Berry Almond Amaretto

I bought a couple of ounces of this a while ago on sale just to try it out. Never got around to it until now.

It has hibiscus, so it’s not surprising that it brews up tart and probably is meant to be served with sugar. At first I got the sense of a pretty normal hibiscus-y fruit tea, meaning that the hibiscus drowns out most of the other potential fruit flavors. However, as I keep drinking this one, the intense almond/amaretto flavor built and built, almost lending a light sweetness or at least a diminishment of the tartness. I enjoy it. I also think it would be an awesome agua di jamaica base.

Thanks Aimee P.! Very fruity, slightly nutty. It’s eh. It kind of reminds me of a trail mix with raisins and almonds. A bit too fruity for my tastes.

The dry leaf smell of this tea is strong scented with amaretto, but I didn’t taste any amaretto in the hot brew.

As a hot brew it’s a little too tart for my preference. I fortunately have only a little bit left, and will cold brew the rest in hopes of toning down the sour aspect of this.

When choosing through the two marzipan flavored options. I have to admit I’m glad I chose the one that leaned closer to the berry/grape side of the spectrum. It’s like a rich Merlot when brewed. Both in hue and flavor notes. The marzipan flavors simmer and tantalize the taste buds in the background like a perfect back-up band.

If going by dry mix alone one might flip that notion around. Because like Scribbles wrote it really is strongly aromatic. Much like a perfume really, in a good sort of way. If amaretto is your choice of perfume. In any case it is a great introduction to autumn to have this lovely fruit tisane and almost inspires one to visit a vineyard. It’s kind of cool that way.

I got this one in a fantastic tea swap!!! I made this one cold brewed… I like it! it tastes like drinking a cup of skittles, with a nice aftertaste of amaretto! … delicious!I don’t really get the grape flavour.. but I definitely taste a mixture of berries. It’s super nice!

Super tart. Blech. Next time, will brew with some sugar. All I can taste is sour. I don’t know what other flavors there are because I can’t taste them.

I thought, based on its description, that I would not like this blend. That all changed when I smelled it and tasted it for the first time. It smells like a red starburst candy, and the taste is mostly fruity with a touch of amaretto.

I grabbed this one yesterday on my first foray to Teavana. The smell was absolutely perfect, and I adore amaretto, so I knew I had to take it home with me. Between this and the caramel amaretto, this one seemed much more interesting.

Turns out, as much as I love amaretto, I do not like current and hibiscus in my tea. Much too tart for me, overpowering the amaretto and leaving me like that one time when I was young and ate a bunch of sour currants. I thought I was going to die. The smell was perfect, but the taste of tangy fruits and berries was way too strong and I lost the warm, rich flavour I’d been expecting.

I imagine it’d make a nice cold tea, so I think I’ll hang on to it and try a few more times to make it work, but at this point I wouldn’t buy it again.

Ouff. Berry Almond Amaretto is an incredible tea, but it needs a lot of TLC.

It’s a little scary how strong it can get if you don’t brew it properly. You really have to watch and steep it for about 3 minutes or else the berries will be so concentrated it will ruin the tea.

So if you steep it to the perfect concentration, you will notice a lovely floral aroma and a true amaretto taste in the background. I don’t understand where the amaretto taste comes from; it’s not even in the list of ingredients. I think it’s only from the natural and artificial flavorings.

Cooking TTB #3

Okay…so….I admittedly did not take this cup the way I normally would. My boyfriend offered to help me get through all the teas I wanted to taste from this box by drinking a cup of something alongside me so that I could taste it without having to necessarily drink a whole cup. Well, that meant that while I was at least able to steal one sip of it untainted, the cup quickly made friends with my sugar bowl as soon as it was passed along to my boyfriend. The first sip I had was all hibiscus tartness. All subsequent tastes were all berry kool-aid. I didn’t get any almondy flavor at all (although I could smell it when I was brewing this).

I’m glad to have tried this because it was one I always kind of wondered about from Teavana. But, it’s not for me.