Cold Brew…
When I chose this sample, it was specifically with cold brewing in mind so I got right to that as soon as the order arrived and everything had been added to Steepster.
The dry leaf smells really nice; sweet condensed berry syrup/jam with a creamy vanilla note. It’s erring artificial just because it’s so candy sweet smelling, but I’m still pretty into it. I can see that there is A LOT of hibiscus in the blend, so I’m a little worried that once steeped that the tart hibiscus might take over – even in a cold brew where less of that sharp tartness will be drawn out of the tisane.
Steeped up it’s not bad at all – does err a little straight forward hibiscus in terms of flavour but it’s not super sharp/tart, and has more of a “round” feeling body to the sip, and mellow and refreshing finish. I get mixed berry for sure, and even a little bit of creaminess that I’m sure is that vanilla flavouring. I do wish that the creme was a little stronger, this is one of the few “berry and cream” teas I’ve had that didn’t immediately taste very chalky to me, so I wish there was more emphasis on the cream so I could really dig in and enjoy it. Mostly, though, I think I just want more cream because I know that at this level of intensity, if I were to steep the tea hot the hibiscus would be much stronger/sharper and what I’m getting now would likely be lost.
I also ordered these Pokemon “Sparkling Waters”/soda a little while ago, and they just arrived so I got very excited and decided to crack one open to try right away. I tried the Bulbasaur one first, which is apple – it was pretty sweet and tasted a lot like apple hi-chew candies, and because I was majority finished the cold brew I just sort of went “Well, fuck it” and poured the soda into the remaining cold brew. The combo, however, was lovely – sweet and lightly fizzy, with an apple and berry profile. The tartness was cut even more by the sugar of the soda, but the flavour worked wonderfully.
Here’s someone on Youtube reviewing the soda if you’re curious: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8O2AHWi5vt4
My brother picked me up the Pokemon “waters” which were definitely soda given the sweetness level. They were made with something really random like deep sea water which I laughed at.