Fruit Hoops English Breakfast

Opened this one for breakfast, since I’ve recently finished off the other black teas I had open at home. Look! There’s me, working through my stash. Hooray!

Upon opening the pouch, I could immediately smell fruit. Strawberry, raspberry, orange. It’s a scent that lingered throughout the brewing, and I’m pleased to say that it also made it into the flavour of the finished tea. This one is SO fruity, and the flavours seem remarkably well defined. I can taste strawberry, raspberry and orange, largely in the mid-sip, plus the occasional hint of peach at the end of the sip. There’s a hefty dose of malt from the black base that makes this a pretty sweet treat, maybe just a little sweeter than I’d typically look for on a morning.

My only complaint is that I don’t get much of a “cereal” vibe from this one, which is what it was intended to be. Maybe it’s a good thing, though, because I’m not actually sure that it’s a workable concept. Drinking this does put me in mind of fruit juice, and that’s a breakfast staple, so I guess the “breakfast” element is kind of there. What this tea really reminds me of is Rainbow Sherbet, which I drink at work during the week. It’s a little creamier from the marshmallow root, and the base tea comes through more strongly (meaning that milk works well here, where it really doesn’t with Rainbow Sherbet). The flavour profiles are really kind of similar, though. Given that I like the flavours, that’s not really a problem, but this one just isn’t quite as unique as I hoped it would be.

1 tsp, 3.5 minutes, boiling water. Splash of milk.

I was a bit put off by the name… I mean, really , would I really want a fruity cereal flavored tea? As i found I … I like it quite a bit. The fruit isn’t as crazy as it sounds and the black tea wasn’t bad. No bitterness. I like fruity teas and the sweetness that implies so this tea works. Not every day, but one I could keep in stock. (If I had more this this sample) Not bad :)

This tea smells like candy…a little like jolly ranchers and a lot like that sour gel you can buy in little squeeze tubes. Just opening the bag was enough to make my mouth water, so I had to brew up a cup to accompany my creature-smashing evening in Torchlight II.

The pungently fruity scent persists after brewing…and the tea lives up to the smell! The black base is relatively quiet, but the combination of freeze dried fruit and flavourings results in a surprisingly natural tasting cup. I’m primarily getting raspberry (and a little watermelon, strangely enough) in addition to a bunch of fruits my palate isn’t sufficiently well-developed enough to discern.

I think it might be a little better cold, but for today’s purposes a nice hot cup was exactly what I needed.

I brewed it hot and chilled it. The tea was more present than when I cold brewed it and get more fruitiness. The fruity flavors remind me of zebra fruit strip gum unless my memory is off because it has been so long since I had the gum.

Pass the Stash

If I had a list of favorite cereal, Fruit Loops would be no where near it. I find it sickenly sweet like unicorn poo.. so I was a tiny bit nervous to try this tea. Luckily, I was pleasantly surprised. I feel like they really hit the Goldilocks zone of sweetness for it. Not so sweet that I wouldn’t be able to stomach it but not too little sweetness that it has no resemblance to Fruit Loops. I do notice fruity flavors such as lime, orange, and raspberries… isn’t incredible how many flavors we can detect in a single brew?
This tea is not for me, but I could see other people really enjoying it.

Yesterday I had a “teapiphany”. Up until this point I have been in the “must try all the teas” phase. Yesterday I went and looked in my “sip down these samples” basket and nothing looked good. I moved most of it to my trade box, because what is the point of drinking tea if you don’t love it? I think I have had enough teas now to have a pretty good idea what I like at this point. That’s not to say that I won’t still try other things because I know taste develops over time, but I’m through drinking down things just because they are there.

I also canceled my Handmade Teas subscription. This month’s tea was a “Hempmaicha” and it just didn’t appeal to me at all. Since last month’s tea was a black and I liked it, I figure that the coming few months are bound to be greens and things I don’t like. I just hate the idea of having a full bag of tea that cost $12.95 that I will never open and don’t care to.

So on to this tea. The first time I had it, I liked it. Now, not so much. So into the swap box it goes. The black base is just too thin for me now.

Sipdown (176/182)!

Thank you VariaTEA for the sample! A Fruit Loops inspired tea sounded interesting, but when I saw it was with a black base I wasn’t sure how it would work so I lost interest. However, I am delightfully surprised with how pleasant this was.

It’s not that often I find that the flavours in Frank’s black blends really stand out; in fact, I far prefer his white blends to anything else he offers. However, I thought this tasted exceptionally flavourful and very well defined. I certainly got the distinct flavour of juicy oranges and ripe raspberries and I thought limes, though looking at the ingredients now it doesn’t appear as though there’s any lime flavouring. Regardless it was spectacular.

The “downside” (but I think more of an upside in my case) was there was nothing here that made me think of a cereal component – just fresh fruit juices. In that aspect this isn’t really Fruit Loops “cereal”, just amazingly defined fruit. To be perfectly Frank (pun sort of intended?) this is what I imaged the Rainbow Sherbet black blend would taste like.

So I loved this; thanks VariaTEA for the sample. I’d probably rate a little higher if the name was a little more accurate, but regardless this was refreshingly delicious and a great surprise.

Backlog:

I was really excited to try this one. I’m not sure exactly why that is. Fruit Loops aren’t my favorite kids cereal. In fact, I really don’t care much for fruit loops, never really have. I’d much rather have fruity pebbles.

Hey Frank … Fruity Pebbles. Use a genmaicha base. Fruity Pebbles. I wouldn’t be upset if you did a cocoa pebbles either.

Actually, when it comes to “kids cereals” I’d really love to have a count chocula. You’ve done the franken berry and the boo berry. What about count chocula, Frank?

The aroma of this cereal is fruity and sweet. Kind of like when you open a box of Fruit Loops. Fruity and sweet. But even though it is a fruity, sweet tea, the black tea base is substantial. It’s a solid English Breakfast tea with strong notes of malt (which accentuate the cereal-ish-ness of this tea). Overall, a satisfying black tea blend.

The fruit flavors – I taste lime primarily. Next I tasted raspberry and orange. The strawberry, blueberry and apple are softer notes. The fruit notes are more on the sweet side than on the true to fruit side, which works given that this is a “fruit flavored kids cereal” inspired tea.

I would like marshmallow in this.

Thank you NayLynn for sending some of this my way. The marshmallow in this is what caught my eye but sipping on it now I am grateful I didn’t buy a pouch. This isn’t bad, but it is not something I want all that much of either. It is fruity with different flavors (such as orange and strawberry) popping up with each sip but the base is really what you taste the most and I am just not that into it. I am happy for the chance to try it though :)