Picked up some of this and Perfect Pear today as a Sunday treat – Happy long weekend to any fellow Nova Scotians!! The smell of this was quite appetizing, though not quite shortcake. Don’t tell anyone, but I’ve never had brittle (other than peanut brittle) and I don’t understand what its place would be in strawberry shortcake.
We steeped this about three minutes, to avoid potential bitterness and also to avoid too much sweetness. This smells like a sweet assault in the dry leaf, even though the sales girl said this is one that isn’t too sweet – I find my opinion on that note tends to differ. Anyway, it smelled lovely when steeped, though still not what I think of as shortcake.
The flavour was quite tasty. There was a great dael of sweetness (more than I would prefer) but I assume that all comes from the brittle. The beau and I both agreed that this might be a bit better with extra TEA under it all, so I think that the next time I will try it with a bit of extra black tea from one of my many samples and see if that lessens the sugar load. There was strawberry flavour, which was great, and if the sugary taste could be diminished, this could be a re-buy. I will need to work with it first, but I hope this can be redeemed a bit more.
This is one of those very rare teas that I would love to try iced – I think the sweetness of the brittle would lend itself to iced tea. Might try it cold brewed if there is enough left after a bit of re-working.
By the way, strawberry shortcake at my house tends to be a homemade biscuit topped with fresh mashed strawberries (a hint of sugar in them if they are too tart) and freshly whipped cream. I want some!!
