When the gent at Teavana opened the tin of this and wafted it at me, I instantly fell in love.
This was the first loose leaf tea I ever tried to make on my own, though, and most of the 50 grams I bought were wasted on experimenting and steeping mistakes.
When I finally thought I had gotten it right, it still tasted a lot more tart than I expected it to. I was steeping it with a 1:1 tea to rock sugar ratio but the vanilla in the blend was still much more muted than I expected. Perhaps in the future I will try blending it with a sweeter tea.
Most often we drank this one iced, except for the few times we were too anxious to wait. On one occasion, my room mate suggested it might be good hot with milk, but upon trying that, the milk curdled in the tea…either because of the temperature difference or because of the acidity of the strawberry.
I would still like to try it as a latte if I can find a Teavana in the area with the apparatus, as not all locations have them. The creaminess of the vanilla begs to be emphasized.
175 °F / 79 °C
2 min, 0 sec
