Raspberry Cherry

I just had to order this one after seeing how beautiful it looked in the picture. Hot, this one just tasted like tart cherries no matter how much sugar I added. It reminded me of Dewy Cherry from Adagio. It was too tart for me, so I put it in the fridge, hoping the flavor would improve. It’s a few hours later, and it has! Now it tastes rather tropical, with the primary flavor being a very creamy coconut. The sour cherry flavor has completely disappeared. If I had ordered a pina colada tea and received this, I would be very pleased – it’s probably the best pina colada-ish tea I’ve had. However, I’d say it fails at what it set out to do. Hot, it was way too much sour cherry. Cold, there is none. So prepared correctly, this can be quite tasty, but maybe not what you were hoping for. My rating reflects its flavor cold. If I were to rate it hot…well it wouldn’t be high.

This herbal blend I’ve had a few times and the elements just seem like they should be awesome together: fresh looking coconut, apple, rose, cherry, raspberry, banana, sultana…. and hibiscus but the flavor of that doesn’t come across too much. (I love the hint of that when the cup isn’t too red — no overly tart hibiscus, yay!) Sadly the huge delicious looking coconut flakes don’t show up more in the flavor. Overall, the flavor is mostly reminiscent of cherry and really only cherry which is disappointing for all these other ingredients here. Reminds me of the day I helped my grandma pick cherries from her tree in the yard for jam this summer. Sadly, one of the more fun things I got to do for a few weeks while visiting my dad in the hospital every day. I thought this was similar to a blend I’ve had in the past, but the brew definitely isn’t the same. Maybe I should have went with more than two teaspoons for more flavor, but that probably would have made it more tart. It’s a unique flavor to have around though.
Steep #1 // 2 teaspoons // few minutes after boiling // 6 minute steep