Teabag - Orange Dulce

Tea: Orange Dulce
Vendor: Mighty Leaf Tea
Price: $8.95 / 15 teabags
Source: China, Sri Lanka
Vendor Description: Orange Dulce is a luscious, rich brew teeming with notes of bergamot, orange, vanilla and jasmine blossoms. Made with Ceylon and China black teas, Orange Dulce brews up a fragrant and full bodied dark tea. Reminiscent of an aged Port, the flavor is sure to please.

Orange Dulce is available in 100 count foil wrapped and 15 individually cello-wrapped biodegradable Tea Pouches™.

When you first open the pouch for this teabag, the first thing that you notice is a very strong sweet smell. It has hints of orange in the aroma, but not exclusively so. It is a bit difficult to pick the smell apart, but together is a very sweet aroma. The teabag itself is a very simple design, it is one rectangular piece of nylon-like material (the biodegradable one) that appears to be hand sewn closed. It is sewn shut in a manner to allow for the material to quite openly form a volume inside of the pouch. Basically it is not folded and sewn flat. The tag string is a continuation of the sewing string so there is no need to have a staple or melt a string to the bag. While it may not provide as much volume as a trapezoidal teabag, it has a very comforting feel to it with the sewn string and handmade appearance.

When brewing the tea there is the same sweet aroma that there is when opening the teabag, with its hints of orange and strong sweetness. The initial taste of the tea though is not nearly as sweet as the aroma, it is a medium bodied smooth black tea. There is no sense of bitterness or astringency to it. In a very delicate way the added flavors fill in the weaker beginning of the flavor of the black tea with subtle sweet flavors, which then taper off to reveal the flavor of the tea itself. This was quite surprising as I was expecting the tea to be overpowered by the flavorings like many other teabags are. The end of the tea leaves with a tiny amount of orange tangy flavor.

The second infusion of the teabag produced a slightly different tea. It was lighter in flavor, and the components of the flavoring were more apparent. It felt light boded, and while there was still no astringency it left me with a clean feeling in my mouth.

Rating: 9/10

Conclusion: While this is an excellent tea, I would have liked to see a bit bolder of a black tea used. The flavors combine well and do not overpower the tea, and the teabag itself provides a certain comfort feeling to the experience. This is quite good, but I don't know if it is something I would want to drink on a daily basis.