Papaya and Pineapple No. 53

I’ve been craving tropical teas for the past month or so. For the past few summers, DT’s tropical summertime blends have been very heavy on the coconut and they love their pina colada variations. While I love coconut, I can’t get down with pina colada teas. The only one I’ve enjoyed in (relatively) recent memory is Strawberry Colada, and that was largely because it was hibiscus-forward with excellent strawberry flavor. But, I digress. My point is, I’ve been hankering for some good tropical blends without having to drink the entirety of my Beach Bellini and Mandarin Mimosa stash. Enter Papaya and Pineapple. Even in the absence of added sweeteners or flavorings, the papaya note is so fresh and flavorful. I’m glad the pineapple just plays a supporting role in this blend.

May Flowers! This month I’m going to be sampling a variety of floral blends from my collection — teas and tisanes with inclusions of rose petals, lavender, chrysanthemum, cornflower, chamomile, hibiscus (yup, I don’t care if it’s the most unpopular ingredient on this site, it’s a flower, it counts!), marigold, sakura, or just teas that happen to have a strong floral note to their flavor profile.

This is one of my older Tea Chai Te purchases, that I actually bought when I visited the shop during a birthday vacation in March of 2017. For being a year old the leaf still smells good, but I’ve definitely put a priority on this for sipdown, since I know fruit teas don’t keep long, and this is a tropical fruit and hibiscus blend. The leaf has a very lovely fruity and floral aroma.

I’ve tried this tea warm in the past, but definitely prefer it iced. I’ve made it before as a warm brew and then chilled it, but this time I simply cold brewed it. The tea has a nice fruit punch flavor that I really enjoy, with a slightly tangy tropical flavor, with notes of pineapple, citrus, and a very subtle floral hint of rose right at the end of the sip. I have personally found that the tea is most tangy as a warm brew, but mellows out a bit iced, especially when cold brewed. While this does have a lot of natural fruity tanginess, I find it also has a lot of natural sweetness and a softer floral quality as well. I really enjoy this tea for it’s refreshing punchy quality; I think my only complaint, is that for a tea called “Papaya and Pineapple,” I wish it had a much stronger pineapple presense, but I don’t believe this tea is using flavorings (at least, it doesn’t state so on the website) and that would be hard to achieve with just dried fruit. Still a very tasty fruit blend!

Full review: https://teatimetuesdayreviews.wordpress.com/2017/08/15/tea33/