Summer fruit tea season is almost upon us! My heavily spiced chai beverages are heading to the back of the cupboard and I’m bringing out the sweet and fruity blends for my comforting evening tea beverage. Acorus Fruit Tea with Cherry is on the agenda today.
This fruity tea was gifted to me by Acorus alongside a tea advent calendar. Besides this review and the tea advent calendar that was finished in December, I haven’t tried Acorus tea or even heard much about them.
So, let’s dig into the flavour, ingredients, how to brew, and details about the brand.
Acorus Cherry Fruit Tea at a Glance
- Blend: Hibiscus and assorted dried fruits with cherry juice granules
- Flavour: Intense sour-sweet cherries soaked in honey and roasted in the oven
This is a wonderful tea! The flavour and aroma perfectly hit the sweet sourness of cherries after they’ve been slowly poached or roasted in the oven. I highly recommend trying it.
Full Review – Acorus Fruit Tea with Cherry
- Type: Tagged paper filter teabag
- Ingredients: Hibiscus blossoms, dried fruits, blackberry leaves, orange peel, liquorice root, cherry juice granules, natural flavouring
- Flavour Notes: Intense sweet-sour cherries, stewed stone-fruits, vanilla, hibiscus, honey
- Aroma: Musty herbs, hibiscus, sour cherries, syrup, juicy, tart
- Milk or Lemon: Honey or sugar, to taste
- Where to Buy: Acorus or Amazon
Ripping open the packet, the initial aroma from the dried teabag is a little disappointing. I was hoping to get a whiff of cherries, but no such luck. I can detect musty herbs and a hint of hibiscus.
But fear not.
Once brewed, this tea explodes! The colour of the tea liquid is a sumptuous dark magenta velvet and the aroma is a gorgeous scent of cherries stewed with sugar. It’s sour-sweet in just the right way and utterly delicious to inhale.
As for the flavour of Acorus Fruit Tea with Cherry, it’s perfection. From that first sip, it hits you with the intense flavour of sweet-sour cherries, soaked in syrup and flavoured with a little vanilla. Hibiscus notes are also present, but they are comfortably hiding in the background to let the rich cherry note stand at the forefront.
After a few sips, the tea continues to coat the roof of your mouth with honey sweetness while the tartness of the cherries refreshes as it washes over your tongue. The texture is velvety smooth yet has a little thickness to it as well.
Overall, this is a spectacular tea. So many berry fruit teas rely on hibiscus to create a generic tart berry flavour that could be interpreted as strawberry, currants, raspberry and even cherry to the unpractised tongue. But not this one. It has ‘cherry’ in the title and it means business!
How to Brew Luxury Fruit Tea
Acorus’ instructions are to brew a single teabag in 150ml of boiling water for 3 to 5 minutes. They also indicate that you should cover the teacup when the tea is brewing. Not only will this prevent you from mashing the teabag (not good for the flavour) but it also locks in a lot of the aroma in the steam.
I will note that 150ml is quite small, especially considering that the teabag contains 2.5g of ingredients instead of the regular 2g. Most teacups are around 200ml while mugs edge from 250ml to 300ml.
If you follow the instructions, brewing in 150ml for 3 minutes, you will get the tea I described above. If you’d like to make a larger cup or mug of tea, brew for 4 or 5 minutes to attain the same strength.
You can add sugar or honey to taste, but I quite like the balance of sweetness and sourness as it is.
Why Acorus Tea Assortments?
Acorus reached out to me via Instagram last year to sample and review their advent calendar! It was absolutely delicious of course, but they also threw in a few samples from other tea collections for me to try. I dutifully saved them so I could add them to my blog review schedule… and here we are!
Acorus was founded over 140 years ago by JSC Svencioniu Vaistazoles and has a background in pharmaceuticals. The ingredients they select for their teas are done so with sustainability and flavour in mind. They meet all EU requirements for the manufacture of pharmaceuticals and are attempting to eliminate all plastic waste from the production and packaging lines.
As for the quality of the actual tea within the teabag, it’s not great. The cherry is made from cherry juice granules and the tea also uses some natural flavouring to boost the flavour. That being said, there are also some lovely hibiscus and herbal ingredients… they’re just very finely chopped.
Although the quality of the tea leaf isn’t amazing, the actual flavour and aroma of the tea once it has brewed is staggeringly good. And isn’t that what really matters? It scored very highly for a teabag here at Immortal Wordsmith.
Summary
Acorus Fruit Tea with Cherry is a very tasty and highly recommended. As far as I can tell, you cannot purchase this tea separately but you can buy it as part of the Luxury Fruit Tea Assortment. I have no doubt that the other fruit teas included in the box will be utterly delicious too. You can find it on Amazon using the button below or Acorus’ official website using the link above.
Tea-Ware Recommendation
Pop an Acorus Fruit Tea with Cherry in a glass teapot and add some fresh fruit – some orange slices or a dash of amaretto might be nice! Now, to keep your teapot nice and warm while you slowly sip and savour your tea, try one of my Ceramic Teapot Warmers! They are powered by tealights and ship with free snail mail to the UK.