Bellini

A sample from Miss B. I made up a cup of this hot today, because I’m odd like that. It struck me as a bit perverse at the time, but I really wanted something summery and peachy, and it’s warm out, so I decided to go for it. I’ll really have to start bringing cold brewed tea to work again now it seems like summer is finally here, and potentially to stay. This is a strong candidate for one of my first cold brews – I have three teabags left, so I’m going to save those for that. I can see it working well!

This is just fine hot, though. The initial sip has a strong, sweet, fuzzy peach flavour. It’s a touch artificial, but not outrageously so. The mid sip is mostly orange (I’d say blood orange, if I had to pin it down). Again, it’s not entirely natural-tasting – more like sour orange candy. There’s a tartness at the end of the sip that makes me suspect there might be a touch of hibiscus at work, but it’s pretty subtle so I’ve no real complaints about that.

The colour of this one is the most surprising thing, to me. It’s bright orange! Usually, fruit teas with hibiscus are either a tell-tale pinky colour, or outright deep red. This is neither, which is novel if nothing else. Artificial colouring, though? How else would it be so orange?

I know this is Tetley, and bagged, but I actually like it a lot more than I expected to. It does taste like a Bellini, without the alcohol or grenadine, and although it’s a little on the artificial side it tastes pretty good. I’m looking forward to trying this one iced in the days ahead.

ETA: GINGER! I knew I could taste something in the background, and then it occurred to me in a fairly blinding glimpse of the obvious. It works pretty well with the orange, so I’m happy. Even though ginger isn’t one of my favourite things, it didn’t stop me enjoying this one!

So I’ve tried making this tea 3 different ways within the last 24h to make iced tea. Here are my results:

Attempt 1: 5 tea bags in 2L pitcher, cold brewed for about 20h. Result: very faint peach/fruity taste with a gross, bitter aftertaste. (possibly from the orange peel since it’s the second ingredient) Quote from the husband “It’s like ‘mmmm, peach!’ but right afterwards: ‘ugh, ass!!’” Dumped the whole pitcher down the drain.

Attempt 2: brewed 1tea bag in 10oz of 200F water for 1 min, placed mug in freezer for 2h to cool down. No bitter aftertaste, but still, not a very strong peach/fruity taste.

Attempt 3: 2L of 175F water, 5 tea bags steeped 5 min then removed. I poured myself half a mug and placed mug in freezer to cool down quickly so I didn’t have to wait as long to try it. Peach/fruity taste is maybe a bit stronger, but still not strong enough. I had this problem with the peach tea from Celestial Seasonings as well. I guess since it doesn’t have hibiscus to give it “umph” it just tastes watery to me.

Overall not a repurchase for me. I will use this tea with Luscious Watermelon from DAVIDs TEA to use it up (faint peach with apple/watermelon taste should be nice) . At least with all my experimenting I used up 11/20 tea bags.

This tea actually tastes a lot like a bellini! You can taste mango and peach which gives it a bit of sweetness, but there is also an acidic hibiscus or rose hip flavour. When steeps it is tangy like a fruit juice, but not sour or bitter. It is AMAZING iced. I like to steep it then freeze it in an ice cube tray. You can put the ice cubes in a strong blender and make a slushy on a hot day.

This was actually a pretty decent cold brew. It was mildly pink but the hibiscus was fairly tame. The peach isn’t as strong as I was hoping but the orange is quite refreshing. I didn’t find that the licorice got out of hand either, it was fairly tame.
I would likely buy this again for cold brews this summer.

Yes, it really does taste like a bellini – minus the booze, and the grenadine. Just don’t oversteep it.. too much hibiscus. It’s junky, but fun.

This tea was on clearance at my local Target, so of course I had to pick it up and give it a try. I found the most prominent aromas of the tea to be orange zest, licorice and ginger. The tea itself brewed a very nice orange/amber color but lost most of its aroma after steeping. This was not lost on me as I did not find the aroma particularly pleasing. I have drank this both hot and cold, and it is delicious both ways. When cold, there is more of a tarty bite at the end of each sip which I greatly enjoy. The orange flavor does not come across as overwhelming or artificial, although it is very dominant. I think this tea would make a wonderful summer iced tea, or even work well frozen into ice cubes or popsicles.

This is a staple in our cupboard not because I really like it, but my mom loves this tea.

My opinion? It’s OK. it’s not very peachy, but definitely a lot of orange flavour in it. But it’s a weird orange flavour; more like orange candy, not the fruit or even orange peel. It’s a strange flavour. Not unpleasant, but not at all what it smells like, either. Which is unfortunate….I really, really, REALLY like the smell of the tea. I am a fan of this being an herbal tea; I would be disappointed if it was a green or black tea.

Verdict: will re-buy because mommy will be cranky if we don’t.