Catchup time!
I drank this a few days ago and it tasted odd. I tasted some strawberry flavour, but underneath it all it tasted like earth. I think I may have got the steeping wrong that time, as I used just-boiling water to steep it. The sample package Teavivre sent actually SAID to use boiling water, and to steep it for 3 minutes, so I followed the instructions.
Now that I’ve brewed it a second time at a different temperature, I realize that was a bad call. This time I used 85° water and did a rinse of about 15-20 seconds to wake up the leaf for my first steep. Then I steeped it for about a minute.
This time, it’s MUCH better. No earthy taste, and while the strawberry flavour is there, it’s not very strong. The first sip was very strawberry-like, but I think my tongue acclimated. Now it’s just nice and relaxing.
That said, I don’t know if I’ll keep this tea in my cupboard once I finish off the sample I got. At least I still have a bunch of other oolong samples to try!
