Today the two lemon Teavana herbals recommended by denisend arrived. This is one.
They’re both pretty amazing looking. Huge hunks of fruit mixed in with other ingredients; very colorful, multitextured mixtures. I kept wanting to pull handfuls out of the bags and chow down on them. They really remind me of trail mix.
The variation in the size of the pieces makes me wonder whether different servings of this will taste differently since it’s very likely that no two steeps will be identical. One might be half taken up with a two inch dried orange slice, for example. The dry fruit smells tart and citrusy, though the first ingredient is listed as apple bits.
When brewed, it smells slightly sweeter, and is a clear, pale yellow. The dominant taste is citrus, and I’m definitely getting lemon which I find interesting since there’s nothing identified with the word lemon on the bag. The description on the page here must be from a previous blend. My bag says: apple bits, roseship peels, citrus peels, orange slices, apple slices, citric acid flavoring and marigold petals. I guess the citrus peels could be the lemon variety of citrus so maybe that’s where it comes from.
Unsweetened, the lemon flavor is on the tart side, but not bitter, and (yes!) not at all soapy. A significant improvement from my lemon myrtle experience. It’s a little too tart in my book to be my perfect lemon. I did try to sweeten it up a bit, but a small amount of sugar didn’t make much of an impression on it and I suspect the amount of sugar I’d have to use to bring it into the ballpark would make me not want to go there. However, there are times when tart is called for, and besides, the next cup could be completely different given the distribution of the ingredients. For now I’m liking the Strawberry Lemonade better (wombatgirl recommended that one, too), but I’ll save that discussion for another note.
