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“Well, I tend to add milk to my black teas to tame the bitterness I get a bit (I’m ultra sensitive to bitterness) but I forgot that the cafeteria doesn’t open until 6am so I’ve been sitting with...” Read full tasting note
“Amazing aroma. The tea tastes very pleasant, with a bright note and strong berry flavor from the blackberries. Very delicious tea, my husband liked this one too, he wanted to know where it was...” Read full tasting note
“This is a lovely morning cup for those cold, rainy days when nothing but good tea is going ot get you out of bed. Thank you to 52Teas for the free tea-of-the-month subscription box. I will be...” Read full tasting note
“This was the first Tea of the Week for March – it’s also nearly sold out! This month has been absolutely crazy for me – this is the first time that I’ve actually been able to sit down and do...” Read full tasting note
Tea of the Week for March 5, 2018!
Blackberry: An aggregate sweet-tart fruit with hints of earthy undertones. More sweet than it is tart.
Sage: A fragrant herb with an earthy, warm flavor and is slightly astringent.
When I was a tea reviewer, one of my favorite flavor combinations was blackberry and sage. I loved the way that the sage brought out the earthy qualities of the blackberry while the warmth of the herb enhanced the sweeter notes of the blackberry while the sweetness of the blackberry seemed to soften the somewhat astringent tones of the sage. Somehow, these two components balanced each other – bringing out the best in each other and helping to create a really smooth tea drinking experience. Theirs is a happy tea marriage, indeed.
With my last herb/spice order, I happened to order some really beautiful dried white sage. So fragrant and absolutely perfect silvery-white leaves. I wasn’t sure what inspired me to order the herb, but I did and now that I had it, I needed to find a use for it because I wasn’t about to let these gorgeous leaves go to waste! My initial thought was to blend it with a white tea because these pristine leaves looked a lot like a flattened silver needle. But, then I thought about the flavor of the sage and I worried that it might overpower the delicate qualities of the white tea – so I thought – hey! How about Yunnan! A rich, flavorful Yunnan may work synergistically with the herb – the herb bringing out the peppery tones of the Yunnan while the tea would help the sage’s warmth to develop nicely.
To help create some depth, I also added a Yunnan-grown Assamica – malty and bold, but not overly astringent – and remembering how much I loved the combination of blackberry and sage, it seemed like a no-brainer which fruit I’d pair with the sage.
The result is quite fantastic. The black tea base is solid: it’s smooth, it’s rich and it’s bold without tasting brassy or harsh. The sage is well pronounced even though I didn’t really use a whole lot of it in the blend (It’s a powerful herb! And it’s also quite good for you: an excellent source of vitamins and is said to improve brain function and regulate digestion – among other benefits!) but the blackberry comes through quite nicely too. They offer a pleasing balance to the cup that is both savory and sweet.
This is a match made in tea heaven!
ingredients: black tea, organic black tea, organic blackberries, organic sage & organic natural flavors
At 52teas.com, you will find unique, hand-blended artisan loose leaf teas: a new limited edition creation every week of the year. We pride ourselves on offering truly unique, one-of-a-kind tea blends that you won’t find anywhere else.
Well, I tend to add milk to my black teas to tame the bitterness I get a bit (I’m ultra sensitive to bitterness) but I forgot that the cafeteria doesn’t open until 6am so I’ve been sitting with this tea in the steeper, dry, for half an hour and honestly it’s scenting my entire desk this amazing blackberry smell. I can’t smell the sage so much and the white leaves look very weird to me but I have high hopes for this tea. Blackberry sage is one of my favourite flavour combinations of all time.
The sage is much more present in the steeped tea smell, less sweet and more savory. It is definitely much more present in the steeped liquid, which isn’t very sweet at all and I can’t detect much blackberry in the first sips, despite 2 blackberries being in my steeper. It’s a nice tea but maybe I’ll put a bit more sweetener in it next time to try to bring out the blackberry more. I am enjoying it though, and hopefully it will wake me up this morning because I’ve been struggling.
Amazing aroma. The tea tastes very pleasant, with a bright note and strong berry flavor from the blackberries. Very delicious tea, my husband liked this one too, he wanted to know where it was located in the tea cabinet, but alas, I already drank it all. I highly recommended this one!
Flavors: Blackberry, Sage
This is a lovely morning cup for those cold, rainy days when nothing but good tea is going ot get you out of bed. Thank you to 52Teas for the free tea-of-the-month subscription box. I will be enjoying these teas a lot in the coming weeks.
Lots of blackberry, the base is prominent, but not bitter/overpowering. The sage isn’t medicinal or vegetal. If anything it is slight and gives a bit of sweet flavour. I drank this as a latte and found adding a touch of soy milk make this very creamy and smooth.
Flavors: Blackberry, Fruity, Sage, Smooth, Tannin, Vanilla
This was the first Tea of the Week for March – it’s also nearly sold out! This month has been absolutely crazy for me – this is the first time that I’ve actually been able to sit down and do something that wasn’t either family related or work related, although some argument could be made that by writing a tasting note of one of my own teas, that’s actually work related.
Oh well. My life revolves around tea and that’s not something I make excuses for and it’s not something that I regret or resent. I love tea!
One of the first teas that I bought for myself when I made the decision to close LiberTEAS was a blackberry sage tea and it’s a combination that I absolutely love. Sage and blackberries seem to be made for one another – I love how the sage tones down a little bit of the sweetness of the blackberry and gives it some balance which allows the berry to be more expressive when it’s not so sweet.
Sage is one of my favorite herbs, I love the sort of rustic, woodsy, earthy note it delivers. It’s savory but because of the presence of the blackberry, this tea doesn’t come off too savory, but instead a unique balance of both sweet and savory, while also allowing the flavor of the rich black tea to come through and there’s just a hint of berry tartness too. It’s a pleasing tea with a beautiful complexity.
Oh geez, being at work that early would be so brutal for me. Hats off to you! I can also be a little sensitive to the bitterness at times.