Pineapple & Papaya - Green tea 100 g - Café du Jour loose tea

A green tea you can see the fruit in

Dried pineapple and papaya, strawflower and sunflower petals sit visibly in the dry leaf, and they are what turn an ordinary green tea into something sweet and tropical. The fruit is candied, so the sweetness in the cup is real rather than suggested; the papaya keeps it soft where the pineapple brings the acidity. Green tea is the base, so unlike a rooibos blend this one does carry caffeine, which is worth knowing before you pour a cup at eleven at night.

Eighty degrees, two to three minutes

This is the part worth getting right. Boiling water turns green tea bitter, so give the kettle a couple of minutes off the boil before you pour. About 2 g per cup, roughly a level teaspoon, water at around 80 °C, two to three minutes. Loose leaf needs something to hold it: a strainer, a paper tea filter or a pair of tea tongs.

Iced, and cold-brewed

Brewed a little stronger than usual and left to cool, it pours well over ice. Or skip the hot stage altogether and steep the leaf in cold water in the fridge: four hours for something light, up to twelve for a much fuller jug. Cold brewing takes the risk of scalding the leaf out of the equation, and the fruit comes through very cleanly.

Pack, yield and storage

• Net weight: 100 g, around 50 cups at 2 g per cup
• Leaf: loose green tea blend
• Ingredients: green tea, pineapple (sugar, pineapple, antioxidant: citric acid), papaya (papaya, sugar, antioxidant: calcium chloride, antioxidant: citric acid), flavouring, strawflower, sunflower petals
• Caffeine: yes, green tea base
• Dose: about 2 g per cup
• Water and time: around 80 °C, two to three minutes
• Blended and packed in the Netherlands by Café du Jour