Lychee Rose

I received this tea in a “Mystery Swap” with Eva. Thank you!

I have been really leery of floral teas. I had a few in the beginning of my tea drinking that just make my mouth hurt from the over powering perfume-y taste. So this tea had me scared, but while I was trying rose teas I thought I might as well give this a go. I was pleasantly surprised. This was nice and very well balanced with the black tea base. I have not had a lychee tea yet. I think I could pick up on this taste separate from the rose but was not 100% sure. I will enjoy the rest of the sample and this tea has opened my mind to lychee and rose. Thank you Eva for expanding my horizon.

2/10/14 Sample from TeaTiff! 1.8g/6oz/200F/3min. Very light cup with a nice rose/lychee fragrance. I wish I could have leafed this more heavily – I can tell I would love this brewed more strongly. The lychee and rose play well together.

Here’s Hoping TTB (round 5)

Maybe I shouldn’t say this… but, I am quite confident I know how to recreate this with 99% accuracy because this seems to be the same lychee black tea that comes in bulk… let’s just pretend I didn’t say that.

I found it odd to pair rose with lychee, but this was pleasant. Not amazing and not bad, ideally I would drink this while I had some sort of bread item.

It can be a bit ambiguous with the dominant lychee scent, but you can definitely taste rose more prominently than the other. Lychee is there, faint, but still there.

This is the first tea I’m trying from the Tea & Cards TTB! (Which I will call T&C TTB in future tasting notes). I went through all the teas yesterday and created a little “to try” pile. This one just happened to be on top of the pile when I was reaching for tea today. As it was steeping up, it did seem a bit perfume-y from the rose petals, which made me a bit nervous. Thankfully, the tea itself was not too perfume-y for my enjoyment. I think when the tea was hot, the rose flavor was more prominent with bits of fruitiness from the lychee. As the cup cooled down, I actually think that the juicy lychee flavor started taking over with rose taking a backseat. It’s been a very interesting cup to taste. I think I prefer it with the lychee flavor up front. I may have to set some aside to cold brew with later. Off to a good start with this TTB!

Rose and lychee are two things that play together better than I could have imagined.

I typically like lychee when it’s a perfectly balanced fruity floral flavor, but the rose here really emphasises the floral qualities of the lychee, while not being super potent (but certainly present) itself. The result is a delicately perfumed but not overwhelming cup that I enjoyed quite a bit and could see filling a lychee or a floral tea fix. Everything is in balance and even the base is present in the cup, which is sometimes a miss is floral teas.

Thanks for the sample Eva!