Razzleberry

Made this iced, per package directions, + 3 tbsp. sugar.

I got this for my boyfriend, as I don’t really like raspberry. I keep trying to entice him with flavored teas but he is just not biting. I shouldn’t be too surprised, though – he likes plain anything (ice cream, cheesecake, etc) over fun flavors.

I gave this a shot but it wasn’t to my tastes. He gave it a shot and it wasn’t to his either. But really, we are outliers and our opinions shouldn’t have any weight on the rating of this tea, so I’m not going to give it a number. It was quite raspberry so if that’s your thing, you should go for it!

I will say that the base was great, the perfect strength and balance of flavoring. And steeping instructions were perfect…. definitely follow them for the best iced tea, just sweeten to taste and you’re golden. Luckily I still have the rainbow sherbet iced tea to try – I have a feeling that I will be pretty happy with that one. :)

Made this up last night, and I’ve been drinking it most of the day today in my too-hot reception area. It’s not even that warm outside, so I have no idea why the temparature gets up so much in here, but anyway.

I agree with Lala on this one. The intial smell is really like sour raspberry candies. Every time I get pick and mix, I go for some of those. The scent also reminded me a little bit of 52 Teas Raspberry Cream, which I loved, so it was almost bound to be a winner with me.

I brewed this according to the packet instructions. 2 cups of boiling water, and then topped up with cold to make just under 2 litres. I put it in the fridge overnight, and then decanted it into a bottle to bring to work this morning. I’d like to try cold brewing one of these at some point, but I went with both speed and tried and tested last night as it seemed the simplest thing to do!

To taste, this is much as I thought it would be. I get raspberry mainly, in both the scent and the initial flavour. There’s a slight tartness coming from somewhere, but it’s not overpowering. You can also taste the black tea, which has a slightly bitter bite to it. I suppose I was expecting that, given that it’s CTC, but it works quite well with the raspberry flavouring (which is quite sweet) in any case. I totally forgot to bring sugar with me, but I might have tried adding a bit to one of my cups if I’d remembered. There’s no harm done, though, because this is a perfectly palatable tea in its own right. I can’t really taste any blackberry, but that’s my only complaint, and a minor one at that.

I’ve got a few of the other flavours stashed away in my cupboard, so I’m looking forward to trying those now. I’ve appreciated being able to have my black tea cold today, though. Cold-brewed fruit and herbals weren’t quite doing it somehow, and I found myself feeling sleepy at around 3.00pm last week. Not so today! Clearly this is great stuff!

Ahhh, Southern Boy Teas. I was hesitant at first to order this because it sounded like a lot of tea to make at once, but since I ordered a Grab Bag, I decided to go ahead and order this, too. And so began my journey…

This is supposed to make 2 quarts, and I didn’t have any 2 quart pitchers, so I asked the boyfriend what he had – and he brought over a very large (and very nice) Jack Daniel’s pitcher. Problem was, after measuring it, it was just shy of 2 quarts (it was 1 1/2 – d’oh). So we began the long process of figuring out how we could get 2 quarts of tea across multiple vessels. It seemed like too much trouble, so we decided to split the teabag in half and make one quart’s worth… and then save the other half for another time.

So instead, we made 1 quart of tea. And.. it’s not bad. The flavor is definitely not bitter, but I’m not getting a lot of berry taste either. I’m wondering if since the pitcher is open, it’s dulling the flavor. It’s hard to tell. I really wish I had a better quality pitcher that was closed, but we make due with what we have. In retrospect, I wish this was made in 2 – 1 quart pouches. It would have been easier to split up, and it would allow people to make 2 quarts if they wanted to.

I’m going to rebrew this another way and reevaluate my rating a little bit later, but for now, I’ll keep it at this.

Sipdown #36

Mmmm, berry delicious! LOL! Sorry, I couldn’t resist. I’m in a great mood today! I’m finally feeling better. :)

I love 52teas’ Southern Boy Teas’ black base. It’s the perfect base for iced tea. The berry flavor here is perfect too. I should have bought more! I’ve been hanging on to this teabag since it was first released over a year ago. It’s held up nicely though.

This tea is very flavorful with a natural berry sweetness. I think this actually tastes a lot like blue cotton candy. I really like it, as I have pretty much every other SBT I’ve tried. This is another winner!

So I ordered this last summer and never got around to it. It is hard for me to make such a large pitcher of iced tea just for myself. My husband doesn’t drink tea….:(. My in-laws were supposed to be coming for a visit so I made this. They didn’t end up coming though. So I only drank a quarter of the pitcher before I had to toss it. I can only handle so much caffeine.

Anyway on to the tea…. Sorry about that tangent. Moral of the story is that I think this tea had lost lots of its flavour due to age. I found the berry taste very muted and found that I had to sweeten quite a bit which is unusual because I don’t often sweeten my teas. I won’t rate this because it doesn’t seem fair to the tea

Last SBT I have to try. As usual, I cold steeped this, and this tea is oh so thirst-quenching. Heavier on the tea base, but the base is exquisite. Ultra smooth, a lots of depth. The raspberry, on the other hand, is on the weaker side, but I’m actually happy because it is a little on the artificial. It lends a nice touch of sweetness to the tea, and while it’s not in-your-face raspberry, you get the picture when you drink it. It’s sweetened raspberries if you think about it.

It’s quite good. Not my favourite SBT, but better than, say, Neapolitan Ice Cream, in my opinion.

I received my packaged with all of my iced teas. I have a feeling that they’re going to go fast…. I thought I ruined this one because I oversteeped it by one minute and six seconds but it actually turned out ok. It starts with a strong black tea base and turns into a berry sweetness. It’s not overpowering in sweetness but it is just the right amount. It’s delicious and quite refreshing.

My daughter made both the Sherbert and Razzleberry Iced Teas and shared them with me. I absolutely love them both! They are probably my favorite for iced tea so far. The flavor is excellent and natural tasting ( not artificial at all) The base tea is perfect as well! Both these teas are very refreshing especially during this heat wave we are having!
I will definitely buy more of these iced teas and actually want to try a few others after tasting these,

I got this from Lala a long time ago – so sorry it’s taken me so long to get to it , and I actually finished it off yesterday, but I was too exhausted (think i’m catching a cold) to write a note on it, and went to bed really early.

So I remember really liking it quite a lot, and wished I read tasting notes about trying to re-steep this one, since I sweetened the first batch a little too much. It was still really good, but a little candy-like, but again, probably because of too much sweetener.

I really noticed the blackberry, which I really appreciated since I love blackberries a lot. Same with raspberries for that matter. The raspberry I found in the aftertaste. I would drink this again, if the opportunity arises.

Thanks for sending me this, Lala!

Both the boyfriend-creature and I really liked this one it has a great mix of juicy, ripe raspberry and blackberry flavours that stand out well with about two tablespoons of sweetener per 2L pitcher. I’ve switched to using simple syrup in my iced teas as I’ve found that agave alters the flavours too much and honey is too difficult to dissolve. Still I know I’m using much less than the commercial iced tea preparations use and I find the end result is much tastier and thirst-quenching.