This green tea has two tart flavors added to it, pomegranate and hibiscus, which makes it pretty snappy – if you like tart, this will be a great afternoon choice. Many people, however, will want to add sugar to this; it tastes a bit less tart, and more fruity, with sugar.

This is not a flowering tea in the usual sense, which is usually leaves tied or twisted together such that when they are brewed, they unfold to form a shape like a flower. The individual tea leaves in this are rolled into pellets – much like jasmine pearls in jasmine pearl tea – and when brewed they unfurl individually into large green tea leaves. Pretty, but not as spectacular as a flowering tea.

Local Coffee + Tea describes this tea as:

Flowering Pomegranate Loose Leaf Green Tea from Sri Lanka is hibiscus and pomegranate, two flavors made for each other.

Tart, with floral highlights, cleansing and highly refreshing. Teeming with antioxidants. Add to this exotic blend some rosehip chips, natural flavors and lastly a superb Sri Lanka pekoe gunpowder style tea and you have a very cleansing and refreshing tea.

Legend claims the first time these two flavors were blended was on Easter Island. Polynesians sailing the Pacific introduced Hibiscus flowers to the Island, followed by slaves from Peru (around 1870) who arrived with the ruby red fruit called Pomegranate. The natives made use of all the Islands bounty and the blending began.

Please take time to enjoy this tea. After you pour hot water over the leaves, (we suggest water temperature less than 194 degrees F) stop and watch the ballet performance of unfurling leaves slowly sinking to the bottom of your glass teapot. Quite exquisite and we further suggest you steep these potent leaves at least 3 times. Infuse longer each time for more depth of flavor and color from this clever creation combining tart and sweet.

Of course, the leaves don’t curl back up into pellets for you for your second steeping – so you will need a large infuser or T-Sac, because these are large leaves! There still is plenty of fruit flavor left in the tea for a second steeping – and, of course, less caffeine.

This tea also tastes excellent iced; you’ll definitely want to add a pinch of sugar to it if you’re icing it. And since it’s already pretty tart, you might want to try dropping an orange slice or some berries in it rather than a lemon slice! (I write this review in December, and large chunks of the northern hemisphere don’t think as much about iced tea in December as in July, but this time of year, as a musician, I have long, loooong band rehearsals on stages with very hot stage lights, so iced tea is always on my list!)