Raspberry Lemonade Green

Sipdown

This came out a bit sharpish this time, but not unpleasant. It was the first time Ashman has had it and he took a sip and said, “Wow, that’s distinctive.” I told him it was raspberry and lemonade and he said he never would have guessed those two flavors. He liked it well enough, though, and said he didn’t think it was bad, just distinctive. I think the sharpness really got his attention.

I think the tea itself has such a tart, lemony bent that it disguises the lemon flavoring. The raspberry wasn’t very berry to me, but raspberry is a rather tart berry flavor.

Having just survived 5 hours of flight delays and a solid 1-2 more spent waiting to deplane, I have settled back in to my apartment from a July 4th trip to Chicago enough to investigate my treasures. Chicago is home to many wonders, but I found its strengths lie more in tea services and tearooms than in bulk shops. Though I regret that I did not have a chance to stop in to the Smashing Pumpkins-owned tearoom nor to visit the Russian Teatime restaurant to enjoy a samovar, I did get to swing by The Coffee and Tea Exchange and load my cargo pants pockets with samples like some sort of strangely gaited packhorse. And, in my typical fashion, I will test the waters with my least anticipated acquisition.

Ok. Well. The vision was to steep this for 3 minutes. Foolishly I responded to the call of nature right before the timer went off, and as we all know, nature loves to yap. So really we’re looking at a solid 6-7 minutes. Luckily this doesn’t seem to have been catastrophic for this tea. From the aroma I get a sweet, lemon-bar character of citrus on a muddled, mixed-berry bed. Tartly accented but not sour, this is a pretty balanced and fruity cup that sidesteps the raw aggression of an assertive lemonade. I think this tea could just as easily be billed as a “Fruit Tart” blend or a Berry Lemon Bar reflective of the warm and sugared fruit notes that impart a baked, jammy character to it that I just don’t anticipate from “Raspberry Lemonade”.