Summer Rose

Well, I am an idiot! I apparently counted this tea as a sipdown ages ago and removed it from my cupboard, when in reality I’ve had the last spoonful sitting in my tea box for ages, going unnoticed! Drinking it black as it’s underleafed and the Adagio black base isn’t coming through too strongly. The rose is still delicious and delicate without getting lost. I have a couple of small tins of Whittard’s English Rose tea to get through, but might eventually repurchase this when I’m in need of a staple rose tea without frills. There we go, now it really is a sipdown! facepalm

Still experimenting, this time with much lower steeping time. Barely any taste at all without Truvia, but tastes nice as always with it.

I adore rose, and cold steeped, this stuff is magic. I like it with a little sweetener so it tastes a bit like candied roses.

I have now reached 300 tasting notes. Exciting, isn’t it? Anyway, this tea has a stronger rose scent brewed. The flavour is bit milder compared to other rose teas I’ve had. It still has that nice floral flavour to it.

Since it’s a ‘Summer’ tea, maybe I should have a cold brew.

Tea Sipper reviewed this tea earlier today, and after reading her positive notes on it I decided it was time to open my own bag of Summer Rose that has been sitting untouched in my cupboard for months now. I ordered it thinking it would help chase away my winter blues, but then I was worried that it would be too rosy. I’m a big chicken that way.

Turns out that this is a really nice tea! The smell is all rose. Strong rose. Once brewed, however, the taste is a nice balance between the base tea and the rose flavor. The base tea is smooth and has a lemon note which makes me think it’s a Ceylon . There is no astringency and no bitterness. The lemon note is light, but it’s undeniably there, and it combines with the rose beautifully. The rose flavor is no where near as strong in taste as it is in smell. In fact, as the tea cools the rose notes become harder to pick up. That was disappointing, but overall I has a very pleasant experience with this tea. It’ll be in high rotation this summer. I may even try it cold brewed.

Thanks Tea Sipper for your great review on this one! :) I’m glad I listened to you and gave it a try.

’Here’s Hoping’ traveling teabox Round #2 // Tea #23
Sometimes rose doesn’t like to actually make itself known when it’s actually in a tea blend. Usually it just looks pretty. But when this says rose, it actually means rose! It’s bordering on potpourri here. But it’s tasty anyway. I love Adagio’s black tea base – it pairs with anything with the perfect amount of robustness. And if this is Ceylon, it’s my favorite Ceylon. But the rose is definitely there (probably because it is both petals AND rose oil) and sometimes very sweet. A couple more teaspoons of this one in the teabox! Some nice ones so far!

Overall, my experience with rose teas has been disappointing. When it comes to floral teas, I think I’ll stick with jasmine for the foreseeable future.