What a disappointment. Everything about this tea seemed like a perfect fit for me. I love oolong, I love berries, what’s not to love about this tea?
Unfortunately the result is way less than the sum of its parts. For one, I’ll echo what some others have said — there is very little actual oolong tea in this blend. So that’s a big problem… The tea flavor gets pretty much completely lost in the fruits. But that shouldn’t be a huge issue if the berry mix is delicious, right?
Well, that’s problem number two. The berry mix is a bit of a mess. All I can taste is intensely tart, generic fruit flavor. There’s so many different pieces is just becomes this muddled mess of fruit flavors. Nothing stands out. It’s completely unbalanced.
Not wanting to let 2 oz of tea go waste I have tried my best to salvage this tea. Different brew setups came out slightly different, but were ultimately overrun by the tartness (which makes it a totally unrefreshing iced tea). Blending with other teas seemed a good solution but in every case the result was the same – whatever tea I mixed with this was ruined by the horrid, inescapable, generic tartness.
Tartness is a great part of the experience with so many fruits. But that’s where this tea runs into trouble – tartness is only PART of the fruit experience, but it’s the whole flavor of this blend.
