Cherry Christmas

2024 Advent Calendar #24

I’ve reached the end of the Advent Calendar. I’d have to look back to see how many of the teas I actually enjoyed from it. I feel like they provided a good sampling of teas from the company. The calendar itself was fun with little songs, activities, and stories for the holiday season. I have stored the box in with my holiday decorations to see if future re-use is likely. If I don’t use it, it will end up in our recycling bin.

I did manage to drink this one at Christmas time so today I finished the 2nd sachet. Its the 3rd day we’ve woken up to Spring snow, so it looks more wintery than it did on Dec 24. Tart Cherry and Almond are the strongest flavors. I’m reminded of a cherry almond tart or cookie.

This smells odd. The berry aroma is really nice, but the coconut adds an unpleasant smell.

The coconut is less noticeable in the flavor, but the hibiscus is strong here. Really tart, berry. It’s fine, but I was hoping for more of the berry flavor to be present.

There is hibiscus in this, but I thought maybe oat milk wouldn’t curdle since it’s not actually milk. It curdles. There are nice big plumes of oat milk in my tea now, so lesson learned. Lovely.

This was part of a Christmas gift from my boss and his wife last year. He knows I love tea, though he misunderstood and heard 50 teas when I said 500. He thought 50 was ridiculous, so I decided not to correct him.

I’m guessing the hibiscus is here to boost or accent the cherry, but I really do hate when companies add hibiscus to black teas. I like a cold hibiscus brew every now and then and in some cases I have enjoyed it hot, but mostly it just leaves this dusty/dry feeling in my mouth like it’s old and stale.

That’s a thought – maybe I could try this one cold.

It was really hard to finish the last couple sips. This is not a favorite for me. (Let’s be honest – I chugged the last half to get it over with.) I mentioned to my husband that I didn’t like it, and when I told him it was cherry hibiscus his eyes lit up. I might have found a way out of drinking the rest of this after all.

I’ll hold my rating for now until I can try it without the oat milk curdle clouds.

Work – 3:30 PM

This is one of the blends from the Piper & Leaf subscription for this month. I’ve actually had it previously and recalled enjoying it, so when I noticed it on the counter this morning I picked it up to bring to work with me. I mailed out my Christmas gifts to my family today, so I was feeling in the holiday spirit!

This is an interesting one. If I didn’t know better, I would think it was a fruit tisane based on the taste. There’s no indication of black tea at all. The strongest flavor is the cherry, and there’s just enough hibiscus to give it a bit of tartness. I can also taste some amaretto or marzipan at the base, with a bit of a sweet alcoholic flavor. And then on top is the coconut, which sort of acts like a whipped cream element here.

So overall, it’s a bit like a tart and somewhat boozy cherry compote with whipped cream on top. I like it, though I think I would prefer vanilla to the coconut. The hibiscus is well-balanced (for once) and makes the cherry more convincing.