Strawberry Rhubarb Parfait

I received this as part of a Christmas gift. This is not a flavour I would have chosen myself, but it was part of the “Sweet Indulgence” set. I’m generally not a fan of fruity teas, and I have learned to be very wary of anything other than the plainest of the plain when it comes to David’s Tea because they are very quick on the draw with artificial flavours, and not even very high-quality ones, and frequently where they’re not necessary.

Someone else here mentioned that this tea smells like Campino Strawberries and Cream candies. I would agree. That was my first red flag. Again, my experience with David’s Tea is that if it smells like something artificial, it’s going to taste eighteen times worse.

That said, this is not David’s Tea’s worst sin by a long way. I wouldn’t call it good—the artificial strawberry is strong with this one—and I don’t get any hints of rhubarb. I actually like hibiscus, so I enjoyed that hint of bitterness. Without it, I think the artificial strawberry smell and taste would be overwhelming. I do get a sense of yogurt, and that is not a good thing because I’m scared to know what is responsible for that.

To be fair, I think the very first tea I ever had was a strawberry-flavoured tea, and I loathed that too. I just don’t care for non-citrus fruit flavours so much. I’ve finished my tiny tin of this tea today, and I am happy to now have a cute little tin available for storing beads and sequins. As I said, I would not have bought this tea for myself (not that I don’t appreciate the thoughtfulness of the gift I received), and I still wouldn’t. Others who like strawberry flavour and aren’t as put off by the artificial smells and tastes will have a much better experience than me.

This tea was not bad. Tastes like very sour strawberries. This tea smelled better than the sour strawberry taste.

I got this as a sample in my order and I am not impressed with this one. I’m not a fan of fruity teas anyway so I’m not surprised. Smells amazing dry and in the cup, but I feel like most fruity herbal teas all taste the same. Its not terrible but not one I would buy. All I can taste is very sour strawberry and a hint of yogurt. Might be better with sweetener though.

On Friday, I gave this tea a final shot. I’ve decided to up my rating. I steeped 3/4 tsp in 1/2 a cup. It seemed so meager, but I didn’t want my sample to go to waste.

Oh my goodness— I don’t know what happened but I finally got this tea. I got in from DDing my boyfriend to some party across town, and sat down to continue my marathon of Friends on Netflix while this steeped. The tea wasn’t cloyingly tart or sweet. It started to remind me a little more of Berry Poppins.

Perhaps I will have to break down and buy some of this. It would be perfect for a night time before bed kind of tea, or perhaps something to put in the pitcher next summer.

EDIT: Looks like I’ve mixed up all my David’s tart herbals. I went in last week thinking this was a tea I’d already tried, and it wasn’t. I was mixing up Berry Refreshing, Berry Poppins, and Strawberry Rhubarb Parfait. Now I feel better.

A deliciously fruity, tangy tea. I imagined a strawberry tea would be strikingly sweet, but the rhubarb luckily prevents this from happening. This tea brews a lovely deep ruby colour and smells sweet and creamy thanks to the yogurt bits. All the promised flavour notes are detectable and combine to create a yummy dessert tea that doesn’t overpower with sugar at all.
Part of the DAVIDsTEA permanent collection.

Came back to up the score of this baby. I used a tbsp of tea and left it soaking in my Halloween mug while I took a shower. I don’t know the exact time, but it was 20+ minutes before I went back to it, and holy flavour! I can distinctly taste the Apple, hibiscus and strawberry. I take back the comment about being so-so hot. It just needed more time to make it yummy.
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This was so-so hot, but made a delightful tea pop. It was almost cream soda like, but without the overwhelming sweetness of an actual cream soda. I followed the guide on David’s Tea blog, except I doubled the steep time.

I had this as a cold brew recently. One problem with doing a good deal of sipdowns is that I find I cannot log them as tasting notes as frequently as I am drinking them away. I had this either early last week or last the week before, maybe? Anyway, I recall that it was a good representation of the strawberry rhubarb combination. It was nice on a warm day. That being said, the more tisanes of fruit I have the more the hibiscus seems to be more pronounced in each individual blend. I think it might be time to take a break from these for a bit.

Sipdown!

Oh yuck – I brewed this cold and it was pretty disgusting. I am going to try to add sweetener and/or lemonade to be able to drink it – but otherwise this was just plain nasty!

First let me freely admit that I’m biased against this tea because of the hibiscus and beetroot. I chose this tea as a free sample pack on a recent David’s order without looking closely at the ingredients. Dried, this tea smells amazing and just like I envisioned from the name. However, I find the flavour very different from the aroma and unfortunately for me the hibiscus and beetroot dominate the palate and overpower the more subtle strawberry and cream notes that I was hoping for. That said, if I was to try it again in the future, I would try a shorter steep to lessen the tart hibiscus and earthy beetroot notes.

Delicious sweet and tart