Let it be known to everyone who doesn’t know, I love Alice in Wonderland and all things Lewis Carroll, and I have since as long as I can remember. I fancy myself a bit of a Mad Hatter (tons of hats, a little crazy, no mercury poisoning though) and also have a serious love of Disney. Though I have no shame in admitting that the Disney version of Alice in Wonderland was never really ‘big’ with me, I still was super excite to try a Mad Tea Party!
So if that introduction didn’t do it, allow me to properly introduce today’s tea: Mad Tea Party Blend by Disney Wonderland. A blend of Indian Black Teas, Safflowers, Calendula Petals, Ginger Bits, Apricot Bits, Peach and Apricot flavors. I just love it when ingredients include the word ‘bits’ it just makes me smile. Anyway, this tea is very pretty with the different flower petals mixed in with the tea leaves, I love pretty teas.
The aroma of the leaves is very fruity and tart! You mostly get the aroma of apricots, so much apricot that it drowns out all the other things at first, but if you keep sniffing around you get to experience a mild floral scent and just a touch of spice. It is a very potent aroma, almost a little too strong and makes me feel a bit topsy turvy.
After brewing the aroma just kicks up the intensity, the smell reminds me of an apricot liqueur with heavy citrus notes. Where the citrus is coming from is beyond me, but oranges are definitely there and poking me in the face. I am slightly worried I am going to get sloshed from this tea. The brewed liquid has more of the ginger aroma to it but it also has an artificial ‘perfume’ smell.
The taste is intensely tart, like eating unripe cherries tart. I should point out that it is not bitter, just intensely tart. I need to add some sugar to this tea (much like I need sugar with store grade strawberries, their tartness is not enjoyable to me either) to make it a little more tolerable so I can actually see what flavors are there under the tart. Well, it actually does taste a but like liqueur or maybe the flavoring has alcohol in it, but it also tastes like peaches and apricots. I decided after seeing a lot of other people on Steepster say that this tea is great iced to turn it into an iced tea, and you know what, it works that way. It still has that ‘fake’ taste that a lot of flavored bottled teas have but it is no longer tart and I can taste the earthiness of the tea mixed with peaches and apricots, and at the end a zing of spice from the ginger. Sadly I am not overwhelmed and doubt I will be seeking out more of this tea, it is just too tart for a hot tea and too artificial for an iced.
