It’s time for another tea review! It’s another black tea because I didn’t plan what to drink and realised that I had 3 black teas, 1 oolong, and 1 green, so it’s been black tea for the last 2 weeks. Let’s jump right into it.

Here’s how Renegade Tea describes this tea:

This is a very lightly oxidized spring black tea. It has a soft and smooth taste where you can feel hints of berries – red currant, raspberries and hibiscus. A fresh and fruity black tea, no sharp edges.

This tea reminds us of those summers at the homestead, with an infusion made of raspberry and hibiscus. Beverage as sweet as those memories that from time to time sneak into your mind with a summer breeze…

First impressions

The dry leaves are very dark with a woody scent. The leaves are rolled and a few of them are very long – I’ve separated it in the photo and you can see it’s either one really big leaf or a leaf (probably the top/smallest leaf, since it’s not bent) with a bit of stem.

Tasting Notes

On its product page, Renegade Tea describes this as their lightest tea and I completely agree. The first time I made it, I used about one teacup’s worth of water to 3g of tea, brewed it for 4 minutes … and still found it very light! I managed to identify a floral note, but that was about it. The second time I sat down with this tea, I used slightly less water than before but brewed it for the same amount of time. This tea liquor was a darker amber and the taste is stronger, with the floral note being more distinct.

Because this tea is so light, you can’t really brew it more than once. I tried to get a second cup twice (letting it steep for 5 minutes) and both times, the tea was so light that I didn’t really enjoy it. I’m not sure if you can see it, but it looks noticeably lighter even in photos. In my opinion, this tea is good for one cup and that’s about it. Of course, things may be different if you’re using more tea in the pot, but given that I used very little water to brew the tea, I don’t think things will change that much.

If you look at the spent leaves, you can see that quite a lot of it is green, which probably explains why it was so light.

Overall Thoughts

Sadly, this is not the tea for me. While I’m not a fan of overly strong teas, this one was a bit too light for me. I think this tea would be better suited for people who prefer their teas very light.