What’s in Basilur Raspberry Infusion?

Fruit teas are infusions made with dried fruit pieces and often some other herbal ingredients. They don’t contain any Camellia sinensis tea leaves, so they are technically not teas, but infusions. Some fruit teas are made only with fruit pieces, and many contain other herbal ingredients, too.

Basilur Raspberry Infusion contains hibiscus flower, orange peel, apple, stevia leaves, natural raspberry flavour and citric flavour. It comes in a classic, individually wrapped tea bags.

It smells sweet and deep, with a light, dusty note. Since hibiscus is the key ingredient, it’s also a dominant scent. Most fruity blends are made from one main ingredient, usually hibiscus or apple, secondary ingredients and flavourings. Although not a fruit, hibiscus is great for adding a deep crimson colour and unique deep and tart flavour. Another interesting ingredient in this tea is stevia, a natural sweetener with a distinctive sweet flavour and no calories. The first thought? This tea would be great for making iced or cold-brew tea.

What does it taste like?

To make a cup of fruit tea, use freshly boiled water and steep it for 5-10 minutes. Fruit teas will rarely get bitter, unless they contain lots of orange peel. This is mostly true for loose blends, rather than classic tea bags.

Once brewed, hibiscus gives it a pretty deep crimson colour. This tea smells like a rich hibiscus tea, with key notes of regular fruity teas that contain tart hibiscus. However, raspberry comes as an under flavour and really comes into a focus as an aftertaste. Raspberry scent is also pronounced, accompanied by an intense sweet note.

Basilur’s Raspberry infusion is a flavourful, strong and deep tea. It’s quite sweet but not sugary sweet. You can definitely feel that the sweetness is coming from an herbal ingredient rather than refined sugar. It has a light zesty note from hibiscus, and a light raspberry aftertaste. Raspberry is not an actual ingredient in this tea (which is often a case with raspberry flavoured teas, and the flavour is added with natural raspberry flavouring). This tea doesn’t need any sweeteners as it already contains stevia leaves. However, if you prefer very sweet teas, both honey and white sugar are a good choice.

Because of its strong flavour, this tea is a good choice for making iced teas. Steep it together with some fresh raspberries to give it a real raspberry punch.

Who would like this tea? If you enjoy strong and bold fruit teas with hibiscus, you’ll enjoy this tea too. If you are looking for a strong raspberry tea, this may not be the right infusion for you. That said, many raspberry teas are rather light in raspberry flavour, and mostly contain other ingredients including natural flavourings too.

Interestingly, the flavour is deep, and complex, even though it’s made with tiny particles. Because of its rich flavour, this tea is a great alternative to regular supermarket fruit teas.

Tea Recap

Water or milk? Water

Day or night? Day or night

Hot or iced? Hot or cold

Sweetened or pure? Pure as it already contains a calorie-free sweetener.

Caffeine? No

What’s the price? S$8.15

Where to buy? Get it from Basilur website

The post Basilur Raspberry Infusion appeared first on All That Tea.

What is a frappe?

Frappe is an icy cold drink typically made using instant coffee, water, sugar, milk and ice. Frappe is usually made with cold water, rather than hot. That’s why instant coffee is great for making this drink.

Making a frappe with tea is not as straightforward unless you want to use either tea or latte powders. Instead of using instant tea, for this raspberry frappe, tea is brewed in a standard way instead. Raspberry Frappe is a great alternative to iced milk teas. It’s super refreshing, and because lighter milk will work well too, it may contain only 50-100 calories per large glass, depending on which milk you are using.

Ingredients for making Raspberry Frappe with black tea

Rubus idaeus or simply – raspberries – are a perfect fruit for adding to your tea. They have a stronger flavour than strawberries, and enough sweetness and tartness to make tea both refreshing and sweet. They contain ellagitannins and anthocyanins, polyphenols that may provide many health benefits too. In fact, anthocyanins are red pigments, present not only in raspberries, but other red and purple fruits and vegetables, and even Camellia sinensis tea.

This raspberry frappe with black tea contains both real tea and real fruits, and is irresistibly delicious. You will want to sip this often. Plus, it’s super easy to make.

Flavourful Raspberry Black Tea

Although you can use any strong and malty high-quality tea, rich and smooth Simple Raspberry Black tea is as made for this recipe. Smaller leaves will infuse into a stronger cup, so if you are using other black tea, choose those that are good for making a strong cup. You can use tea bags too, but choose those that taste good without condiments.

Freeze-dried raspberries

Freeze-dried fruits are great for making desserts and drinks. One small package will last a long time, and you only need a teaspoon for an intense flavour. You can find them online and many supermarkets sell them too. They are great for adding flavour to cookies, smoothies, cakes and hot chocolate. This recipe uses freeze dried raspberry pieces, rather than whole raspberries.

Fresh raspberries

Choose fresh and ripe raspberries rather than frozen ones. Fresh raspberries have a less concentrated flavour than freeze-dried raspberries but give a nice touch of fresh fruitiness to this frappe.

Milk

We used regular milk, but feel free to use a dairy alternative with a less intense flavour. If you like your drinks sweet, a sweetened plant-based milk will be great too. Depending on the type of milk, you can adjust the water-milk ratio. Thinner milks work great in this recipe, so experiment until you find your perfect substitute.

Don’t have raspberries? You can replace raspberries with fresh and free-dried strawberries and strawberry flavoured black tea, or blueberries.

Print

Raspberry Frappe with Black Tea

Icy cold summer treat with black tea, raspberry flavoured black tea, freeze-dried and fresh raspberries.

Course Drinks

Keyword Black Tea, Frappe, Raspberries, Summer

Prep Time 15 minutes minutes

Servings 1 large glass

Equipment

• Blender
• Glass for serving
• Tea filter, strainer or a teapot
• Kettle

Ingredients

• handful of raspberries
• 2 heaped tsp of black tea (this recipe is made with Simple Raspberry Black tea)
• 1 leveled tsp of freeze-dried raspberries
• 1/3 cup of semi-skimmed or full fat milk
• 2/3 cup of water
• 1 cup of ice
• 1 tsp of honey (or more if needed)
• whipped cream for serving (optional)

Instructions

• Bring water to a boil and let it cool down for a 30 seconds. 
• Steep tea leaves in 1/3 cup of freshly boiled water for 10 minutes. You want to get areally strong infusion. It’s important to use high-quality tea, so it doesn’t get overly bitter and undrinkable. You want to still taste the tea.
• Add 2/3 cup of ice, washed fresh raspberries, freeze-dried raspberries 1/3 cup ofc old milk and honey (optional) into a blender.
• Blend for 30-60 seconds until all ice is crushed and pour into a large glass with the rest of the ice.
• Serve with a straw.

Notes

If you are using regular black tea, English Breakfast or Assam teas are good substitutes.

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