I'm a huge fan of Twinings blackcurrant-flavored black tea, and it's the only example of such a tea that I've ever tried, so I was curious to try this one. Unfortunately, I don't like it as much.

The fruit flavoring is much stronger in this tea...it's so strong that walking out of the room, and coming back, I can smell the flavoring when I get near the cup of tea long before I can smell the actual tea. The smell actually suggests sourness, and I find this is no trick--this tea tastes considerably sour for a black tea.

The base tea is robust and bitter, in a pleasant way. I think I might actually like the base tea better than the base tea in most fruit-flavored teas, but it's hard to say because it's so heavily masked by the overly-strong flavoring. I have a sneaking suspicion that the base tea is actually pretty good quality, because I can detect a hint of interesting malty and floral tones that I am pretty sure aren't coming from the added flavoring...but overall the total drinking experience is not balanced, ruined by the flavoring.

This was very cheap, I got a 30 tea bag variety pack for $2 at Bell's Market, a local Russian supermarket in Philly. But I think the quality is lesser than the more pricier Twinings rendition of this tea.

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