I didn’t really know what to expect from this tea—firstly because I’ve never had rose in a tea and secondly because when dry, it had a strong, perfumey smell that was a bit reminiscent of pot purri or even a rose perfume. Well, it’s not great in my books. I’ve not found it truly disappointing or poor quality or anything, but it just has a kind of dull, herby, very faintly peppery kind of taste. It also gets kind of bitter if you steep it for a while, so watch out for that. This tea needs sweetener and is so far the only Kusmi tea that as early as the second steeping has lost significant flavour (in comparison, I drank the spearmint green tea yesterday and got three or four steepings out of it, witht the cool, clean flavour still clearly perceptible throughout). I don’t think the downfall of this tea is its demure quality, because that is also a characteristic of the strawberry green tea by Kusmi, and I thought that was a pretty great tea. I think the problem with this tea is perhaps that the rose flavour, while certainly notable, is not necessarily a good match for the green tea (it may be this type of green tea [a lighter, sweeter, grassier one could work better], but I’m not sure there). This tea is pleasant, but I don’t think it’s very memorable.
If rose is a “thing” for you, maybe you should give this a try, but if you pick it up and think, like I did, that that lavish, rich eastern quality of rose’s fragrance as in rosewater or rose sweets will be well reflected in the tea, I don’t think this will be what you’re looking for. Rose might be a better match for a lighter green tea (potentially with jasmine), or a white tea. A rose fragrance that’s as strong as the dry scent indicates this one is could be really good on its own, too. This tea is basically a good concept executed somewhat unsuccessfully. Overall, I’d mostly recommend this to someone looking for an appropriately flavoured green tea of decent quality to pair with a Lebanese meal. It might also be more interesting mixed with chai or a floral tea of a different variety. There’s a difference when it’s cool, so it could make a nice iced drink with more sweetener or a little something added. It would also probably go quite well with milk.
