Blue Moon

Red Leaf Tea touts this as being an extremely rare blend from Europe. In my tea travels, travails, and Internetting, I've never run across any mention of it. As such, they're probably right, it is rare. Chock one for the Red Leaf team.

The ingredients for this can best be described as "floral". Safflower, marigolds, and blue mallow round out the botanical aspect of this blend. The Red Leaf website touts that any inherent sweetness stems from the marigold touch. Indeed, it does. The dry leaf batch had a candied smell to it, like eating fruit-filled doughnuts in a greenhouse. Amidst the burnt black tea leaves were flecks of red and green flora; quite lively.

Since it was a black tea, I didn't observe any rigid brewing temperature. I brought 16 ounces to a rolling boil, poured it over 2 teaspoons worth of the merry mixture, and waited for five minutes. The liquid smelled like how I imagined a description from an Irish romantic ballad. "Her hair was berry-scented as she danced through the garden"...or something like that.

Taste-wise, I didn't think the sweetness would carry over, but it did with a punch. The marigold, combined with the blue mallow, created a blueberry tinge. I couldn't taste the black tea, nor did I note any floral flavor. But, damn, it was perfect.

As an added note: I tried to duplicate this with blue malva, dried marigold, safflower, and a blended Ceylon black. The results were - how should I put it? - lacking. I guess I'll leave perfection to the professionals.

Geoff -Teaviews.com -Reviewer

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

The first thing you are likely to notice about this tea is that it is visually stimulating.  A beautiful bounty of blue, orange and yellow petals and blossoms are sprinkled throughout this blend, making this tea very enjoyable before even taking your first sip.

The scent of the dry tea is vaguely sweet, with a hint of berry (although there are no berries, berry flavor, or even berry leaves in the tea blend itself).   Once brewed, the sweet floral scent becomes more apparent, accompanied by the scent of black tea leaves – earthy and robust.

The flavor of the tea is brisk with a twinge of astringency to it.  As mentioned in the above description, the petals do contribute a bit of sweetness to the blend.  There is also a soft floral characteristic to the tea.  Despite its delicate floral quality, I would not call this a “feminine” brew due to the strength of the black tea.  After sipping the tea, my palate feels energized and cleansed.

I softened the flavors just a bit with the addition of a drizzle of agave nectar (my favorite!) which curbed the edge of the astringency to the tea, and brought out some of the floral notes.   A thin slice of citrus fruit makes a charming accompaniment – I used lemon and found that it complemented the floral as well as the briskness of the tea very well.

Once cooled, the flavors of this tea become a bit muted, so I prefer it and would recommend it be served hot.   Overall, this is a very good black tea, one that would work nicely as a morning “wake-me-up” tea or an early afternoon tea, perhaps just before lunch to awaken the palate for your meal.

The Tea Guru (Stephanie)