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Light, fruity, slightly floral, and only slightly tangy, with a rose color. It was a little too cloyingly sweet when I added agave nectar to sweeten it.

I have had this tea sitting on my shelf for the past maybe 5 years, and am coming approaching the sipdown. I don’t reach for it very often because of the strange, strong, artificial fruit taste of it. I would rather reach for my Hediard Melange Quatre Fruits Rouges / Four Red Fruits Blend or…when I still had it, the superior Mariage Freres counterpart when I wanted something fruity. I usually brew this tea with honey and whole milk, which do a lot of work to take down the perfume taste and surprising astringency. It wasn’t until it mellowed out over the years that I was able to enjoy it more. What’s interesting is I don’t recall there ever being pieces of fruit (strawberry or papaya) in this tea. I only saw leaf and rose petals. It was not at all what I see of the tea pictured on the website. But then again, I also got this at a TJ Maxx for a discount. Despite how pungent and perfumed the aroma was, the tea itself, to echo another reviewer, seemed stale.

The lightness and perfect balance of fruit and vanilla is something I find refreshing. I used one teabag in a 2 cup teapot.

This is wildly different from the loose leaf version of this Tea Discoveries line. The loose version is true to the rose flavor, complete with aroma, but this…this tastes like drinking black tea steeped in fruity candy. Not sure what happened here. It reminds me of artificial banana candies, like banana Now and Laters. Or strawberry banana candy. Neither milk nor sweetener helped.