Sevenberry Sangria Rooibos Tea

Yeah well ummm too tart for me – I had to add far too much sugar to enjoy it and then well it was far too much sugar.
I can tell there are some amazing flavors lurking in there waiting to take front and center stage but once again a good blend ruined by filler (hibiscus) SIGH.
Not terrible – I drank one full cup (6oz) but dumped the rest.
:(
Nonetheless I do want to thank Sandy I know I sound TERRIBLY ungrateful and I don’t mean to – it looks beautiful smells great and should be a wonderful blend I just can’t get past the tart. I have never liked tart much though not in candy or desserts or pretty much anything.
So Sandy thank you for being so generous to share this with me I do appreciate it. I have enough left for at least 2 or 3 more cups if anyone would like it.

As a hot tea, it tastes like hot fruit punch. It’s a bit much. Because that was a bit much, I didn’t want to just pour it over some ice after that. I ended up cooling it off and then pouring it into water, 4:1 water to tea, I’d say. It makes water more interesting to drink, but holy crap it is way too sweet for me as tea! Of course if super SUPER fruity is your thing, you’d love this.
Since it does have a bit of that sangria aspect to it, I imagine using it with club soda, and tossing in some berries in a pitcher would be a delicious take on sangria without the alcohol. But really, as tea, I just can’t.

Ok so the description of this tea and the ingredients list GRAPES. But there are no grapes in here. There are raisins. Raisins are not grapes! Just saying!

This tea has a strange smell. There is a tart blueberry smell but almost like a yeasty, bread-y smell. Very tart smelling.

The tea is super tart. Thanks Hibiscus! I think though it an be controlled with a shorter steep time. After you choke down the initial hibiscus flavour, you can taste the black currant and elderberry. I get raisin but no grape flavour, HA! There is a very faint blueberry taste in the aftertaste. I do not get sangria at all. So I guess that means I get to open a bottle of wine and make some real sangria. Mmmmm!

Right now I am not liking this one too much, but I think it can be fixed up and blended with something to be a bit better.

Wait, a Teavana blend that isn’t overloaded with hibiscus? Can it be?

This one surprised me. Hot, it really isn’t that great or different than the million other fruit teas that Teavana has, but I cold brewed it overnight and wow. I really enjoyed the cup I had this morning. I didn’t sweeten it at all, which is rare for me in my iced teas, and got a nice slightly dry cup of fruit flavour. I can’t pick out individual fruit notes, but overall this is lovely for a summer iced tea. I think it would be amazing as a punch with gingerale as well.

Another swap from Lariel
Was feeling “berryish” tonight and this looked good.
Surprise, surprise it smells like berries and rooibos…
Deep red coloring looks very appetizing (looks like red wine to be honest).
The taste is very tart. High citrus note that runs to the front of the line. It’s STRONG on the fruity/citrus taste. So much so I can only vaguely taste the rooibos. It’s certainly unlike any other flavored rooibos I’ve had…I like it in its own way. Imagine it would taste awesome on a hot summers day iced.
I’m sure most of the “professional” tea connoisseurs would claim the berry flavor is way too powerful. Luckily I’m just an amateur hack and like it the way it is :)

Got this in a swap from lcg842 (this is my first try at bolding something, I hope it works!).

This is some serious fruit. I can taste the hibiscus and it’s pretty strong, but honestly the berries (and they merge into this one giant BERRY flavour rather than get tasted out individually for me here) are overpowering everything in this blend. It’s really sweet too. It’s a little much for a hot tea, I imagine it’s much better iced (and therefore watered down substantially).

Standard hibiscus-based blend – this means, of course, that hibiscus is the strongest flavor by far. I can pick up hints of currant and maybe a bit of blueberry as well, though. It’s quite dry, but not especially tart in my opinion (for a hibiscus tisane, anyway). I can’t taste the rooibos at all – not really sure why it’s here, actually. It’s pleasant, but it isn’t something I’d go out of my way to drink. Thanks for the sample, Nicole Martin!

This blend is sweet with a definite tartness. I think it’s best served sweetened when hot to help tone down the tartness a bit. Just be careful with the sugar, it doesn’t need much because the tea has a natural sweetness. It brews a beautiful grape-ruby-red and the dry leaves smell kind of like a fruit punch kool-aid packet and sweet tart candy. I quite enjoy the smell. :)
I prefer to make this iced because I find the cold temperature cuts some of the tart flavor (of course I use the cold brew method so I don’t know if that makes of difference). I used to love this blend when I was extremely new to tea but now I find it taste too much like juice. In fact there’s not really much tea at all, mostly berries. If you want a low calorie juice drink this is great, but if you want to taste the tea I would steer clear.

I’ve had this hot, and it was nice. Very berry-ish and fruity. Iced though, this REALLY shines. Its got a hint of tartness to it, and the red color from the hibiscus makes it feel like you’re drinking some sort of sugary punch, when in reality this is actually sort of good for you! Extremely refreshing and a great thirst quencher. I double the amount of tea because I prefer a stronger tea. I find I need to do this with most Teavana teas. I would strongly recommend getting this for iced teas, especially in the summer.

I had this later in the day yesterday, when my throat was not quite AS sore. I mixed a little Pineapple Kona Pop in there too, because I like that tea more when blended with things. It’s fine on its own, but its flavor profile is a little shallow. A lot of pineapple, a little hibiscus, a little rosehip, but not much else. However, mix it with something like Blueberry Bliss or Sevenberry, and it adds a little something to an already pretty good fruity herbal tea.
Anyway, enough about that one. I’m actually not terribly fond of Sevenberry by itself either, but mixed with PKP, I drank it quite eagerly, despite having oversweetened it just a bit. The rooibos in heavily flavored teas doesn’t bother me so much, which I suppose is one thing that Teavana does very right, in my book. Sevenberry is pretty heavy on the fruit, with some help from a few other herbs to give it that tart winey flavor that Teavana was going for. It’s about as close as a tea has ever gotten to tasting like grape juice, at least as far as I’ve experienced. Worth trying, but not my favorite.