Strawberry Split

One of my old B&B teas from the Bluebird days; it’s a sealed 50g package, but apparently I purchased this from tea-sipper in a cupboard sale way back when, so thanks tea-sipper!

The dry leaf looked far more like a “fruit herbal” than a “green tea” to me, so I leafed it pretty heavily to do a liter cold brew overnight in the fridge. Rather than getting a sweet fruity taste, or even a tart/tangy berry (which I would be fine with, as hibi’s BFF on this site), it has come out tasting very medicinal to me, like cough syrup; normally I only get this particular flavor when fruity flavors are combined with rooibos, and I had to double check the package that there was no rooibos involved in this blend. I’m not sure what, exactly, is making it have that particular distinct flavor to me. Perhaps age is the culprit…

Cold brew is typically my preferred way to drink fruity hibi-hip teas, but I decided to try a warm cup, just to see if I got the same result. And, I actually didn’t get the weird cough syrup taste, but it also just tasted very flat… like a slightly strawberry flavored cup of hot water.

Both results just felt off somehow, so I’m guessing age didn’t do this one well. Usually fruit teas with a strong hibi-hip presense are right in my domain, so I feel some ingredient must be in a bad place for me to have issues. Withholding rating as a result. I have one last experiment up my sleeve, which is steeping the remainder of the packet in lemonade. I’m hoping that might balance some of the strange off-notes and bring out more of the fruitiness.

Thanks for sharing, tea-sipper!

Additional notes: checking if steepster posts this, as it has now been two hours without a new post. I’m catching up on tasting notes from ten days ago! And I hope Steepster isn’t giving Adagio TOO much trouble. I have other tasting notes to post, but I will let others catch up first. :D
Just a quick note to say that this one is much better if I pick out the hibiscus before steeping this. It lets some of the other flavors peek out. I really only needed to pick out five pieces of hibiscus anyway, but that makes such a difference. Not sure if I should raise the rating if I need to pick out hibiscus.

Here’s Hoping TTB

This has to be one of the prettiest tea blends I’ve ever seen. Curled green tea leaves, twists of coconut, big chunks of freeze-dried strawberries and adorable little star-shaped sprinkles all jumbled up together…it looks like a party! And the scent was sweet strawberry-vanilla deliciousness. Unfortunately, the flavor didn’t quite live up. I definitely get vanilla and a hint of strawberry, but it’s quickly overwhelmed by the hibiscus tartness that ruins so many promising fruity teas. This is better than many strawberry blends I’ve tried, but still not everything I was hoping for.