Cait select Send Message

While this does make a decent iced tea, there’s nothing very special about it — and it does feel a little silly to be taking the long way around to fruit juice. I’ll save my new supply of this for hot tea!

Oh, this is nice! I was uncertain at first, because I ripped open the sample packet and it smelled exactly like cough syrup, but apparently that’s only in the dry leaves. The tea smells fruity and summery, and it tastes sort of in between actual cherries and really good cherry candy. And tea, of course — there’s a really good tea taste too, and it mixes in very nicely with the cherry flavor.

Now I’m wondering if I’ve got enough in the sample to make iced tea out of it! This would be a really great high summer tea, I think.

I was one of the lucky requesters to get a sample of this tea from JK Tea Shop’s offer — I’d never had chrysanthemum tea before, but I was intrigued by the concept.

The scent of the dry leaves was…odd. Definitely floral, but not floral the way any other tea I’ve ever had has been. Heavier somehow. I put eight flowers and a small shake of loose petals into a pot, and steeping it was the same scent even stronger. The color was a pale virulent green which wouldn’t be amiss at a mad scientists’ cocktail party!

So I sipped cautiously, and it’s amazing! It tastes just like it smells, and while I still have no idea what that taste is, I can now tell that it’s juicy and extraordinarily sweet. It’s not cloying, but it’s just this side of it — I can’t imagine putting more sweetener in! And it leaves behind a plainer, less confusing aftertaste that’s just sweet and sweet and sweet. I had to go make a second cup right away after finishing the first! (Second cup came out just like the first; I’m not tasting any change at all for the second steeping.)

The flowers were a lot smaller and paler than I expected: I think I was picturing something like an American Black-Eyed Susan flower in a dark purple, but these were about half that size and nearly white. So I have a lot more left than I expected! This is a very generously-sized sample packet.

Flowers steeping in the pot:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/cait_tea/4523798781/in/set-72157623664718933/

When I opened the pouch this morning, this tea smelled absolutely wonderful! Sadly, it just isn’t as exciting when it’s brewed up. I tried it with sugar and again with milk, and neither one made a big difference.

…Huh. This tea sounds so good, but there’s some weird scent/aftertaste thing going on that’s just not pleasant, like industrial floor cleaner or artificial sweetener. I tried this cooler and then almost-boiling, and the hotter cup was better, but still…odd. I will give it one more chance, and then it may be yuckyface time, I’m afraid.

(Still, though, mad thanks to Doulton for the sample! I always would have wondered, otherwise.)

I tried steeping this for longer this time, and it turned up a really bitter aftertaste. Sugar helped, but I really don’t think that “good vehicle for milk and sugar” is what this tea is going for!

I’ve done this to myself several times now: I get the Twinings “Fruit & Herbal Infusion Selection” box, use up all of the Blackcurrant, Ginseng & Vanilla sachets, and find myself left with five-sixths of a box of tea. Once I lucked onto a whole box of just the good stuff, but they’re really hard to find!

Which is to say, this is a decent tea. A bit sharp, but for once (thank goodness!) not in a rosehippy hibiscussed way. I do like it! It’s just, you know, not actually why I buy the box.

Okay, it’s kind of pointless to pretend that this isn’t my new favorite iced tea when I just went out and bought a big bag of it, isn’t it? I guess it doesn’t matter how it tastes hot if I’m always making it iced!

Have some time-lapse photography!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/cait_tea/sets/72157623724833659/

This has kind of a lot of caffeine/whatever in it, doesn’t it? Doesn’t it?

Okay, here’s one for ~lauren!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/cait_tea/4516495198/in/set-72157623664718933/

This is decadence. This is a double-strength mug of Florence with three scoops of chocolate ice cream added.

Double-strength Florence is so dark the spoon almost stands up and incredibly bitter — and I say that as someone who loves bittersweet chocolate! But double-strength Florence with three scoops of chocolate ice cream is creamy and smooth and delicious! I didn’t cool the tea down before adding the ice cream, but letting it steep for so long and adding the ice cream cooled it down enough to let me start drinking right away, so I could enjoy the combination of hot tea and cold ice cream before it equalized.

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

(Dinner? What dinner?)