Mixed Berry Trifle

Most of my old AQ2T samples are opened and that’s why so many have lost their flavor. While cleaning out my tea, I found this one that was still sealed. I opened it up and made myself a cup, hoping the flavor had held up better in this one. Luckily it had! After that cup, I made a pot to share with my partner and we both really enjoyed it.

My first cup was very tart raspberry/strawberry heavy without any creamy custardiness. The pot that we shared had more of a strawberry and blueberry flavor, and much more of the vanilla cream-type flavor that I was expecting. We have a few more cups of this one left and I don’t plan on letting it sit around and get old(er)!

This review is brought to you by VariaTEA’s tasting note, which encouraged me to find my packet of this and try it again! The packet was open, so I’ve had this at least once before, but had zero memory of it. Odds are, I drank it at work, where I drank plenty of tea and almost always had no recollection of it, because work is very all-encompassing.

Anyways, I was skeptical that I’d enjoy it as much as she did, as I generally don’t care for honeybush, but…. holy crap. This was one of those few times where I actually tasted creamy pudding flavours, verging on cheesecakey, which was, frankly, amazing. Combined with some really delicious fruitiness (it tasted to me like a raspberry-heavy berry blend, which obviously makes sense), it was actually really incredible. I had a trifle, that I enjoyed, for the first time this fall, and it definitely reminded me of it (it was mixed berry – strawberry/raspberry/blueberry/blackberry). One of my friends recently requested to try a HB/rooibos blend that I really liked, as she was curious to try a good one, but I was at a loss for what to give her – I need to earmark this one for her to try!

For some reason this tea was not in my steepster cupboard but I have a lot of it since I stocked up when AQ2T announced they were going out of business. Tbh I have been a bit terrified to try it since I received it in August because I have been panicking that it would not be nearly as good as I remembered. However, steeped it has made my entire bedroom smell as mouthwatering as I recall this tea tasting. With that said, I managed to let it get quite cold and while it does remind me of the last batch, the base comes out a bit more at this temperature and the berry is a touch tart. However, I know the love is not gone and I probably just need to drink this while it is still at least warm.