Gentle Pumpkin Fruit Tisane – Kent & Sussex Tea & Coffee Co.

To be honest, I have been so extraordinarily busy with work this last week or so that I haven’t had much time to enjoy tasting new teas. When I’m head-down over the laptop for dozens of hours on end I need lots of tea to keep me going, but it needs to be the stuff I can chug quite happily without thinking about it, and without needing to think about writing a review afterwards. This means that I’ve basically been living on Milk Oolong (of course) from various suppliers (hence no link), Garden of England and this weekend’s favourite, Apricot.

However, I did manage to sneak in one new tea as I’ve had it for quite a while now and really wanted to try it. It’s a fruit tea by Kent & Sussex Tea & CoffeeCo. called Gentle Pumpkin Fruit Tisane.

Ingredients: Pumpkin Pieces, Apple Pieces, Orange Peel, Apple Cubes, Natural Flavouring, Vanilla Pieces, Safflower, Freeze-dried Tangerine-Orange Fruit Pieces.

They describe it thus:

“Pumpkin Tea! Using the sweet citrus notes of apples and oranges together with pumpkin flavours we have created this blend of tea which has lovely fruity Autumnal aromas. This blend is silky in the mouth, with smooth yet robust flavours — a warming, homely tea.”

So, you may remember that some time ago, when I was reviewing Adagio’s Pumpkin Potion I bewailed the lack of a decent low or caffeine-free tea with a strong flavour of pumpkin. There is Cinderella, from the Fairy Tale range also by Adagio, but that is made specifically for children and so it has a very subtle flavour, which I love, particularly when I’ve got a migraine and can’t cope with strong tastes, smells etc. but find a touch bland outside of those times.

I was hoping that Gentle Pumpkin Fruit Tisane might be the tea I was looking for — and it is — but only intermittently.

Let me explain. Gentle Pumpkin Fruit Tisane is a pleasant caffeine-free tea (tisane) with a decent flavour after about ten minutes of brewing (K&S say 5-7, I left it for 20 and it was still just as drinkable). It has a nice taste with the vanilla coming through relatively strongly, but without overpowering the whole, as does the pumpkin and the orange.

[sorry no picture of the drink - I was so busy drinking the tea I forgot to take a picture of it. I shall add next time I have a cup]

However, as with all blends, what you get in your spoon of tea isn’t always going to be the same and there is an awful lot of orange in this tisane. This means that quite often the tea tastes more strongly of orange than anything else — and it really does overpower all the other ingredients.

Happily, I like orange, so this isn’t a problem but I can’t help but wish that there were more pumpkin and less orange. Also, interestingly, this tisane doesn’t contain any of the spices that you usually find associated with pumpkin. I quite like that, too.

Overall, regardless of the flavour, I like this tisane very much — it is extremely good as a relaxant at the end of a long day and I think it will make for a nice Autumn drink so I will definitely be buying some more. 

I am taking a short break to head off on my holidays (just to get away from the laptop if nothing else) so it will be a few weeks before my next post. I have a lot of teas I need to review, I just need the time to drink and review them.