Blueberry Black

This one is new from Spice & Tea Exchange and I first tried it when a friend of mine brought it over with her cool blue cast iron teapot to brew in not too long ago. I haven’t been able to forget this tea since then and today I finally went out and bought some.
It smells incredible. Blueberry scrumptiousness. I love that there are real blueberry pieces in it and that its a Yunnan black tea.
I really like the Spice & Tea Exchange, its the only good tea store experience I can have down here.

The first pot I made is just not the same as the first time I had it… but perhaps I need more time with it. Maybe her tea pot was seasoned with this tea as she told me its been the only one brewed in it for a while.
What ended up making this tea awesome for me this time was a cranberry orange white chocolate cookie from whole foods. It was amazing and I didn’t know I even liked cranberry orange.

Anyway, I’ve been on a crazy blueberry tea kick lately, and tried some other blueberry teas not worth mentioning. I wanted to add almond milk to this but it has to defrost from being in the back of the fridge (yeah thats not normal) so I had to use regular milk instead. I also used blue agave and its much better now.
I want to figure out how to create those blueberry tea mistos I used to get at Starbucks before they took them away.

The dry leaf smells heavenly. Lots and lots of blueberry notes bursting out of the package. The blueberries in this blend are small pieces, unlike the big, full blueberries in DavidsTea Blueberry Jam (the DT version is still my favorite blueberry tea, to date.)

The steeped smell is different, however. There’s almost something…perfumy? about it. Maybe a little floral? I’m not sure what it is, but it doesn’t make me think “blueberry” like the dry aroma did.

Without additions, the taste is certainly Blueberry Black, with the emphasis on black. It does taste like blueberry, buts it’s not like the IN YOUR FACE blueberry of Blueberry Jam. But, I also picked-up some blueberry sugar (it’s sugar mixed with dehydrated blueberry puree) when I was at the TSTE, so it’s time to try it out!

Now that it’s sweetened, the blueberry really pops. Each sip is awash with the taste of juicy blueberries. Much better. And it’s even better as it cools. My cup’s lukewarm at this point, and blueberry is now at the forefront.

The base tea is good; no bitterness detected at a 2.5 min steep (and I’m especially sensitive to bitterness) and it sits nicely with the blueberry flavors.

ETA: Wow, I used the word “blueberry” a lot in this note. Blueberry.