Throwback Thursday! This was one of my earliest teas, and certainly one of my first flavored green teas. I remember when I was new to teas I found it very fussy and had a lot of issues with bitterness/astringency if it wasn’t brewed just right, but somehow I feel revisiting it now, a good year later, I probably wouldn’t run into that problem. I have a better grasp on not overleafing or oversteeping greens now. I am more worried about age degradation than anything else, since greens are known to not hold up well over time.
I never did much iced tea in my early tea-drinking days either (that came later), so I don’t think I ever cold brewed this one, either, and that is pretty much my standard for fruity greens, now. So this brew was prepared as a cold steep overnight. The tea is such a lovely pale yellow and has a very pungent fruity aroma. The flavor is a crisp, clean flavor that is actually more of a floral flavor than strongly fruity. The green tea has a very refreshing clean sweet grass flavor, and there is a strong spring florality present, reminding me a lot of jasmine blossoms, and then a very gentle, subtle sweet-tart fruity note that is a bit like raspberry or pomegranate that lingers on the back of the tongue. The floral note to the tea is perhaps a little strong with a slight perfume-like flavor, but it isn’t perfume-like at all in aroma and doesn’t aggrevate my head in the slightest; the aroma is very berry-sweet and fruity. Overall, it’s quite nice and makes a nice iced tea for the spring weather. I do think I’d like it more if there was a bit better balance between the floral note and fruity note in the tea, but also appreciate that it isn’t swimming in a strong artificial fruit flavoring that overpowers the base green tea, and I can taste a nice clean grassiness.
It’s a good tea, but I think after having tried so many greens now, I am not as crazy about it now as I was when I first tried it, and had so little exposure to flavored greens (I originally scored it at a 90). So I’m lowering the score, only because after a good year or so of tea drinking, in comparison to so many other teas, it just doesn’t strike that high of a rating for me anymore. I do still quite enjoy it, though!
Flavors: Berry, Floral, Fruity, Grass, Jasmine, Perfume, Raspberry, Sweet, Tart, Vegetal
