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It’s that time of year! Sip-down time. All those teas are piling up, and piling up, and piling up and I need to drink them. I was saving my fusion teas to make ice-tea with in the summer but this guy was lurking at the bottom of my tea-basket, untried! How dare it avoid my taste-buds for this long.

The loose leaf is a mixture of black tea and bits of dried plant material. There are rose-hips and a bunch of other stuff that are in the description for anyone that is interested. The smell is creamy oranges, and some coconut? It’s pleasant, not offensive. Good signs.

I brewed this tea following the instructions provided. I also added a touch of sugar. I have found the Fusion teas that I acquired do like a little sugar. Like salt when cooking used to heighten the flavour, but not make the food salty I believe that sugar with certain teas can be used to accentuate the flavours hidden within. I’m sure some purists will disagree with me, that’s fine, flavoured teas are at times a whole different animal and must be treated as such otherwise you might be left with a lack-lustre experience. Also it is worth trying just to see what you can tease from the tea.

But I digress, something that I am fond of doing and at times find myself inexplicably and ineffably incapable of illustrating why. So this tea is pretty good. Orange creaminess, and a sour tang that I think is from the rose-hips. If you have ever eaten rose-hips you will understand. The sourness is not nice in this tea, even though I do enjoy sour flavours. It doesn’t work with the orange cream flavours. Whilst this is a nice cup, and I think that it will make a wonderful ice-tea, I do think that the flavouring is a tad confused and there is too much going on. It all becomes muddled. Would I drink it hot again? No. Would I drink it iced? Yes. Just like Fusion tea’s key lime tea, I think iced is the way to go with this one.

All in all, good tea, confused a little, thinking about it more, the sourness is actually kind of like wood sorrel. Anyone who forages will know the tangy taste of Oxalis acetosella. There is a sorrel tea that is common in Jamaica, this tea has a similar colour and flavour, other than the orange flavours. Look up sorrel-ginger tea if you are interested in finding this particular stuff.