Lately, I’ve been watching baking competitions and it has made me crave citrus and almond desserts. So, I was pretty thrilled when I saw that this blend had both ingredients!
Description: “Breezy orange blossom and amaretto notes evolve into burnt orange peel and sweet almonds. The flavor is finally rounded out with muddled cherries.”
Instructions: 212°f (100°c) | 3.5g | 4-5 mins, longer is stronger | reinfuse up to two times
Review: The dry blend was a fairly unified reddish rooibos brown colour with a scattering of almond slices, anise, and orange blossoms. Once the packaging was opened, there was intense anise, almond, cherry, and lingering alcohol smell. When the hot water hit the ingredients, there was a fruity pink bubble gum aroma that wafted in the air.
After brewing for 4 minutes, the liquor was a dark reddish brown colour, similar to the colour of the rooibos itself. It smelled like the dry blend – almonds, artificial cherries, liquorice, alcohol, in addition to some woody notes from the rooibos. The liquor caused the mouth to dry/pucker, and the almond and artificial cherry taste, along with the bitterness remained in the back of the mouth.
The second 5 minute infusion had lighter colour and taste but was still dominated by the almond and artificial cherry flavour. Once cool, the taste of the liquor was more toned down and the almond, cherry, and bitter notes were less intense. The wet blend smelled mostly fruity and of cherries.
Overall, the blend had most of the flavours it advertised and had a slightly liquorice-ish note with a heavy amaretto/almond and artificial cherry taste with a lingering alcohol bitterness. I was pretty surprised because sometimes, how the company describes the tea/blend is different from how it tastes, so I generally focused tend to more on the ingredients than what was listed as the tasting profile of a tea.
However, with that being said, I personally do not drink a lot of alcohol so I’m not accustomed to those stronger notes. I’m also not a fan of liquorice or artificial cherry, so each ingredient stuck out to me, and I didn’t taste any of the citrus notes. However, I still wanted to share this blend because it has a unique flavour profile. When I was looking on the website, August Uncommon actually had multiple cocktail/mocktail recipes for this tea which might be another way fun for someone who does like an alcoholic, cherry, or almond drinks to try this blend (1/5 rating).
- Type: Herbal, rooibos
- Origin: Unknown
- Caffeine: Caffeine-free
- Ingredients: Rooibos, anise, almond, lemon peel, orange blossom, star anise, flavoring
- Company: August Uncommon Tea
The question of the post: Have you tried a tea/blend that reminded you of an alcoholic drink before?
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