DAVIDsTEA (http://www.davidstea.com/accessories/travel-mugs-2/noble-glass-travel-thermos) and sometimes I brew a teapot using just a regular mesh tea ball (I don’t have a tea pot with a built in infuser, unfortunately). Anywhoo, on to the tea.

This was another sample I got from TeaVivre. After drinking the Pi Lo Chun I was in the mood for something a little sweeter, so I decided to have a cup of this. The dry "leaves"smell very sweet, almost like fake blueberry bubblegum that you get for a dollar at the store. The leaves are BEAUTIFUL, a vibrant pop of blue and maroon-y purple.

The brewed tisane is a lovely deep purple and has retained its scent. I added a little bit of sugar to avoid any tartness.

I LOVE THIS TISANE! It’s tart (but not overly tart to the point of puckering) with a little tang and a small punch of sweetness. It tastes EXACTLY like the description, and none of the pure fruit flavor is sacrificed like it is in so many fruit blends.

Very nice, this will be a cupboard staple from now on.

I used about 4 tsp. for about 12 oz. of water and steeped for 8 minutes and 30 seconds with boiling water.

Love this tea. It does not disappoint.

1st steep: I used the recommended 3-4tsp/ 8oz, but only steeped for about 1-1.5 minutes. It had plenty of flavor. Stopped the steep short because the color was so intense. Taste: lots of grape and black currant, a little less blueberry. Just a tiny bit of tartness- perfect. I too was expecting it to be a lot more tart (and I generally do not like very tart tastes).

Second steep: went a bit longer (maybe 3 minutes), and added a lot more water. Still had a lot of flavor. Slightly less grape, blueberry coming through more. Still really good.

I think I could have easily gone for a 3rd steep, as there was still a lot of flavor in there. I may try to do so tomorrow.

Without having tried it yet, I do think this would taste good either hot or iced. Also, due to its fruitiness, I think this would be an excellent introduction to tea/tisanes for the younger crowd.

I was surprised that the grape and blueberry worked so well together. Grapes are such a strong flavor, I expected them to be overwhelming. But they were not. Perhaps it was the addition of the black currant?

If I has any kind of skill in the kitchen, I would probably try to incorporate this into baking somehow. We are so used to the same old regular flavors like blueberry, and this is definitely different, in a good way :)

Oh, the taste of this tea. At first, I was skeptical about it. But when I got to actually drinking it, it was amazing! I’ve re-bought it once already and I sure am planning on buying it again and again.

I’m not really sure what’s so great about this tea, but I suppose the grapes add very much flavor and aroma, and blends everything together. A very soft taste, but leaves a little tingling sensation in the tongue afterwards. I usually drink it with sugar, but without sugar it is also amazing.

This was more tart than I was expecting, but was still an enjoyable cup. I am finding myself liking hibiscus/roselle less and less, so I probably won’t buy this tea, but it was a good introduction to roselle and is a good one to have on hand for company that can’t handle caffeine. (I seem to have a lot of those friends! ) I didn’t try it sweetened; the next time I have some I will post the difference!
Thank you to Angel and Teavivre once again for their very generous sample sizes!