In my country we distinguish between the flavour/scent of almond and bitter almond. Bitter almond is not a depreciative, special trees are grown particularly for them (though bitter almonds do show up naturally in every batch). The bitter almond is the one with the strong smell and taste, sometimes you need a little of the bitterness to make the sweet better. Normal, sweet almonds are lovely, their skins usually holding almost all the flavour, but for that almond scent and a bit of bite, usually we need a little bit of bitter almonds to provide that. Nobody wants to have bitter almonds on their own,besides being bitter they are mouth numbing and I think poisonous as well, but they are needed.
All this to say, that bitter almonds are what we usually think of when we think of almond scents, sweet almonds being almost scentless. This tea is, to my taste, strongly scented with bitter almond. With I think some vanilla, cinnamon and coriander in the background, very subtly. The black tea is not wimpish but I got no clue what kind of tea it is, the almond is STRONG. I like it. Particularly with a little bit of milk. But do avoid if you do not like that bitter almond thing (or almonds in general).
PS – just to add, the tea I got does not at all look like the photo here on steepster. No blue (cornflowers?) flowers at all.
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I’ve heard that bitter almonds are somewhat toxic as well, but for some reason I always assumed that it was a different sort of plant entirely.
Bitter almonds are toxic, a bit – but it is one of those things, they are so bitter and mouthnumbing that anybody is unlikely to eat enough of those for any real damage. Apricot kernels or apple seeds as well – they are also toxic, same compound or something similar and same taste.
But bitter almonds occur naturally in sweet almond trees, one in a hundred or a thousand (something like that) almonds will naturally be bitter. Though it only turns bitter when exposed to humidity, chewing them or something (really). But there are also other kinds of almond tree, which are not the normal sweet almond, which give just bitter almonds.
You usually need some ammount of bitter almonds mixed with sweet almonds for a few recipes – in the south of Portugal for marzipan (or amarguinha liqueur), in Italy for amaretti biscuits.
it is really weird you didn’t get the blue cornflowers in your blend.
That’s right Pleine lune dry leaves smells like Amaretto
I went and double checked and Ok I take that back. It has got the cornflowers indeed, though in mine they are pretty faded, and I recognize the almond and the other thingies I can not quite name (Coriander? peel of something?). Cornflowers were just much less blue, oh well, this tea must have oxidized some, I bought by weight from a tea shop. It is still awesome though!
I should write another review, I think I have cracked how to do this, with honey and milk, and I think this is becoming a staple for me.
I’ve heard that bitter almonds are somewhat toxic as well, but for some reason I always assumed that it was a different sort of plant entirely.
Bitter almonds are toxic, a bit – but it is one of those things, they are so bitter and mouthnumbing that anybody is unlikely to eat enough of those for any real damage. Apricot kernels or apple seeds as well – they are also toxic, same compound or something similar and same taste.
But bitter almonds occur naturally in sweet almond trees, one in a hundred or a thousand (something like that) almonds will naturally be bitter. Though it only turns bitter when exposed to humidity, chewing them or something (really). But there are also other kinds of almond tree, which are not the normal sweet almond, which give just bitter almonds.
You usually need some ammount of bitter almonds mixed with sweet almonds for a few recipes – in the south of Portugal for marzipan (or amarguinha liqueur), in Italy for amaretti biscuits.
it is really weird you didn’t get the blue cornflowers in your blend.
That’s right Pleine lune dry leaves smells like Amaretto
I went and double checked and Ok I take that back. It has got the cornflowers indeed, though in mine they are pretty faded, and I recognize the almond and the other thingies I can not quite name (Coriander? peel of something?). Cornflowers were just much less blue, oh well, this tea must have oxidized some, I bought by weight from a tea shop. It is still awesome though!
I should write another review, I think I have cracked how to do this, with honey and milk, and I think this is becoming a staple for me.