thank you so much cavocorax for this sample…. it was my first tasting from 52teas! (very exciting)
when i’m reviewing a tea i make a point of not reading other reviews until after the fact. i am relaying MY tea experience and my interpretation and i would prefer to communicate my strongest thoughts first before i reinterpret with ‘actually, that’s a good point.’ so i have read none of the reviews for this tea but i have seen the rated number… with which i must disagree but will explain why.
the dry leaf has the lovely woody undertone that honeybush alone carries. bits of cinnamon, bits of vanilla, both play a part in the scent profile. the strongest note, however is the strawberries.
strawberries are excellent. they are low in sugar even when they taste crazy sweet, they wear their seeds on the outside (how cool is that?), they are members of the rose family rosaceae, you can dip them in chocolate, whipped cream or put them in tea! strawberries should be at the top of the human edibles food list! (unless you’re allergic and then we could swap it out with melon or i don’t know… mustard.)
even before the waterworks these strawberries were not right to my nose. they smelled very much like the extra ripe strawberries you buy and intend to eat the day of, but then you forget and eat them two days later and you find them over sweet with a turned, almost fermented taste. i was concerned for my cup of tea.
i continued to brew and by the time i got to sipping my opinion had improved somewhat. the strawberries don’t taste right, but neither are they as off as they smelled. if i had to guess i would lean towards the freeze drying as the source of the problem or, perhaps, the harvest time of the strawberries. the berry note is very strongly sweet, but carries with it (to my palate) the distinct twang of ‘damn, i forgot to eat these the other day’. this is not a thing i like.
caveat: as per my post yesterday on cinnamon swirl bread, i was speaking to government ministries all day, so possibly that soured my palate, or perhaps the BRILLIANT cinnamon swirl bread tea made other things seem less than. option 3: steeper error? i will continue to investigate, possibly an iced tea? if my opinion improves i will return and make a note of it.
sorry folks, i have to knock that number down a bit =0(
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Never feel bad if you don’t like a tea or tea brand everyone else seems to like. I tried 52 tea’s 4 times and gave up. The base didn’t taste right to me. Tastes great to everyone else so there you have it.
+1 with Bonnie !
@Bonnie, true… and tea is very subjective… it just seems odd that i’m coming in so much lower than the vast majority!
Example…there’s a popular butiki tea that my taste buds can’t taste at all. Eggnog. Don’t know why. I don’t rate it…I can’t taste the dang tea. This year, I decided not to rate tea at all because I mostly purchase from only a few companies. I haven’t swapped tea in a year. So, seems simpler.
Don’t worry too much about the ratings. I use mine mostly to signal to myself how much I enjoyed something so that when it comes time to buy new tea, I know which ones and how much.
very sensible from both of you!
Never feel bad if you don’t like a tea or tea brand everyone else seems to like. I tried 52 tea’s 4 times and gave up. The base didn’t taste right to me. Tastes great to everyone else so there you have it.
+1 with Bonnie !
@Bonnie, true… and tea is very subjective… it just seems odd that i’m coming in so much lower than the vast majority!
Example…there’s a popular butiki tea that my taste buds can’t taste at all. Eggnog. Don’t know why. I don’t rate it…I can’t taste the dang tea. This year, I decided not to rate tea at all because I mostly purchase from only a few companies. I haven’t swapped tea in a year. So, seems simpler.
Don’t worry too much about the ratings. I use mine mostly to signal to myself how much I enjoyed something so that when it comes time to buy new tea, I know which ones and how much.
very sensible from both of you!