It’s the home stretch for the herbals. Tonight’s cocktail is Cherry Cosmo. I’m not to hopeful for this one. With the first two ingredients being rose hips and hibiscus and nothing really to sweeten it out, this could have a serious pucker factor. The back of the packet mentions a “fragrant delighting of hibiscus blossoms and faint whispers of raspberry.” We’ll see if it’s fragrantly delightful.
It smells like… nail polish. Right out of the packet. Weird. After that it smells a bit like a cherry lifesaver, which is more par for course. Maybe the weird fume-y scent is supposed to make it smell like a cosmo. Hopefully it tastes more like cosmo and less like nail polish.
After brewing the wet tea smells a bit like tasty, warm cherry-apple pie. The liquor smells primarily like cherry lifesaver, with a little bit of hibiscus and a bit of apple. It tastes like sour cherry candy. It has an artificial cherry taste and it definitely has a tang, but it’s a well done combo. Think Sprees or Skittles, but not as sweet as Starbursts. It’s got a tasty tartness to it. I see what you did there, Tea Forte. It could be a cosmo I suppose, sans any alcohol flavor. It’s also got a good aftertaste. I thought the hibiscus was going to stay on but there’s a bit of sweet cherry lingering on my tongue. The cherry is more prevalent while it’s warm and the tart hibiscus takes over as it cools. I liked it better warm. Haha. I went into this with low expectations and it turned out pretty good. Nice.
Edit: Something else of note is that it’s really smooth and goes down easy. Hibiscus or other tart teas tend to make your tongue curl and have a pucker factor to them. I didn’t get that in this tea.
What: Cherry Cosmo by Tea Forte
Type: Herbal
Cost: $8.95 for 20 servings
Cost per Cup: $0.45/cup
Resteeps: 1
Tea Score: 80 – Tasty.
Cupboard Score: 72 – If I was buying something else from Tea Forte I’d probably add this to the cart. I could see it being a nice treat in my herbal lineup.
