Seven Green Treasures

Whoops, guess I haven’t made any notes for this one yet.

I picked this up when I hit up Tea Desire at Metrotown during their closing sale (I should check to see if they’re still open and pick up a few more teas before they’re gone for good—they’re an underdog in the Tea Community, but they’ve still got some nice stuff, if you know what to look for). I’ve had it a few times, and I quite like it. Not their usual green-black blends, but instead a green-white blend. It takes to the pineapple and strawberry well. Pineapple’s more visible in the hot variety, but today’s post is actually about icing it.

I bought some bottled sodas last week, and kept the bottles and caps to reuse for iced tea. I bottled this and a few others (I’ll get to those when I sip them), then refrigerated ’em and forgot about ’em for a few days.

Opened this one up, sniffed it—delicious strawberry pineapple scent. Sipped it—love it. I’m inexperienced when it comes to ratios for iced tea, but I think I did pretty well for my first try. I did two heaping teaspoons for the whole bottle (355mL); steeped in about 250mL (3 minutes), and then poured in with a bit of crushed ice (as much as I could get in there—narrow necked, unfortunately), then put the bottle in an ice bath.

Very refreshing. Getting the green tea mostly. Not much of the white, as to be expected. Strawberry’s stronger than the pineapple. Didn’t use any sugar, and I’m loving it without, but as a fruity green I think it’d do well with it.

I’m going to have to make more. Bring them with me when I go camping in a few weeks.

I got this one from carol who in a mini swap. I was hoping this one would be better, but it tastes fairly weak to me. I could find no steeping directions. I tried it at 1:30, which is normally about what I would steep a green for, and there was almost no anything to it, so I added another minute. That helped some, but I still don’t get a lot of flavor from it. It’s a little sweet from the fruit in it, but that’s about it. Oh well. Maybe if I had more leaf that would have helped. It was worth the try, though.

UPDATE
I wrote the original part as I was part way through the cup. As it cooled, I found this got better. Still not amazing, but better. I bet this would be good iced as the flavors seem to come out better in the cooler temps. If I see this again in any of the tea boxes I’m involved in, I will definitely grab it and try it that way.