Om nom nom…. berry goodness is what this is, delicious, delectable berry black tea.
Imagine a sweet summer berry tart – now imagine someone liquefied that because I swear that’s what’s happened here. This is an AMAZING combination of natural flavours – as a rule I don’t believe in ‘desert replacement’ teas because quite frankly no matter how good a tea is how can it really satisfy that craving for a good piece of cake? But this definitely works as a desert replacement because it manages to be sweet, tart and ‘filling’. It makes for an extremely satisfying cup of berry tart.
Dry you are greeted by big black tea leaves, freeze dried blueberries and raspberries and the smell – oh my – the smell is intoxicating – it is oh so good it’s like walking into blueberry and raspberry fields in the heat of summer where the fresh fruit is really ripe and you’re blown off your feet by the intensity of the fruit. I’ve actually got the opened packet on my desk right now because I can’t bring myself to put it away it’s making my whole room smell of berries and I love it.
When made up the berry aroma is softened somewhat and you are given a tight generic berry smell mingled with an almost soft floral fragrance and rounded off by the smell of shortcrust pastry; it’s different, a good different and gives you a hint of what’s to come. The initial taste is not as sweet as I thought it would be, but this turns out to be a good thing because what you get instead is a very good approximation of a blueberry and raspberry compote mingled with a tart pastry-esque taste thanks to the black tea, oils and apple juice which is just a tiny bit bitter in a very good way. The aftertaste is where this tea takes it off there’s no bitterness in the aftertaste at all, instead, the tea really packs a punch here delivering an intensified version of the first sip really amping up the sweetness and flavour of the berries. This carries over into sip after sip resulting in the tea tasting sweeter as you finish off your cup.
I think this works really well as an after dinner tea as it’s not particularly strong and can satisfy those sweet night time cravings. It would also pair well with a sweet cake in the afternoon.
I highly recommend this to sweet-toothes and berry lovers and particularly for those who are seeking a non hibiscus berry tea or a less sweet berry tea as it definitely isn’t as sweet as a lot of other berry teas on the market and the fact that everything is natural is really evident in the taste – the tea is of an impressive high quality.
I’m off to have my sixth cup of the night…