In mid summer, while I worked in the Chapleau Crown Game Preserve tracking Black Bears, we would reach a point where half the bears would dissapear from their home ranges as they left in search of food. That population is basically dependant on the success of the blueberry crop for survival. Once they started to leave their home ranges we would spend part of the day tracking/searching for our wandering bears, and part of the day sampling blueberry plots among other duties. After which we had tons of berries to freeze, eat and turn into many baked goods. At the study site we had two species of blueberries; Vaccinium angustafolium, which had smaller tarter berries and smooth leaved shorter plants, and V. Myrtilloides which had furry leaved taller plants and big sweet berries that tasted a little like blueberry bubble gum. This tea reminds me of the latter, with a rich sweet syrupy scent and flavour that reminds me a little of a blueberry pancake breakfast drank with a hearty rich tea.
This tea does a really nice job of balancing the flavours between the base tea and the flavouring. The scent and the taste are of those large bubble gun tinged blueberries I picked in the field up near Chapleau, with a nice sweet slightly syrupy notes, all over a malty and slightly biscuit noted base that has a slightly tart fruit reference. The sweetness of the flavouring is tempered by both the tannins in the tea and the blackberry leaf. The base tea is only slightly astringent, but has enough texture and tannins to give it a nice density in the mouth. Despite the flavouring and scent being quite distinct they do not overpower the base and the tea does not require sweetners for the flavouring to pop. Well done Tea Brewery At the moment this is my favourite blueberry tea in my cupboard.
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