Since it’s summer, and A2 Art Fair to boot (…dies), I thought I’d continue with the recent trend of reviewing iced teas. This time I was highly skeptical before I even made the purchase but I just had to know.
For the past year? or two I’ve spotted Harney & Sons‘ bottled iced teas retailed at Plum Market but I always just kind of stared at it with a dumbfounded look on my face and blinked once or twice before recovery my sanity and going back to what i was doing. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a big fan of H&S and I’ve spent more money on their tea than I’d like to admit (especially to my mother). But Iced Tea has always lived in a different place in my tea world from fine loose leaf. This is the first widely successful fine tea company I’ve seen to try and chase after the iced tea market and I have to give props where they’re due. Also the bottle designs are kinda cute.
So why the hesitation? Well, not only is the market a glut with competitors of deep experience (like a dozen decades in some cases), but the flavors they’ve experimented with so far seem to miss the mark. Today I’m drinking H&S Transporting Organic Green with Coconut and it’s… less than satisfying? I hesitate to say “bad” but I wouldn’t be submitting it for any awards. Transporting has ginger and vanilla–mixed with an organic green and a bit too much sweetener (2nd ingredient cane sugar, 3rd ingredient honey…) it has the texture if not the taste of a kombucha. I’ve had some wonderful coconut oolongs and coocnut pu-erhs but Green teas less so. The taste is fairly raw coconut laced with a subtle ginger/honey note. Owing to its similarity to a kombucha, it could easily be the kind of thing to settle an upset stomach… but I really can’t imagine it as a refreshing everyday beverage.
選別 parting.gifts 