Strawberry Rhubarb Parfait

This is part of my recent fruit-herbal kick.

This is tart, fruity, with a dab of yogurt. I was surprised to find that I liked this better hot than cold (it’s too much like sour yogurt for me). A shorter steep time (4min?) prevents Hibiscus from manifesting completely in all its sour glory. I often never remember this though, which results in a thoroughly shredded tongue and throat. Whoops.

On a side note: DT and Purdy’s decided to join forces today at Hillside (maybe they’re doing it in other places?). They’re handing out samples together, which included two “tea” chocolates (Passion-fruit, Chai). Interesting stuff!

No tasting notes yet? Not even from DAVIDs? …Odd. I’m the first!

And this is my last $1 summer tea before Labour Day, so time to retire that rather leaky but money-saving mug. I’m pretty sure I got my money’s worth out of that mug, so I’m satisfied.

As my new manager would say…HOLY BALLS GUYS, this is amazing! It’s an herbal, and I’m trying to mostly stick to actual camellia sinensis for the most part these days…but what a winner of an herbal! If you don’t like this one, you are wrong. Yes, you are wrong!

Strawberry and rhubarb are maybe not two flavours I would think to put together, but that’s just more evidence that I shouldn’t be a tea blender, because they go perfectly together!

This tea is tart, naturally, because it contains both rhubarb and hibby. Actually, hibiscus is the second listed ingredient…which would have scared me if I had seen that before I bought it. But no, this is not a tartness which is badly blended and out of control. This is a perfectly balanced tartness! I am, as you know if you’ve read maybe two of my reviews, a freak for sugar, but I drank the unsweetened sample in the store and practically chugged it down! It was nice and refreshing and not too tart even without DT’s agave, so if you drink your tea without sweetener and are cringing at the listed ingredients – have no fear! It is perfectly drinkable without sweetener.

With agave though, I had a hard time rationing my mug on the way home (don’t want to run out of fluid when it’s still pretty hot out). Agave brought out the sweetness of the strawberry just that little bit more. Although I should note that it seems like a very natural strawberry flavour to me – sweet and tiny bit tart in and of itself. Any of you guys remember the cloying artificial flavour of the strawberries in Strawberry Shortcake? Well, it’s not here.

I’ve only had this iced so far, but I bet it would be amazing hot! Like strawberry rhubarb pie, or something.

The best herbal from DAVIDs since Tropicalia! Color me very impressed.

On another note (and this is a vent about my job, so skip it if you haven’t been reading that)…my local DT is finally, finally hiring.

DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW CHOKED I AM RIGHT NOW. Seriously, only a few weeks after I got a job at a different tea store? The universe hates me!

Part of me wants to up and quit Teavana on the spot and apply to DT, but…I won’t do it. I discussed this with one of the girls there (cute and very friendly and chatty with me, I was her first “big sale” if I remember correctly) and she told me that because the job is SO great (rub it in, right?) no one ever quits…which has the downside of actually meaning that so many people work there that no one ever gets really good hours, and full time is out of the question. I really need the money I can pull doing full time right now, so I guess it’s for the best. (And I was just getting the matcha smoothies down!)

Plus, now I know for coming years that the “tiny blip” of time when they hire is at the start of September. Did my paperwork from Teavana mention a grace period before working for a competitor? I think it did, so I’ll have to double-check.

My last day at Other Job was yesterday. They didn’t even try to keep me – practically kicked me out the door, in fact – even though, a) I have the highest seniority of any associate, am the most knowledgeable and competent person currently working there, know our complex POS machines like the back of my hand, and constantly bail out the management when they don’t know how to handle a situation, so I’m a horrible person to lose for the coming Christmas season, and b) they’ve begged every other recent quitter – including high school students – to stay. Now they don’t even have a cash desk supervisor (because, you know, that was me) and the one girl who could maybe do it is quitting.

An old friend who transferred away from Other Job’s location when we got new management warned me months ago to bail on Other Job because the new management is very politically conservative, and he felt that both he and I, as queer employees, were being used for our competence but otherwise treated like dirt out of their homophobia. I wasn’t sure then, but now I really have to wonder, because they are the only management of that store that has ever seemed to dislike me or think I was anything other than awesome.

Oh well. I’m angry, but it’s their loss and it’s done. Now I live in Tealand (as the staff calls it), for the time being and for better or worse!

Finally had some of this one over the holidays. I remember it being creamy and vaguely fruity but not identifiably strawberry or rhubarb. For once, the tart was really well balanced and worked well for the rhubarb impression. I’ll do a further note when I have t next. For now it’s generic and drinkable but nothing to write home about. It did ease the pain of having my new (to us) car be totalled when a guy on a cell phone rear ended us with enough force to pancake us into another vehicle. We had it for only three weeks and are still waiting to hear from the adjuster if they will even try repairing it. It’s a 2000 so we’re quite worried they won’t even though it WAS in excellent shape. Mostly we are just grateful to be okay. Happy holidays and best wishes for a better 2013 for all!

