Traverse City Cherry ~ Eli

Although in most places in North America, it would easily be considered “iced tea season”, I had held off reviewing any actual iced teas for quite a while. I don’t think there was necessarily a reason beyond that I just don’t want to get bogged down reviewing iced teas again like last year. It’s very likely that given the sheer quantity of tea I need to drink and review, there won’t be nearly as many iced tea reviews this summer. Obviously a lot of people aren’t interested in drinking piping hot tea when it’s 94 degrees Fahrenheit in the shade.  I’m therefore left with a bit of a challenge: find some teas among what i need to review that can be brewed iced.

Traverse City Cherry by Eli is one such tea. Specifically stated on the webpage, “—This tea is best served iced—“.  I don’t find that particularly surprising. Many fruit tisanes only have one good brew and they tend to be so high in particulate concentration, they easily lend themselves to icing. I personally think Traverse City Cherry would benefit from a bit of sweetener, but that’s not to say it’s exactly bitter without it.

Admittedly I can’t drink too much cherry without it aggravating my IBS, but today I was willing to make an exception. Traverse City Cherry is actually half rose bud, and it’s the rose buds that you can smell the easiest.  In flavor, Traverse City Cherry is well-rounded for a fruit tea, possibly owing to the rose content. Additionally, although texture tends to fall off when brewed iced, the overall impression I get is reminiscent of Cherry Coke. Apparently the agave i added for sweetener ended up giving me a headache too, so I’m making a lot of sacrifices for my love of tea today. I don’t think it’s fair to rate iced tea the same way as hot, so i’ll have to give some thought to how that might be done.