Four Red Fruits

Today I broke the Cupboard Lockdown with just one tin to go. Yes, I am perfectly aware that it was cheating, but when I tell you that the fourth tin to finish was Kusmi’s Caramel, can you honestly blame me for stretching the rules a bit? Besides, the tea I had in my travel cup this morning is nearly gone and I’ll probably finish off that tin within the week. Or I could take the last of the Black Powder with me to work and top off the tin, which while not completely gone, would still mean it was gone from my kitchen and that counts. Don’t argue, it counts. It just does.

So I decided that I was allowed to get the four Kusmis I was interested in, and then I got punished for cheating. THEY DIDN’T HAVE THE CARAMEL!!!!!!! SHOCK!!! HORROR!!! I was so certain I’d seen it on the shelf. Not okay. The only one out of the four I was looking for they did have was the St Petersburg which of course I got. I was also looking to see if they had a plain black strawberry one, but they only had one in a sample tin IN a sample set. I pondered that one for a while and eventually decided to try this one instead. As for the others, all hope is not lost. I have a couple more places I can look and if that doesn’t work out, I’ll have to order.

And wow, it certainly is monday. It’s one of those mondays where it’s monday morning all day. I just turned the kettle on, set the timer, went away, came back when the timer went off and discovered I’d forgotten to actually pour the water into the teapot.

They didn’t have this one in a sample tin, but I decided to trust the brand and get the 125g tin. I do hope I won’t regret this, but I checked what other Steepsterites had said about it and there seems to be a general leaning towards yummy going on there. Good.

The leaves smell rather nice. A bit like sweets actually, but not immediately synthetic or overly perfumed. Those who have tried my Unspeakably Awesome Raspberry Oolong, The Tea That Must Not Be Named and so on and so forth (much loved children has many names, is a danish saying) will probably get what I mean when I say that it smells kind of like that one, only less pink.

The fruity aroma is a little more subdued after brewing and the actual tea aromas are trying to get a word in too, and it’s just a really great balance. It smells almost exactly like what I had in mind when I decided to sea if they had a plain strawberry. (I once decided that Whittard of Chelsea made my perfect strawberry tea, but that’s a good while ago and now I’m scared to try and get it again because I suspect that at this point I wouldn’t find as perfect anymore).

OH YES, THIS IS GOOD STUFF! It not only smells like what I had in mind, it even tastes more or less like what I had in mind. Berry-y and summer-y. It doesn’t matter that I couldn’t get a plain strawberry. I don’t need one. This is totally sufficient in that regard. It’s not some sort of deeply poetic or profound epiphany, it’s just a black tea with red berries. And that’s all I want it to be. A plain good black tea with cherry, strawberry, raspberry and currant. I’m picking up the strawberry the best and that’s even better because you’ll remember what I was actually looking for when I took this one. Good call, me.

And I’m back on Lockdown again now, with the exception of Kusmi’s Caramel if I find it and Kusmi’s Russian Morning likewise, the former being the most important one.

Back at work, and back to my collection of teas. This one comes to me thanks to Angrboda! I was deciding between this one and the black currant from Harney, but I decided I wanted more different kinds of berries in my cup this morning. I’m not a huge fan of strawberry or cherry flavored things on their own, but mixed up with other fruits I do enjoy them. The dry leaf on this one smells intensely of berries and those “red fruits”. The Argentinians love the “red fruits” flavor in jams and teas, and this definitely smells like some of the things I had in Argentina.

I brewed it at a lower temp like the Kusmi Caramel, which resulted in a very flavorful and very smooth cup. I’m a little too out of it from my cold to try and distinguish individual berry flavors and aromas, but suffice to say that they all meld very well together. It really is a true “red fruits” flavor… no individual fruit overwhelms the others and sticks out, and they all blend to form a fruity, berry-y, “red”, delicious taste. I was a little worried when other reviews called Kusmi teas “lightly flavored” since with blacks I prefer fairly bold flavoring (though not usually to the point that it overwhelms the tea completely), but this tea is very well flavored (perhaps because of the low steep time) and the black tea base complements the flavors well. Definitely a nice blend!

This tea smells delicious and fruity but it smells quite natural and not overly perfumed. The taste is quite light and smooth for a black tea, so I don’t think adding milk or sugar would really be needed. When I think about I can taste all of the four berry flavour except for the cherry. The currant, strawberry, and raspberry are pretty easy to distinguish. It’s a great flavoured black tea, thanks go to Ricky for giving me a sample to try.

Traveling Tea Box Tea!!!!!! Very excited to be trying my first tea from Kusmi!

