My friends Alexis and Cece recently went to Israel for a college study abroad program. When visiting them, they offered for me to try fresh, authentic Israeli fruit tea that they bought in a Jewish Shuk (a giant Jewish marketplace). Of course, I accepted their offer.
They had two different types of tea: Lemon Nana and Apple Cider. They were fairly expensive and was the price equivalent to around $40 each (145 shekels each). But the quality and freshness of these teas made the price entirely worth it. The nana fruit is extremely difficult to find information on. It almost seems as if this important fruit has no online presence and does not exist. I do not know if nana is short for banana (the tea tasted NOTHING like banana) or what, but if someone could explain this mysterious nana fruit, I would love to hear more about it.
It was a fruit “tea”, but with no leaves. It was almost like candied dried fruit. The tea could be eaten from the bag and it was honestly delicious as an expensive little candied fruit snack. I had no idea how to really prepare this tea, as there weren’t any tea leaves. However, I would not be able to burn or scorch the tea either so I choose to boil water to attempt to extract all the flavor from the dried fruit. From there, I allowed the tea to steep for probably about 20 minutes (until the drink was cooled down) and stirred a few times. I did not have a steeper available so I just put the “tea fruit” on the bottom of the mug.
The apple cider tea tasted like no other tea I had tried before. Really good and fresh, but like a watered down kinda version of apple cider. It was not as sweet as the Lemon Nana, but the taste and strength seemed more concentrated the more you drank the tea.
The Lemon Nana tea had a lot more taste and strength than the Apple Cider tea. I could definitely taste the lemon but it was extremely sweet. On the verge of being too sweet honestly. I think this tea would be lovely when iced and served cold.
Alexis and Cece both had an amazing trip to Israel. I think traveling with your best friend makes it even more fun and special. They both made videos from their time there. If you want to check out Cece’s click here, and if you want to check out Alexis’s click here.
Both of these teas were extremely interesting to try and taste since they were completely different from any tea I have tried before. Of course, not all teas from Israel are a candied fruit tea. But I was very glad to try something new and tasty!
Let me know in the comments if you have tried any teas from different countries! Happy Brewing!
-Danielle
nana is spearmint