BLAST FROM THE PAST: Raspberry Sun Tea (2012)

Products: candle  
Area used in:  living room
Time Period: end of May - mid of July

Description: Refreshingly bright and fruity, a delicious blend of Darjeeling tea, sugared raspberries and juicy peach

Spring 2012 was the best year of spring scents! There was so much bountiful variety - tropical scents, beachy scents, tons of florals, fruity concoctions and drinks/cocktails. And I wasn't interested in any of them. What an idiot I was, a closed-minded idiot for not taking advantage of truly unique scents that were available that season including this gem. Though that said I don't remember seeing this in my stores and it's twin, Peachy Tea. So to make up for my stupidity, I've been trying out Slatkin era scents that I poo-poo'ed back in that day. I just happened to see this on Evilbay for a remarkably cheap price so I bought it without thinking.

As I said before, Spring 2012 was Slatkin/BBW at it's peak spring/summer scent-wise. Unfortunately the drawback was despite the over abundance of new and unique scents, the burn performance for the most part was pretty shitty - lot of tunneling/canyoning and self-extinguishing wicks. I was worried this candle's performance would be craptastic and in the very beginning, it was kinda iffy. But after a few burns, the candle corrected itself; the flames were of a decent size and there were always deep and even wax pools. Also can I say I miss the days when candles had longer burn times; the first couple of times I burned it, I barely made a dint in it. The throw is decent, I'd describe it as medium-strong; not a knockout but far from weak.

The scent is pretty straight forward - it's smell like raspberry flavored ice tea. More to the point, it smells exactly like Lipton Brisk raspberry iced tea ...which was my jam back in the 90s as a kid. I'm not usually a fan of anything flavored/scented berry, especially raspberry for some reason, but I'm willing to overlook my bias with this scent. The raspberry is pleasant albeit artifial, like raspberry tea or Kool-aid powder. And I swear, I keep picking up the same pomegranate note similar to Pomegranate Spritzer or Pomegranate Lemonade. I do get tea, though whether it's Darjeeling (my favorite kind of tea) or not remains to be seen. It's a tart black tea note similar to London Calling/Southern Sweet Tea but with a more acidic tannin flavor...which makes sense if there truly are Darjeeling tea notes. And lastly lurking in the background is white peach/nectarine that adds more sweetness, tartness and juicy that pairs quite nicely with the tea notes

Think Southern Sweet Tea + Pomegranate Spritzer + Nectarine Green Tea = Raspberry sun Tea...basically

I've found myself really enjoying this; I personally like this way more than London Calling/Southern Sweet Tea. It's a shame this hasn't come back as it could've easily been in the Summer Sips or Poptails collection; this could have and should have easily replaced Raspberry Citrus Swirl in the upcoming Poptails collection. There's just something quintessentially summer-ish; it's just one of those refreshing scents that's perfect for a hot humid summer afternoon.  If you see this on Ebay or Amzon and it's reasonably ie under$25, get it!