Strawberry Tea

Oh my god, I was with my boyfriend yesterday after work so I didn’t have a chance to check Steepster at all. I just curiously peeked in at the forum last night when I was checking email and replied to a couple of topics, but I haven’t read most of them yet and I haven’t read any of my dashboard pages at all since… tuesday morning, I think. And this last week I’ve been on a rather an enormous adding spree for no other reason than clicking the ‘follow’ button is way more fun than it logically ought to be. I just like adding new people, it makes me feel social. Probably a subconscious response to being such an anti-social person in real life.

I’ll just do my backlogs while gathering courage for tackling the rest.

First up, a backlog from yesterday. I was at a course and this was the tea served. Or rather, it was the topmost teabag in the pile provided to choose from. I wasn’t feeling picky and I’ve always liked strawberry tea.

It did definitely taste of strawberries, but it was fairly synthetic in flavour. Had a LOT of equally synthetic aroma too.

Actually, it had so much aroma that (and I swear this is absolutely true) I accidentally dipped one sleeve of my cardigan in the cup and got a little stain there, and hours later the boyfriend sniffed at my other arm and stated, “you smell like strawberries today.” He didn’t know at the time that I’d had strawberry tea. I suppose it could be a coincidence, but what are the odds?

So, it was a pretty mediocre cup of tea, but I’m inclined to be generous on the rating. Even the most mediocre tea wins in flavour when you get to drink it from a proper cup instead of those cheap plastic cups that you just burn your fingers on.

Very artificial flavor-y, but I kind of expected that going in. Come to think of it, why did I even buy this?

Reviewed this tea last week when the sun was shining, but I’ve only just got round to posting my review and tasting notes.

I’m a freelance writer and I’m currently on a short contract to write website content and articles for a Chinese tea company (can’t share any details, sorry!) so they can launch in the UK and start selling. It’s hard to write about tea all day for work and then write even more about tea in my spare time. You’d think writing about tea for 8+ hours a day would be fun, but it’s starting to get to me. Hopefully the contract will be finished by the end of this week.

Anyway, this seemed like an easy tea that wouldn’t take me too long to write about. Picked up 3 sachets of it from a hotel last year. It’s very artificial and one dimensional.

Couldn’t finish the cup because it’s just too powerful. As a soft drink, the sickly sweet, strong, fake strawberry flavour would be nice. As a black tea with fruit flavouring, it’s just not good.

I brewed it lightly and there’s definitely nothing subtle about the syrupy texture and strawberry flavour. The black tea is barely detectable.

Artificial strawberry and banana are probably my least favourite flavours because, to me, they never taste anything like the real fruit.

Full review with a few pictures: http://www.immortalwordsmith.co.uk/lipton-strawberry-tea-review/

I had a browse through the other reviews of this tea, and found it quite interesting.

I wonder if it was presented in an unnamed, loose tea if the comments would be the same?
Yes, it’s Lipton. The ingredients include the word “flavour” (well, in my case, “aroma”, because I picked it up from Germany). It’s worth noting the ingredients also include “Erdbeere 1.3%” (Strawberry).

I actually found this a fantastic, easy drinking fruity tea. I often like strawberry flavoured things, but I’m not the biggest fan of tisanes, personally. I was surprised how good this black tea with a hint of strawberry was – it added a little sweetness and flavour, in an otherwise robust black tea.
This tea is important to stay within the brewing times – too little and the strawberry doesn’t have time to infuse (leaving only the flavouring), but too long and it becomes astringent.

It’s like a $15 bottle of wine, compared to a $150 bottle – I’m never going to serve it to at a fancy gathering, but it’s brilliant as a relaxed tea when I feel like a black tea, but something a little different.

Backlog. To me this didn’t taste artificial, just like dehydrated strawberries. When brewed it actually became jammy and sweet in a very nice way, which I was not expecting at all from this brand—it’s much better than any Lipton I’ve had in America, including strawberry flavors. I only found it on the breakfast buffet once, so I guess I know why it kept disappearing!

Just asked a bag from a friend to taste this tea, it tastes okay, not the best strawberry tea out there. It is too fragrant that it made my office tumbler smelled like strawberries for a few days even after washing. Tasted quite artificial.