2 Tasting Notes
Teavana teas themselves are unsweetened, so the rock sugar is touted as the solution to customers who can’t quite recreate the flavor of this sample at home. However, the official Teavana recipe for Blueberry Kona Pop is as follows (for a 32 oz teamaker):
1/2 cup Blueberry Bliss
1/2 cup Pineapple Kona Pop
1/2 cup German Rock Sugar
brewed for 15 minutes and poured over ice, as per doubling-the-tea-strength-to-avoid-dilution guidelines. It’s a TON of sugar. It’s almost viscous when drained and poured. And it’s delicious.
There’s almost no flavor of tea- though it’s an herbal blended with a rooibos, so perhaps that’s to be expected- and with the heap of sugar added, it tastes far more like juice than tea of any sort. If you catch it later in the sample’s life (or if employees haven’t added enough ice), it does tend to get somewhat watered down, but when it’s done right, it’s sweet and tropical without being overwhelmingly so; the blueberry is definitely the predominant flavor, with the pineapple as more of an overtone and aftertaste.
(As a side note, the rest of the sweetened samples really do contain only about a teaspoon of sugar per cup, at least as of this writing. I promise.)
Preparation
Of the three teas in this blend, the taste which comes through the most strongly is the jasmine green tea (understandable, since it’s the only flavored one included). I’m a big fan of jasmine, so this isn’t a problem for me! It’s a little grassier than jasmine alone, and due to the white tea, easy to burn- though if you do, the bitterness is usually sufficiently muted by the others not to completely ruin your cup- but it’s very clean and fresh, and overall, nice to drink either hot or iced.
