The Persimmon Tea

Unfortunately, I’ll be echoing the other reviewers on this one… not a great tea, kind of fruity-tasting, and the worst part is that the fruitiness is reminiscent of cherry cough syrup. I loathe cherry cough syrup. I don’t know whether it’s the rooibos being medicinal (certainly a possibility), or the fruity flavouring being gross, but I’ll be dumping the cup… I have one other delicious tea sitting here brewed up, and a couple boxes more to pick from if I feel like having something else.

Backlog from yesterday. I’ve tried this one a couple of times now, and I’m still not sure it tastes like persimmon. When they first put this out, it was advertised as a black tea, but when I got it, it was a rooibos. That was a little disappointing, because I definitely enjoy black teas more. I love persimmons though, so I was still looking forward to it. I usually eat the crunchy kind of persimmons in the fall. I think they’re called Fuyu. They taste like a very sweet combination of an apple and a pumpkin. I’ve never had dried persimmon, although I’ve seen them, and heard they are really sweet. So, this tea tastes fruity and sweet, but I can’t tell if it’s persimmon flavor or not. I’m thinking I’ll try some again once I can pick up some persimmons from the farmer’s market and see how they compare.

This tea is very artificially fruit-flavored, somewhere between cough syrup and hard candies. Possibly a good substitute for Kool-Aid.

This is one of the last Della Terra blends I have left over from my Autumn 2013 order – kind of old now, but it’s been unopened so it’s come to no harm. The dry leaf smells intensely sweet and fruity, and I’m reminded of tropical fruit cordial. I’m not really acquainted with persimmons, but this to me seems like a cross between mango and pineapple. Not quite what I was expecting, but juicy, fruity and enticing all the same. I used 1.5 tsp of leaf for this cup (my first cup with 1 tsp turned out a little weak). No additions.

To taste, this one is pretty much as it’s scent suggests. It’s very sweet, and has a fairly generic, juicy “tropical fruit” flavour. I’d say mango and pineapple if pressed, in a rather candy-like, artificial sort of way. I’m not really sure that it’s persimmon, but my limited acquaintance might be at fault there. It’s refreshing and very juicy-tasting, though, so it’s hard to pick faults. The rooibos doesn’t make much of an impression on the overall flavour, either, so that’s another point in its favour.

This one’s easy enough to drink, and I can imagine it making a good cold brew. It’s not especially distinctive in the way I’d hoped it would be, but it’s pleasant nonetheless. A tropical treat!

On first smell of this, I was worried about how it was going to taste – it smelled very medicinal. Fortunately, the medicinal note didn’t arise in the cup.

A pleasant but not stand out rooibos. There’s a distinct note of orange peel and some fruity sweetness that I wouldn’t really pin down as persimmon.

Nice and easy to drink, but it didn’t grab me.

From Another TTB?!? round 2

I’ve been rifling through this box all day looking for something to tempt me, but this is only the 3rd tea I’ve tried today. And it’s pretty far off my normal spectrum because I really really am not a fan of rooibos. But it is 10:30pm and I’m hoping to reset my sleep cycle this weekend. I’m likely to send it off Monday or Tuesday. If anyone had any standouts still in the box, pleaseplease let me know. Admittedly I haven’t heard of MOST of these teas and have been going off of names and scent of dry leaves and pure fickleness.

Persimmon, ah love I love this fruit. This tea despite the rooibos smelt pretty good. A little too sweet of an aroma to the dry leaf to be believably persimmon, but DT has such admirers that I am willing to just try it. Maybe it’s more reminiscent of soft persimmons? Admittedly I’m much more a fan of hard persimmons and hardly ever have tasted the soft variety unless it’s preserved.

Brewed it smells like candy and rooibos. UGH.
It tastes better than it smells, the rooibos taste is covered well, but I wouldn’t call it persimmon. Some other fruit maybe, but not persimmon. Disappointing from a persimmon aspect, but not a bad tea. At least it doesn’t taste of the dreaded rooibos.

I was feeling like something sweet and soothing tonight, and this is fitting the bill quite nicely. If anything, it’s too sweet! I’ve enjoyed a lot of Della Terra’s rooibos blends, but I’ve found they run very, very sweet.

With my black teas I usually go for a rounded tablespoon of raw sugar, so I scaled this one back to 3 teaspoons. In the future I’ll cut back even further, because this was way too sweet even for my sweet tooth.

And as for the taste? Well, while this was steeping I actually accused my husband of opening a package of strawberry Pop Rocks I was saving for something. Poor guy! While still somewhat affronted, once he tasted the tea he understood. It really does taste – and smell – like strawberry candy.

TTB 7: This one smells really good! Its not overwhelmingly rooibos at all, and has a nice sweet fruity flavor