[Backstory: I have a habit of buying odd-looking, usually foreign foods just because they pique my curiosity. I used to send them to my friend Christian (for example, one time I sent him this hilariously-named food), but here in NYC, there's so many weird new foods, I'd go broke with postage costs, so now I just eat them myself and share it with him by blogging about it.]

Name: Deluxe Garden Fresh Forest Tea

Imported from: Poland

Purchased at: Frank’s Gourmet Market

Details: First off, yes, I know it’s not a tea and is, in fact, a tisane. Opening the package, it smells like, well, dried fruit, seeing as that’s pretty much all it is: blueberries, blackberries, bits of apple. Here’s a close up look at what’s in the package:

Looks like potpourri, eh? Believe it or not, that’s pretty much life size. This is some chunky ass tea. The directions say to add a teaspoon per 7 oz. boiling water. Now, personally, I am not so keen on having little floaty bits in my teacup, but a couple of months ago, I bought what I thought was a pack of tissues at M2M, which is this sort of pan-Asian convenience store. Imagine my surprise when I went to wipe my nose and saw this:

Good for tea, not so good for my nose. Anyway, I loaded one up with what I guessed was about a teaspoon’s worth — maybe a little more, because a level teaspoon was only about two or three of these dried chunks. I let it steep while I took these photos (maybe 4-5 minutes worth — I only just noticed now the package recommends 8-10 minutes steeping time. Oops).

I added some honey, and let it cool on the windowsill while I took one last photo:

At the first sip, I was a little unsure if I liked it or not — something about the smell reminded me of the unpleasant “uterus toning” herbal tea I drank while pregnant — but after a couple sips more, I found it quite pleasant, like an extra fruity Red Zinger.