Strawberry Cream

Office sipdown!
21 to go and I’m at 100 teas again!

Backlogging from the weekend. Thanks for the swap, Veronica! :) I enjoyed this one both hot and cold on Saturday. It was very enjoyable. The base is mild and the strawberry flavor natural but not overwhelming. I’m glad I got to try it but it isn’t going on my order list or anything.

So this is me right now – http://i.imgur.com/TmYTu.gif

Whatever they use as the black base is really nice, and then the creamy note with the strawberry…amazing! There are no artificial or bitter notes at all, which I was surprised about since Strawberry can be such a hard flavor to pin down right.

Definitely going on the shopping list. YUM!

Another Zen Tea sample. I broke into this as something I wanted for dessert. The last cup of tea for the night! When I opened it I got a burst of berry… chocolate? Definitely smelled like chocolate which is really off-putting for me because, call me crazy, I don’t care for chocolate that much.

When I went to pour the leaves into the infuser I was not impressed by the look of the leaves either, it didn’t do much to calm my nerves. I saw a lot of dark leaves, and the strawberries looked dark too. At this point I’m wondering if I should have gone with a different tea that I’m comfortable with and saved being adventurous for another day.

I followed the recommended instructions, put the boiling water to the leaves for 3 minutes, then added some sugar and milk when it got in my cup. It smells a lot more like strawberry cream now, which is good.

Took a sip and yeah, this is strawberry cream alright. Unfortunately though, something just feels missing to me. It’s a really subdued mild flavor when I guess I was wanting something a bit more tart. Less cream, more strawberry. Next time I try this I’ll hold off on the milk and sugar and see what I get. For now I’m just a bit underwhelmed.

I love how creamy and sweet this smells both dry and brewing, more like really good pastry that includes fresh strawberries (a summer tart, yum) than most blah grocery store berry tea. That said, I was a bit nervous as I tend not to like astringent fruity teas and alas there was some of that element I dislike in the cup. A little bit of milk helped some but didn’t erase that zingy now-the-inside-of-my-mouth-needs-scrubbing dimension I just don’t like. Alas. If it was my sort of thing I’d be all over this though; it’s extremely well done for the kind of tea it is. Guess I’ll send some of it to my tea buddy via post, and/or ice it (bet it’d be good that way!).

As others have already noted this is a really lovely flavoured tea where all the components, both tea and flavouring are allowed to shine through.

It is not heavily sweet, it has a nice creamy flavour and has the soft strawberry tones of a srawberry mousse or yogurt. This is not a tart fruit tea for those who prefer them. The introduction of strawberry leaves adds a touch of bitterness and adds some depth to the base. The tea underneath is fruity and not to heavy but has enough depth to take milk. A nice anytime tea or a light desert tea.

caveat: make sure you shake up the bag a little before taking a scoop out the pieces that create the creamy taste tend to settle to the bottom if the bag has been jostled around!

I’ve spent the last couple of days lying on the couch watching season 6 and 7 of Game of Thrones – OMG what just happened !!??!! I had almost given up on it after season 5 but was convinced by friends that I really needed to stick with it. Yeah ok season 7 was awesome. Can’t wait for season 8. But now on to season 2 of Colony.

I’ve been spending the weekend on the couch because I’m trying to fight off the cold/flu thing I’ve got happening. I didn’t get any worse today so I’m calling that a win. Still a little stuffy and have a bit of chest congestion, but not nearly as sick as everyone else at work. Crossing fingers that I can contain it to this….

Strawberry cream? ok sure, I’ll go with that. Fruit black tea anyway. Nothing really exciting, but also nothing offensive. It’s fine to be sipping while watching TV. Thanks Evol for sharing.

I didn’t realize I had not added this to my cupboard yet. I have taken a lot of teas out but hve failed to get the new ones added. Ah well, I will catch up one day!

This was the second tea of tea party, and I focus on it because one has already been reviewed a lot and the other was detested by my guest!

Zen Tea is taking a year off from selling tea. I remember a note on the discussion board long ago where the owner expressed frustration that he could sell teaware all day long but had trouble moving tea. I did indeed buy a good bit of teaware from them, but also tea.

My favorites from Zen were their Keemun and Vanilla Mint Puerh. My daughter loved their Lapsang. I am pretty sure I bought their matcha a couple of times.

This strawberry cream was a gift from my eldest daughter, purchased right before they announced that would not be selling tea for one year. I wish them the best in finding great new sources, and I do hope to find a great Keemun to buy from them for breakfast again,

This tea has a really nice strawberry flavor and the cream aspect of it takes the edge off so that the strawberry is neither sharp nor candy-like.

I decided to cold-brew this rather than brew it hot and strong then dilute it down. The short, black, gnarly leaves here are interspersed with the occasional bit of green (strawberry leaves) and red (dried strawberry pieces). The dry leaf smelled of strawberries, chocolate and vanilla – in fact, it reminded me an awful lot of chocolate-covered strawberries!

I ended up with a nice, almost peach-coloured brew after everything was said and done.

The iced tea tasted exactly like it smelled – like chocolate-covered strawberries. It wasn’t bad, but I honestly think this was a waste served cold. I bet this tea would be much better hot, where the contents would probably taste like an amazing strawberry-laced hot chocolate.

Full review at: http://booksandtea.ca/2016/09/end-of-summer-iced-tea-extravaganza/

The tea itself has an incredible aroma a strawberries and creme, it is like aroma therapy in a can. The tea tastes really good too. The flavor of the strawberries comes through strongly as does the creamy taste. It does not taste artificial.

I brewed this once in a 16oz Teavana Glass Perfect Tea Maker/Gravity Steeper with 3 tsp leaf and boiling water for 3 minutes.