Pukka Wonder Berry Green Tea Review
The sun is out! It’s the perfect time for me to review Pukka Wonder Berry Green tea. So, I’ve written this review in the sunshine, surrounded by the beautiful flowers in bloom right now in Essex, England. I hope you enjoy my photos as well as my write-up of this tea experience today.
Pukka Wonder Berry Green is a green tea with berries and other herbal ingredients. Before we get started, I just want to highlight that Pukka label this tea as “whole leaf green tea” but as you can clearly see in my images, the tea leaf is finely chopped.
I think what Pukka mean is that the green tea is made from whole leaves (rather than stalks and leftover leaf particles) which are then chopped down into a dusty consistency. As a result, the flavour quality is much poorer than true whole leaf green tea which hasn’t been chopped to tiny pieces.
Now that’s out of the way, let’s delve into Pukka Wonder Berry Green tea!
Pukka Wonder Berry Green Tea at a Glance
Izzy's Rating
2/5
- Blend: Green tea with berries, spices and flavours
- Flavour: Plain green tea with mixed berries, spices, and liquorice sweetness
This tea is okay. The green tea is plain rather than nuanced with those delicate grassy flavours you want. The berry flavours are a little too sweet and the liquorice really doesn’t help that. If you dislike aniseed and blackcurrant flavours, you won’t like this tea at all.
Full Review – Pukka Green Tea with Berries and Spices
Izzy's Rating
2/5
- Type: Tagged paper filter teabag
- Tea: Green tea
- Additives: Peppermint leaf, ginger root, liquorice root, echinacea leaf and root, beetroot, rosehip, elderberry, orange essential oil flavour, acerola fruit, natural blackcurrant flavour
- Flavour Notes: Plain green tea, mixed berries, liquorice, anise
- Aroma: Musty green tea, vague berries, blackcurrants, elderberry
- Milk or Lemon: Lemon
- Where to Buy: Amazon
The first thing I do when I rip open the packaging, is inhale deeply. I want to get a sense of the aroma coming from the dry ingredients, to work out what’s in there. Instantly, this tea has a very musty aroma which is typical of Pukka. The way this tea brand finely chops all the ingredients into a very fine particle size often creates a dusty/musty aroma. It’s not pleasant, but at least there are some berry notes coming through too.
I brewed this tea into a very dark, murky green/brown tea colour. The amount of dust that I had to strain out before drinking this tea was unbelievable. The aroma is more berry-like, however. Notes of elderberry and blackcurrant were discernible from the generic berry smell.
I will be honest about the flavour – I really don’t like it. There’s a strong liquorice sweetness that permeates it at every level, making the berry notes seem almost artificial, when in fact they’re natural flavourings. The green tea is plain and simple, but at least it’s not bitter.
Overall, this tea is mediocre at best. The sweetness prevents it from being refreshing, as berry and green tea should be, and the flavours are lacklustre.
How to Brew Pukka Green Tea
Don’t be afraid to use boiling water with this tea. I tried brewing Pukka Wonder Berry Green with 80°C water and 100°C water – both resulted in the same cup. Use 1 teabag (holding 2g of tea) per mug.
Let your tea brew for 3 minutes. Pukka instruct that you can brew for up to 15 minutes, but I don’t recommend that with green tea. Bear in mind that a 15-minute brew time will significantly enhance the liquorice flavour as well.
Don’t add any additional sweetness to this tea. You’re better off adding lemon to relieve some of the anise flavours and freshen the green tea base. Alternatively, why not choose another berry tea?
Why Pukka Wonder Berry?
There are some great things about Pukka that always brings me back to the brand. First is their paper packaging that’s both protective and biodegradable. Another thing worth noting is that they are Soil Association Organic certified, which is a big deal. The requirements for this organic certification are pretty strict (search the blog to find my article explaining what they are).
Besides that, there wasn’t much about this tea that I liked. The long list of ingredients didn’t amount to much, except a generic berry-like flavour. Once again, Pukka has chopped the ingredients far too finely and been way too generous with the liquorice.
These are, unfortunately, mistakes that Pukka make in numerous tea blends.
Summary
While I didn’t find this tea to be very nice, you might find it suits you perfectly. If elderberries, blackcurrants, liquorice and generic berry flavours are really your cup of tea, then you may love it.
Either way, with organic and natural ingredients, a cup of Pukka Wonder Berry Green tea definitely won’t hurt you!
Tea Recommendation
Green tea can be a fabulous base for numerous blends, not just Pukka Wonder Berry. From the simplest green teas with a slice of lemon to exotic flavours like amaranth, coconut and pineapple. Use my Tea Review Index to navigate the blog and find something new to sip this week.