513 Tasting Notes
Usually I love this tea and I am uber protective over my small stash of it, but today it was almost a little dusty?I think maybe I didn’t add quite enough sugar, so the chocolate was dusty and dry. Generally though my experience is much more positive and this in one of those teas I faithfully return to. I am sorry that David’s Tea seems to have killed it off, I am not sure where I am going to find a similar substitute when my stash is gone!
I have been so behind on logging tea! Long story extremely short, my partner and I are moving cross province in just over a month so I have living arrangements to set, work to find, and a move to organize and, somewhere in there, occasionally find time for a quick cup of tea.
As for this tea, it is as delightful as I remember it being. However, I have paying more attention to brewing times and pulling this tea after a shorter time. I think I actually liked it better with a longer steep. The berry is more subtle with a shorter steep, though it does become much more apparent as the tea cools.
Overall, it was fun to try another cup of this blend, but I think I might need to really play around with the brewing parameters a little more.
Tried this last night at a friends place. I like strawberry, and I was alright with a berry tea, but this is sadly lacking in the promised cream component of the flavour. I was hoping for a bit more muted of a strawberry, softened by some vanilla tinted cream notes. Not so much. Tart, tart, and more tart would be an apt description. Interesting, glad I tried it, not something I would run and reach for again.
I tried this again today to see if my opinion had softened. It certainly isn’t atrocious,in fact I think it is actually a well blended cinnamon tea. I actually don’t mind it as much as long as it is hot, but I can’t get over the cinnamon sweetness when it is cold. Overall, still not for me, but the boy likes it so I will let him play around with it for a while.
I really like this tea. The smell of the leaves is just decadent and totally reminiscent of gooey coconut macaroons we used to make when I was young. Brewed up, the coconut is the dominant flavour, with a nice malty chocolate note backing it up. I found that there is definitely enough rock sugar to lend a sweet note to the tea, but I think I will still toss in a bit of extra sugar in my next cup. I think macaroons are so gooey and decadent, it begs to be super sweet. Overall, I am thrilled this is new to the line up, I think I could become addicted rather quickly!
Note to self: Though this tea seems like it should mix well with a bit of Strawberry Rhubarb Parfait, surprisingly, it does not… I hoped to get Strawberry coffee cake, I apparently managed to create a hot mess. Unfortunate, but lesson learned. Two great teas, but not two teas I would throw together again!
This was one of the first teas I tried, and one of the first teas I really, really did not like. I picked some up again because, as I grow to better understand brewing and how to make a good cup of tea, I am retrying some of my early misses to see if I can coax something better out of the teas. In this case, I have always loved the smell of the dry leaves, but I could not get past the bitterness of the base tea.
Tonight I brewed it very carefully, paying close attention to both the water temperature and the brew time. By keeping the temperature a bit lower and the brew time a bit shorter and I got a lovely strawberry heavy, chocolate tea. The base tea is strong, but not unpleasant and I managed to keep it from being astringent. I am really glad I gave this tea another chance. I want to try it a few more times but, if it continues to turn out this pleasantly, I am going to have to bump up my rating!
First hot cup of tea in days!! Now that the chaos of prom is over, I am enjoying a lazy afternoon sitting with a cup of tea and watching The Next Great Baker on netflix. As for this tea, it is one of those classic cake-y teas I love. I don’t get mountains of fruit flavour, but I get a nice smooth cake note on top of the light black tea base. This is not a spectacularly unique flavour to me, but it is a nice, comforting cup for a lazy afternoon.
