Wildberry Hibiscus

I’ve been having really good luck with the few Zhena’s teas I’ve tried. Thank you jeweledthumb for sending some of this my way.

Ok in full disclosure I seldom drink fruit tisanes on their own. Tonight I added a bit of Bai Hao Yin Zhen to this about 2 parts tisane to 1 part white tea. But Dex that’s a pretty expensive white tea to be adding fruit tisane to. Ummmm yep – but it’s my parTEA and I’ll steep as I want to (thanks keychange – I’m stealing that clever line).
I like fruit tisane with a little base to it, white was my choice tonight.
This tisane is quite tart, very juicy, and I would say heavy on the cherry – yes mixed fuit, but with more cherry. This is really good, and I will have to keep my eyes open for more Zhena’s tea out there in the world.

I give this tea a 70 on it’s own. It has a VERY strong flavor of red cough syrup. I prefer to blend this with black tea leaves in a 1:3 ratio (1 part wildberry hibiscus to 3 parts black tea) to mellow out the artificial cherry taste. Blended with black tea, I would give it a 90. It’s fruity and tart. It’s delicious hot or iced. I prefer it iced and sweetened. And it’s a good deal at World Market. $10 for 2oz in a glass jar with a wooden spoon.

This is a very strongly flavored tea. The hibiscus is very strong in this tea so if you don’t like that then this definitely isn’t the tea for you. Brews up really read, strongly flavored, definitely berry. I brewed the recommended about of time but I might shortened that next time to hopefully not be so strong. I drank it hot but it would make a great iced tea too.

I keep forgetting about this gem in the back of my tea cabinet. It was a gift from a friend a while back. Time to give it a good try.

The directions say to use 2 teaspoons for each 8 ounces of water. My Bodum Assam holds 32 ounces, so I did the math and used the appropriate amount of tea. Seemed like a lot, but it’s the right amount.

The ingredients list looks like a short list of things that would go great with a Rooibos base, so this should be pretty good. Even for a guy like me who is not a huge fan of blends or fruit teas. I am looking forward to this. Maybe it will change my mind about fruit blend teas? We’ll see. Maybe I just haven’t tried enough really good, high quality samples.

OK, I’ve waiting long enough for it to cool a bit. Here we go:

The aroma is a whole lot of tropical fruit. Not overwhelming, just damn tasty. The Rooibos base is still there, present and accounted for.

The taste is just a fruity, mostly tropical with some citrus. The Rose Hips are a nice touch, they add an extra element making this overall a really interesting, well balanced tea.

There is a bit of an aftertaste, I can’t quite place it. Just a touch of tartness that sits at the back of my tongue for a few seconds. Not bad, It actually rounds out the overall flavor really well.

Overall, I like it. Looks like those really good,high quality fruit blend teas are actually pretty good. I guess I went too many years drinking the cheap ones in boxes from the grocery store.

This one is damn good. Well balanced, all flavors accounted for, nothing extra for no reason. Even with the tartness of the aftertaste, which I actually kind of like, this is a damn good tea.