Happy National Red Rose Day! Today the prompt was to drink a rose tea or a tea with floral flavor notes. My first choice was actually a dragon ball containing rose that Derk gifted me ages ago, but I feel like that is better suited to gong fu, and I have to work this Saturday (boo!) so I needed something to brew-and-go. So I opted for this, which I put in my cold brew bottle last night (this time, I remembered to actually put it back in the fridge, too!)
The dry tea looks very pretty, with an abundance of rose buds, but I’m personally not much of a fan of rose buds and prefer just petals because the buds take up so much space and it’s hard to get a good mix in the scoop that isn’t a few rose buds filling the spoon. So I purposefully tried overleafing a bit, and tried to get more raspberry leaf in the final scoop. My tea this morning is a quite pretty champagne color… like a goldenrod and cotton candy pink sunset. The aroma is that of a rose garden freshly in bloom.
Honestly, despite my best efforts to diversify the leaf, all I taste is rose. Not the sweet herbal taste of raspberry leaf or any of the freeze-dried berries. As I often get with rose floral, there is a light peppery note left on the tongue, and I actually do taste a bit of an effervescent note that is alcohol-like, but that flavor is pretty mellow compared to the strength of the floral. While I have no problem with ice cold rose water, it’s something easy enough to make by just buying some rose petals from an herbal store. In a tea blend, I expect more, so even though it isn’t a flavor I dislike, I’m disappointed in it. I’m getting a little of the rosé and a whole lot of just rose… and absolutely no berry.
I’ll probably end up using up the rest of my packet making rose-flavored lemonade or steeping in milk to add rose-flavored milk to my smoothies.
Flavors: Alcohol, Floral, Pepper, Rose
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Ha, started Rose Day early with a first steep of this one last night. It IS very rosey around these parts – it’s funny all the varieties of roses bloom at once, so the day definitely fits!
I still remember visiting the huge Rose Gardens in Portland in July of 2019, which were still in full bloom and gorgeous!
ah, I bet that was such an experience. :D
Ha, started Rose Day early with a first steep of this one last night. It IS very rosey around these parts – it’s funny all the varieties of roses bloom at once, so the day definitely fits!
I still remember visiting the huge Rose Gardens in Portland in July of 2019, which were still in full bloom and gorgeous!
ah, I bet that was such an experience. :D