Fruit and flowers are a wonderful combination and lychee with rose is the most romantic of them all, I think. I really love this combination with vanilla and tapioca pearls in a bubble tea, but I’m drinking this BOH Lychee with Rose tea steaming hot instead.
This tea is from the BOH Seri Songket collection, which pairs delicious tropical fruit flavours with black tea grown in Malaysia. It’s not the first tea I’ve reviewed from this collection, so do a quick search on the blog to pull up other teas from BOH for a little background info.
In this review, I’ll tell you what to expect from this tea, how you should brew it, and where the best place to buy it is.
BOH Lychee with Rose Tea at a Glance
- Blend: Malaysian black tea with rose and lychee flavours
- Flavour: Smooth black tea with perfumed roses and a bitter aftertaste
A tea that smells fantastic but tastes… just okay. Lychee and rose creates a juicy and fragrant profile but the flavour doesn’t reflect that. I found the aftertaste to be a bit too bitter.
Full Review – BOH Lychee Rose Tea
- Type: Tagged paper filter tea bag
- Tea: Black tea from Malaysia
- Additives: Lychee flavouring, rose flavouring
- Flavour Notes: Smooth black tea, roses, bitterness
- Aroma: Juicy lychee, citrus, rose perfume, bitter black tea
- Milk or Lemon: Neither
- Where to Buy: Amazon
Opening the foil packet (which keeps it amazingly fresh) the aroma from the dried tea is just so juicy! The lychee flavouring is strong but not overpowering and it instantly has my mouth watering. This is paired with delicately fragrant rose petals, which add some higher notes to the tea. With the black tea creating a subtle base line, these three ingredients bring some surprising depth.
It brews into a dark peat brown coloured tea, suggesting that the black tea base will have some punch to it. It comes through more in the aroma as well, drowning out the lychee and hinting at some bitterness.
The flavour is okay, but it’s nowhere near as mouth-watering as the aroma. The black tea is smooth but has no body. It’s followed with the strong perfumed flavour of roses and very bitter black tea which emerges in the aftertaste.
Overall, this tea is nice. With a teaspoon of sugar, it may even be good. I just wish it was as good as the aroma.
How to Brew Lychee and Rose Black Tea
Don’t worry about getting a 100°C water temperature for BOH Lychee with Rose Tea. You might be better with a slightly lower water temperature, around 90°C or even 80°C. This will curb the bitterness a little, but it also means you need to steep it for longer (5+ minutes) to draw out the rose and lychee.
I wouldn’t advise drinking this tea with milk, but some sugar will go nicely with it. You could even serve this tea with some fresh lychee fruit to bring out the flavour more and combat the bitterness.
There’s just something about rose tea that tastes better served in a teacup instead of a mug!
Why BOH Tea Malaysia?
My experience with the BOH Tea brand has been really positive, even though a few of their teas haven’t been as great as they could have been. Everyone I’ve dealt with at BOH has been super helpful – they even sent me this tea all the way from Malaysia to review on the blog.
You can see the flavouring amongst the finely chopped tea leaves. The black tea in this blend is from BOH’s tea plantations in Malaysia. At first glance, it doesn’t look any different to the teabags you’d expect from Twinings, for example, who take their tea from various countries around the world. But the tea from BOH is from one region of Malaysia, giving it a more distinct and characteristic flavour – although on the downside that can make it less complex and rounded.
Summary
Even though the flavour didn’t hit top marks, this tea is still worth trying as part of the Seri Songket collection. For buyers in the UK and USA, I’ve found Amazon to offer the best price (use the button below to go straight there) but if you’re located in Malaysia, you might be able to find this tea in your nearest grocery store instead.
Tea Recommendation
If fruity flavours are really your cup of tea, I recommend looking at my review of the Twinings Fruit Tea Selection box. Unlike BOH Lychee with Rose Tea in the caffeinated Seri Songket collection, the Twinings Fruit Selection box is entirely caffeine free and ideal for your evening cuppa.