Over the weekend, a friend served me a large mug of Ginger Peach tea from devotea.com. I have to confess, flavored teas have never been high on my list of things to drink. That said, I found the tea quite interesting. Unlike many flavored brews that smell wonderful but deliver almost no taste to match the aroma, This tea offered more flavor than aroma. The aroma was there, and ginger peachy enough, but not overstated. The flavor delivered a fresh, juicy peach flavor, with a good dose of ginger on top, over a decent black tea.
I’ve been told by at least one tea blender that all peach flavored teas are flavored without the use of real dried peach. They either use other dried fruits to build a peach-like flavor, or use artificial flavors, or both. The reason given is that a chemical interaction between the peach and tea causes the brew to end up smelling and tasting like gasoline. I’d like to hear more about that sometime.
I quite enjoyed the Ginger Peach tea, but, by the time it was half gone, my old bias was back and I was ready to get back to tea that tastes like tea.