Thank you, darby!

I didn’t even realize I really wanted to try this until I was swapping with darby, then I saw everyone’s notes again and that confirmed I wanted to try this.

I decided to try it cold, since that’s how I usually drink fruit tisanes. But I think if I can get it to resteep, I’ll try it out hot.

Iced, it is amazing! It’s tart, but not too bad. It’s kind of more apple tasting than the actual two fruits in the name, but I do get berry and it’s pretty sweet. The yogurt adds a nice creaminess. I think it might actually be more appropriate to call it a tangy tea than just tart.
Something with this many tart type ingredients going on might just beg for sugar but this is so good, it’s not even needed.

I’m sad I finished the cup already, but I’ll go make some to try hot and I’m sure I’ll be sending my boyfriend to get me at least an ounce of this next month…or if there’s a good Black Friday sale I will be all over this and that Bubbly one. Sometimes it’s not helpful having a birthday that always falls around Black Friday.

Ok, hot time: it resteeped pretty well! It is a lot heavier on the yogurt though. Thankfully I don’t mind this because I’ve been craving froyo and not going because I’ll go to get in the car and be instantly cold and it will be a bad idea. So something that still has that taste, but is hot sounds like a winner.

There’s still notes of strawberry but it’s not quite the same. I am definitely going to get more of this though, and I’ll have to try it hot on a first steep.

First, DaisyChubb is evil for introducing me to Drawception and giving me a new way to suddenly lose five hours of my life. (Seriously, I was up till 3am playing and reading games.)

But the tea, that’s why you’re all here. I first tried this in store and there found it lovely. It was light and lovely, with a hint of tartness and natural strawberry notes. The colour was a pale pink and while there was a sweetness to the cup, it was more along the lines of that in an actual strawberry. Really liking the sample, I got 20g and happily brought it home.

Like I always do in a first steep, I followed the “instructions” on the bag, doing a 5 min brew at about 96C. It gave me a cup of strawberry tartness, and was almost red in colour. I’m not sure if my cup perhaps had an over-abundance of hibiscus in my scoop or what, but next time I’m definitely doing a shorter steep. Brewer beware!

Even though I just picked up 22g a couple days ago, this is already a sipdown. The jug of cold brew is nearly done, meanwhile, I passed off the remaining leaf to my mom since she’s going to our house in the middle of nowhere for a while. Wish she had more since she loves it.

I forgot how good this is. Lovely balance of rhubarb and strawberry, with smooth creaminess reminiscent of strawberry rhubarb yogurt. Fingers crossed they won’t discontinue this like Redberry Tonic. For shame!

DAVIDsTEA is apparently offering 20% off 100g of any tea until the end of the weekend. Wonder if I should go back and get more of this. That location also received another batch of Cardamom French Toast, so that is tempting too, however, I got two 50g skinny tins of it when they went on sale so not sure if I should bother with more despite the new stuff being so wonderfully fresh. And then there’s Cranberry Pear discontinuing so I’m tempted to get more. Damn you, DAVIDs. Damn you.

HEAVEN in a cup..

I was lucky to buy a bit of this in Momo’s sale — thank you! I know it is a favorite from David’s and also discontinued — so I will say right now — this reminds me of Zentealife.com’s Strawberry Cream (the herbal blend and not the black blend)! There is also apparently a 30% sale going on at Zen right now.

I steeped two teaspoons for a few minutes and this must be one of the better herbal blends I’ve had (especially a blend with hibiscus). The hibiscus is bearable here only because the strawberry and the cream flavors are so nice. BUT I would have liked more strawberry and cream flavors to balance out the hibiscus. I’ll probably pick out some of the hibiscus next time. There is a tiny bit of rhubarb flavor if I really look for it. It is a very nice red cup! I’ve very happy to have tried this one. I’ll treasure the rest of it.

Trying this one hot…made it for my babe. My best friend has a fever of 101 and everyone is asleep except for me, since I am 3 hours behind her (she is in Florida and I am on the west coast of Canada). I didn’t want caffeine this late even though I am doing the late mall closing shift tomorrow and could handle a mildly caffeinated tea, so I chose this, because even though I have only had it iced thus far, I had been intrigued to try it hot, to see if I could get a pie like feel from it.

It tastes about the same hot as it does iced, though I think I used too much mix and it is a little tarter than I like…somthing I am able to handle better when iced. I might try this again but with less mix. I might also just sip what I can and add some water to dilute some.

All in all, not bad for a hot herbal tea at the cusp of fall. It feels summery to me still, but not quite fall or winter.

I’m really sad, I wanted to try a new tea and I found out that somebody BROKE my favorite glass mug, something about that mug I can trust that I am capable of making the perfect tea with ratio of water and tea. Also that it is glass, so I can see the color changing, or even adding milk!
So I made this tea knowing I already perfected the time, and somewhat scoops, and using my mom’s mug, it’s just not the same…