Strawberries are an interesting flavor. Either you get it really right and it turns out delicious or you get it wrong and it is a disaster. I love the actual fruit, so I am very particular when it comes to flavoring.
I had tried this tea a few years ago, and I had the vague memory that I enjoyed it, so in my Adagio order of the moment, in went Strawberry. The dry tea doesn’t smell like strawberries at all to me. It smelled sweet and hinted of generic berry. It wasn’t a bad smell, but definitely a miss in terms of strawberry flavor!
As I have mentioned before (in my other reviews), Adagio’s black tea base tends to be a bit bitter if brewed for any longer than 3 minutes. I am now very careful to brew 2.5 minutes or 3 minutes at the very most. So, I used 2 teaspoons in 16oz of water and brewed away. The water developed a dark caramel color rather quickly and then transitioned to dark brown/maroon. The smell I was getting from the brew was still not strawberry. I could smell tea, sweetness (sugary smelling), and a bit of generic berry (leaning towards a “berry punch” smell). Not thrilling.
The taste was no better. I tasted only sweet black tea, and after I swallowed there was a bit of something trying to be strawberry lingering on my tongue. I did end up sweetening it with brown sugar, and it was muuuuch better that way. Drinkable, but I wouldn’t call it strawberry per se.
Drinkable, not re-orderable. I still have to try it iced, I will post when I get around to it.
As a side note, I do have memories of liking if a few years ago and I have shared this tea with non tea drinkers previously and they loved it. So if you think you would enjoy it, I will not try to persuade you away from trying it! : )
