This is interesting. This tea, which shouldn't be flavoured in any way, smells and tastes like forest fruit flavoured black tea. Here I was worried that I'd kept it too close to a package of lapsang souchong - the outside of this bag smells like smoke now and it isn't airtight - but I don't really taste any smokiness.

But really, if someone would hand me a cup of this, I would not suspect it of being unflavoured. The first thing that came to mind is those mixed forest fruit teas with things like brambles, raspberries and cherries. It also reminds me a lot of hibiscus, now that I think about it - or rather those hibiscus-rooibos blend teabags that are my only experience with hibiscus. It tastes less sour than either berry black teas or hibiscus-rooibos. For a flavoured tea it would be quite nice.

It is making my stomach feel a bit weird the way black tea sometimes does. I don't think I made it especially strong, it doesn't taste bitter at all, but it is quite finely broken and I used a fair amount of leaf.

Even though it is pretty mind-blowing for an unflavoured tea (if it really is unflavoured, which I'm almost having trouble believing) I'm giving it a low rating because, well, I just don't like those mixed berry flavoured teas.

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Alex Zorach wrote: on November 13th, 2017

It's a weird thing when you're uncertain of whether or not a tea has been flavored. There are definitely teas out there that naturally have naturally fruity aromas or other aromas that make them seem flavored, but they're usually more subtle and with experience, I find I can usually tell flavored teas apart from pure teas with ease. That said, there are a few weird exceptions. I once tried a black tea from Uva, Sri Lanka, and it had such a strong wintergreen fragrance that I wondered if it had been flavored...I liked it a lot actually. The seller, Upton Tea Imports, though, insisted it was a pure tea and I believe them.

Also, some Dancong oolongs, I've tried, single-trunk oolongs, have had very potent and distinctive fruit fragrances. One of them smelled so strongly like apricot that, again, my first impression was to think, has this been flavored? As I tried more dancong oolongs though I realized that those sorts of experiences are common -- those teas have been carefully bred and processed to naturally produce fragrances of various fruits and flowers.

I have never experienced this sort of thing with a Turkish tea, however. The Turkish teas I've tried have all been relatively mild, with light fragrances only hinting at things like flowers, fruit, or malt...nothing jumping out as "wow this seems flavored". Who knows what is going on with this tea? You could always get in touch with the company you bought it from and ask them...especially since your experience doesn't seem to fit with the company's description of the tea.

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