A wonderful friend[1] send me some packages from teadrops.com The site describes its product thusly:
Tea Drops are organic, pressed teas that dissolve in hot water. Think a bath bomb, but it's tea and 20% less waste than a tea bag. Tea Drops are made with actual tea leaves, spices, and lightly sweetened with organic cane sugar.
I am . . . dubious about the concept. I am concerned that I'm looking at slightly dressed up powdered iced tea mix circa 1977. But hey, it could work.
Today, I tried the Rose Earl Grey and, unfortunately, I must report total and utter tea fail. It can best be described as drinking hot potpourri, or what I imagine it would feel like if an entire aisle of Bath & Body Works invaded my mouth. The bergamot is too far heavy, the rose is too chemically, and the sweetening is overpowering. "Lightly sweetened" my ass. Plus, this tea brew is grainy. I've consumed a fair number of tea leaves in my tea-drinking life, but grainy tea? It's not supposed to be grainy.
I now have half a cup of this dreck on my desk and I'm wondering what to do with it.
Hmmm. I wonder how it would taste if I cut this hot mess 50/50 with unsweetened strong back tea.
A few minutes later: mixing the teadrop brew 50/50 with very strong black tea (Twinings Darjeeling) makes the whole thing drinkable. It dials down both the sweetness and the overwhelming bergamot. The rose tones are still too artificial for me. However, it's drinkable enough that if there are any more these drops in the box, I know how to make them acceptable caffeine delivery devices.
If you like sweet tea, this "teadrop" is going to work so much better for you than it did for me. Fundamentally, I want my tea to taste primarily like tea. This didn't.
June 1, 2020: A mix of the teadrop plus 2 plain black tea bags plus 1300 ml of water makes a very acceptable iced tea blend.
[1] The awfulness of this tea is in no way a reflection on the wonderfulness of the person who sent it to me. She's great.
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