This tea is smelling fantastic whilst it brews! A cloud of berries around my desk!

I’m taking it with half and half and sugar.

sip, sip…I’m getting a nice tea flavor, and the fruits I’m tasting the most are redcurrant and cherry…a little raspberry…not much strawberry. It’s delicious! I’ve read that Kusmi is subtle and that is something I’m noticing and delighting in!! As it cools I’m getting more cherry. This is SUCH a nice afternoon tea. How I wish I was curled up with my book of the moment (The Swan Thieves by Elizabeth Kostova. Did you read The Historian!? I LOVED it! This is her new one!!! VERY hard to put down!!) and not sitting at my desk. What! A! Treat! My cup is now empty and I’m not even done rambling. Wow.

Thanks to Tamm for sharing this with me. Somehow this just seems like one of those days where no amount of tea will ever wake me up, but that doesn’t stop me from trying.

The dry leaf in the bag smells so good – like cherry berry yumminess. I am hopeful!

I’m a big fan of fruit flavored teas. The black tea base here tastes very smooth and chocolate-y to me. I am getting a lot of current and strawberry flavor here. I took it plain but then decided to add a little bit of soymilk to it, so now it’s almost like a dessert tea. I didn’t think it needed sugar at all. This is one of my favorite Kusmi blends so far but it doesn’t seem that much different to me than a regular black currant tea (which I also like)

I am reminded ever so slightly of a black forest cake. Perhaps Kusmi should add some chocolate to this?

Ah, this is more like it. After a raft of Kusmi chocolate let downs, they’ve redeemed themselves.

The tea in the tin smells marvelously of fruit. I think I can get all four of them. Definitely getting raspberry and currant on the front end, strawberry in the middle, and yes! There’s the cherry on the back end.

They’re more mushed together and indistinct in the aroma of the tea, but it’s quite nice and fruity all the same. The taste is subtle as others have said, but it works here in a way that none of the chocolate blends did for me, probably because I just can’t abide subtlety in chocolate. Really, I see no point in it. Chocolate should be rich, thick, and sinful. Fruit is what you have when you can’t stomach rich or thick, or are trying to be virtuous, and so it is just fine subtle, as long as it isn’t too subtle as to be totally dissatisfying.

I get all four fruits in the flavor as well, and in the same order as in the fragrance of the dry tea. Another nice thing this tea has going for it is a soft, silky mouthfeel, which somehow goes extremely well with the flavor. It’s sort of parfait-like if you don’t dwell on the tea, which by the way, also works nicely here. It’s as though the tea and fruit flavors are supporting each other here, each giving the other a nice little boost, where in the chocolate blends it was as though they were pulling each other further apart into weakness.

I’m so glad to find another Kusmi I like, as I really adore everything about them from their tins (gaudy though they may be [wink to Auggy) to their name.

This turned out to be a very smooth tea today, brewed without the astringency of the last tasting. I think I used a bit less leaf, 1 tsp instead of a heaping teaspoon, and I set a timer this time….wooohps. I also looked up the temperature recommendations on kusmi’s website and they recommend a bit less than boiling (185-190) so I shot for that.

I can’t taste the individual berries, but kind of a berry melange, which is more like berries n’ cream as I added a splash of cream. Great with just the cream and no sweetener, as I don’t have any (husband used it all in his tea, and keeps forgetting to replace it)((and by all I mean an entire 100 packet box of splenda in which I used 3 packets myself, gone in 2 weeks)(((I’m angry))) :)

Sipdown! I had no idea I had any of this hiding around. It was in the very bottom corner of my sample stash. Amazingly, despite being stored in a plastic baggie for quite some time, it still smells pretty fresh. I actually really like the couple of Kusmi teas that I have tried. Maybe sometime I’ll actually order some! This is a very good black base with notes of several different fruits. I can’t really pick them out, but it is good nonetheless!

NOM! Ok, I’m liking this a lot. I’m not tasting the individual fruits (possibly because I’m also eating some of this amazing cranberry grapefruit sauce I made at the same time) but I’m really liking this. Smooth, fruity, flavorful.

I wish I had more so I could try this with cream and sweetner. Must find some of this!!

I just do not *get*Kusmi. I love the tins. I love the descriptions of tea. I am often tempted to take the plunge and buy of the better reviewed teas. People with taste, far better palates than me, love these.

But whenever I try it it´s just so meh to my particular palate. This one was correctly brewed, no tap water taste discernible, and the tea shop seemed generous in their dosage. Nice, but I have had so many better flavoured teas and sold far cheaper and with less fanfare that I can not help comparing.