This is a backlog. I apologise in advance, but it’s difficult for me to write backlogs. Expect some jumping back and forth between tenses like a frog on a hot rock.
In the very beginning when this one was first offered from 52teas, I wasn’t really all that interested. At the time I didn’t really need a berry tea, and if I did, I’d have chosen a regular strawberry. I tend to rather like berry teas though (with real non-hibiscus-y imposters in them), so I’m actually a little surprised with myself for this.
Then I started seeing some posts about it, with really good reviews and I started to wonder if my initial lack of interest might have been a mistake. Just as I had decided to definitely change that and when time came for me to place my next order, it was gone. Woe!
Luckily I was told that a reblend was planned so I placed my order and Frank was kind enough to set it aside for me until he could include this one (and until I came home from holiday, but that’s a different story).
The dry leaf has an interesting aroma. There is strawberry and something lemon-y right at front and a creamy custard-y base underneath. It’s very sweet smelling and very dessert-like.
After steeping it’s just custard. Custard custard custard. Totally custard. There is a little bit of berry on the side, but primarily we’re talking custard here. I’ve noticed this happening in complexly flavoured blacks. If one note is definitely stronger than another in the dry leaf, it’ll be the other way around after steeping.
The taste is quite interesting. It’s definitely strawberry-y but not overly so. I was a bit concerned about the heavy custard-y aroma. I like custard, but I’m not sure I’d want to actually drink it, but the custard flavour only really show up in the aftertaste. This is really nice. Not so much a flavoured tea as it’s more like a dessert with a cuppa on the side all in liquid form. As it cooled, however, it developed a certain tartness which I could have lived without.
This is definitely worth some experiments. I think some additives here might be fun to try.
