Cranberry Apple

June Wedding! Something old! This tea is one of the first I bought when I started collecting teas… which would have been from the fall of 2016? I remember I got it from a shop in Campbell, California called Steepers, but with a little research the blend appears to be Metropolitan Tea Co.‘s Cranberry Apple. I’m a little upset that Steepers appears to have embellished on their ingredients a bit, because they claimed elderberries and lingonberries are in the blend (and the lingonberries is what sold me on it, as I’m a big fan of those!) but neither of those more “rare” ingredients are actually listed as being in the blend from Metropolitan. Steepers is definitely the kind of independent shop to source their teas and has tons of Metro blends in their line-up, so I’m pretty sure they don’t just happen to have a different tea with the same name from a different source with slightly different ingredients, either. I think they did dirty on their repackaging… and with a steep price upmark, too (maybe that is why their shop is called Steepers, eh? Eh?)

I wanted to use this up (sipdown!) so I made a nice, strong iced tea batch with what I had left of this. I’ve always liked this one, but it would be a nightmare for the majority of you out there: yup, it’s a hibi-hip tea (and I just happen to like those). A very strong hibi-hip, with a very, fruity base, with lots of refreshing tart and tanginess. It actually doesn’t come off quite as fruit punchy to me as I usually taste a nice chilled hibiscus, but I think that is because the cranberry flavor here is pretty distinct, so it is making me think more of succulent, tart, cranberry juice, though it does have a thicker mouthfeel, and the sweetness from the apple comes off a bit differently than all the sweetners in actual cranberry juice.

There is a lot of red berry sweet-tartness that I like here with cranberry as the defining flavor, and since that is a flavor I really love, this has always been one of my favorite iced teas. I already miss it… I’ll have to restock it sometime. Especially as I’d like to steep it in lemonade sometime.