Strawberry Rhubarb Crumble

Travel mug #3. Almost gone :( I wish I could justify picking up more of this one, because it’s one of my favourite strawberry teas. Hopefully they’ll bring it back one day. I’m probably going to hoard my last cup until it is flavourless D: Perfect strawberry crisp flavour. Never really did pick up the rhubarb, but also never really cared.

ETA: So glad this one resists a second-infusion oversteep. Mmmm.

S I don’t forget, had a cup of this tonight..a single serving left before its all gone…. Wheeeee!

13 weeks until November… 221 teas less 150 over those 13 weeks is 6 sipdowns a week…. Assuming that between now and November I pick up NO new teas…which we already know isn’t going to happen since I have uh…teaspot, butiki, teavivre, verdant on their way and another butiki order as of yet to be placed…. But a girl can dream right? And scheme? :)

This tea is on the Last Chance DavidsTEA page! Nooo! I have nice memories of drinking this tea with my dad on christmas! Sucks to discontinue a tea, but I do like Strawberry Rhubarb combos, so I’ll search for other similar teas.

I did a blog review with pics – http://oolongowl.wordpress.com/2013/02/05/strawberry-rhubarb-crumble-from-davidstea-tea-review/ another Owly pic!

This is one of my very favourite teas, and David’s discontinued it a while ago. I’ve been hoarding samples from Sil and jessiwrites, because they’re awesome.

I may have just had a minor freakout over this proposal due tomorrow. I finally decided on my topic last night, and I’ve spent the better half of the afternoon and evening doing research and writing. My friend and I were just discussing it, and next thing you know I’m questioning everything I’ve done up to this point. Ahhh. You know the vicious cycle that comes next – check the time, ask yourself if there’s another time to figure out a back up plan, freak out some more, etc. After ten minutes, in which I’m sure I sprouted a few grey hairs, I had reworded a couple sentences and was back on track. PHEW. Talk about an overreaction.

This tea is amazing. And I think the events of this evening have warranted its presence.

Love this tea, especially iced. It’s one of the few iced teas my wife will drink too, if only because it throws her off. It honestly tastes like a strawberry rhubarb crumble, which we are huge fans of here. Everyone who tries it is a bit weirded out by it and then loves it.

This is also the tea I was sipping last night when the NY senate voted to allow same-sex marriage, so it will always be an important link to a memory for me. I won’t lie, I cried. Six states down, forty-four to go until I have the same rights in my home country that I do in the country I’ve chosen to live in. C’mon, US, do me proud!

Yaaaay another sample sipdown!

This seems like it either lost its flavor or 2 minutes doesn’t work for it. I am pretty sure it’s the 2 minutes thing, because it’s a DT white. Smelling the try leaf, I get a small hint of fruit but mostly the cinnamon. So I think it probably lost the flavor.

Oh well didn’t this one get discontinued anyway?

I am having throat issues this week, and really needed something that could handle a bit extra honey. I rarely use sweeteners, but decided that the tartness and cinnamon-y goodness of this tea might be able to stand up to a healthy scoop of raw honey.

Yum. It’s very sweet, but still tart and yummy. I am going to prepare a second steep shortly. This was a good choice.

Why, why is it gone?

It’s 9:43pm and I’m sat listening to awful karaoke from the pub next door, even my cat can’t sleep through it! Playing Skyrim is taking my mind off it a little though so all is well. I’ve had to buy a new fish tank as the repairs we did only lasted for a few days. So me and my husband both chipped in almost £400 for a new tank and stand, changing from a 160 litre tank to a 250 litre tank. In a week or so I will try to post pictures of it with it’s new decorations, going for a natural and heavily planted theme. :)

……………………………

Thank you jessiwrites for this tea.

This sample smells sweet but also spicy and thick, like strawberry licorice but sweeter and with a hint of cinnamon. Very unusual and not like strawberry or rhubarb as such but it still smells nice on any account.

Once steeped and with a little rock sugar added this tea tastes like sweet but mild strawberry with hints of cinnamon and non specific fruit. No rhubarb or crumble as the name would suggest. It’s more like a spicy berry punch very similar to warm cider than strawberry rhubarb crumble. It’s fairly nice but just not what I was expecting. My husband isn’t a fan either, he thought I got the packets mixed up until I showed him.

Not sure when I bought this one but the beau and I are brewing it up today. At first I thought it was an herbal, but apparently there is a bit of white tea in there somewhere. Tea is the 5th ingredient listed though, so it can’t be much! For Davids to charge $11.75/50 g for a glorified herbal is kind of outrageous, and helps explain why I only bought 10 grams. I like Davids in general but that is just ridiculous.

All 10 of those grams steeped in our pot for about 4 minutes in 90 degree water. The resulting brew is pink from the hibby and rosehips though the aroma is sweet, like the brown sugar crust on an apple crisp. I’m not necessarily picking up rhubarb or strawberry in the aroma, but crumble is there for sure. That’s actually pretty impressive. I’m picking up some serious cinnamon which is worrying but this blend also has rock sugar in it so I am hoping the cinnamon, hibby and sugar balance each other out.

This smells much better than the strawberry rhubarb parfait from Davids that I had over Christmas…The cost is still bothering me, but the smell is divine. First sips are sweetened cinnamon, hint of fruit and then smooth sugar, like I’m eating rock candy. Well, I guess I kind of am. There is a build-uip of sweetness and pastry which I really like but I’m not getting the fruit like I might hope. I love strawberries and always want strawberrty tea to hit me over the head. This doesn’t do that, but it does a very good sweet fruity crumble. I’m not picking up any white tea, but that’s to be expected with the ingredients this has.

In the end I definitely can’t get over the cost (for shame!) but this is really nice. Flavour is a 70 – 75 but cost to flavour is closer to a 30. Glad to have tried it but I definitely won’t be getting more.

As the cup cools the hibby starts taking over so I shall take my leave and finish the rest of the cup. The beau is playing the God of War Ascension demo and I am considering some Just Dance 4 when he is finished. I love the dancy games, but this one is really rocking my socks. I have goals to accomplish, I love that sort of thing!

This has become one of my favourite teas, because I discovered the joy of making it into a latte with the addition of strawberry matcha. Seriously, strawberry milkshake of deliciousness and health. Double strength tea, a third a cup of milk, and one perfect matcha scoop in the blender. Yum.