Argh, I’ve been having a bit of an awkward week. Fairly busy, and the way my work schedule’s been, I only have time to have one cup of tea before work and then I pretty much only have time for one after work because by the time I’ve had dinner and my shower, I need to go to bed in two hours which is my cut-off for tea.
So despite all of my lovely teas that newly arrived, I haven’t had time to write many tasting notes.
Generally if I have such a limited amount of teas in a day, I won’t have any flavored ones. They’re just a low priority for me generally. (excluding Earl Grey. I treat Earl Greys the same as unflavored tea.) Today though is different. Today was the last day for my favorite co-worker, who feels like a close friend to me. I took her leaving very, very hard. Some people on here might remember me mentioning having a crummy day a couple weeks ago. That was when she told me she was quitting.
So hence the desserty teas today (I had Banana Walnut Treat earlier today, which was even tastier than I remembered) for cheer-ups. Anyway, onward to Ruby Pie!
The leaf amuses me. All the red bits from the strawberries, and cute chocolate-chip graham character pieces mixed in. It’s both pretty and cute at the same time! The scent has a bit of a lip gloss-ness to it — which is weird since there are actual strawberries in here — but you can’t go by smell alone, so still looking to trying this!
Anyway, since this is a fruity black tea, I was a bit apprehensive about adding milk to this. Adding milk is my habit for black teas, but I don’t like fruit+milk as a combo. So I poured some of this into another cup in case milk ruined it, in which case I’d still have some left. Turns out this was a good decision. With milk, it kills all the hibiscus which even though that’s normally an improvement, in the case of this tea it’s not. The amount of hibiscus in here isn’t enough to take over, but instead gives the rhubarb a more realistic flavor by giving it a slightly tart taste. It gives it a slight fakey taste when the hibiscus is lost. HOWEVER, with milk, the pie crust notes are far more detectable.
Without milk the fruit flavor is better. It doesn’t taste like lipgloss, and the hibiscus adds a pleasantly tart flavor without making you pucker. The black tea base isn’t bitter, so you don’t suffer without milk in that regard either. However, without milk, I don’t really taste the pie-crust notes so much.
So while this tea wasn’t perfect in that it appears you sort of have to pick rather than getting the best of both worlds (maybe milk+sugar is the magic combo? I should try that at some point), overall it is quite good! :) I LOVE the pie-crust notes the milk provides, and the fruit flavor without milk is wonderful! Now if I could just merge both together, this would be perfect, haha xD
Overall I like this with milk better. I really like having the pie crust notes. :)
