This was another freebee bag sample sent to me by Republic Of Tea. I thought I’d give it a try. Why not?!
When I opened the single bag package, I had to go, “WHOOOAA!” An extremely overpowering hazelnut smell smacked me upside my head…and nose!
I plopped the bag into boiling water for five minutes. The bag was a round satchel without attachments. It worked, but it was also a little inconvenient since there was no string and tag bound to it to help pull the hot dripping sack from the cup. The tea bag is one of the few gifts in life that is desirable to have with strings attached.
The brewed color was a bright orange-gold. The aroma was again loaded with hazelnut, but fortunately it was toned down from its unsteeped state.
The taste was disappointing and not what I expected. I had rallied my taste buds for a symphony of vanilla and caramel orchestrated in expert harmony. That fantasy came crashing down with a diluted hazelnut taste aimlessly drifting on a life raft in an ocean of tangy tea.
When the journey through my cup was about 4/5 completed, I started to pick up some sweetness in the taste and MAYBE some caramel. At that point, though, it might have just been my brain trying to fill in the gaps for the anticipated flavors. That being said, not even my imagination was wild enough to conjure up some vanilla flavor. The tanginess was still present. I won’t say that it was astringency but it was misplaced and didn’t add value to the taste. The aftertaste lingered for quite a while but it was the tangy tea flavor, more than the hazelnut/caramel, that hung around.
Here’s how I would summarize this tea. If I were attending a meeting and someone handed me a cup of it during a break, I would courteously drink it. However, if I were at the same meeting and I saw several rows of tea bags laid out on a buffet table, this would not be my first choice.
Flavors: Nuts