Roses, pistachio, and Persia. This tea makes me think of halva more than anything else, and how wonderful it would be if someone created a chocolate and/or pistachio halva tea.
But back to reality. The dry leaf doesn’t have that many tea leaves in it, but there are a lot of pistachios. Scent-wise, it’s very heavy on the apple, like a sour apple Jolly Rancher. This conjures up images of pucker-inducing tea.
At first, I let this steep for three minutes, and there was hardly any flavour. It was so incredibly subtle. Maybe there was a faint fruitiness from the beginning, and the pistachio was an afterthought, a very distant one. So I cheated and stuck my Tea Stick back into my mug for another minute.
Now it’s much better. Very apple-y. Of course not as pucker-inducing as anticipated, but it’s like Granny Smith apple. The rose is there but not overpowering. And pistachios are still an afterthought.
It’s not stock-up-freakout-worthy, but definitely not a regrettable purchase either. I can see this being ultra refreshing iced. A very youthful, low caffeine treat.
I smelled hard candy with this too, and while sipping found it to be sickeningly sweet. It seems you enjoyed it more than I did. The flavors really don’t blend well together do they?
Not so much.