Well, I have returned from Argentina, and brought with me some kind of cold/flu bug. Bleh. I don’t have a huge selection of teas at home, but I chose this one because it includes ginger, which would be good right now I think. I got this one a while ago as a free sample from Utopia, but I kind of put off trying it becasue I’m not the biggest fan of strawberry flavoring, and I didn’t much like peppercorn in another tea that I had, so we’ll see. I’m glad I came here before I steeped it; I’m not sure what kind of tea I thought it was, but it definitely wasn’t a Green/White blend. Fortunately I was able to wait for my water to cool a bit and not oversteep.
Steeped, the liquor is a kind of odd tan color, and it has the light aroma of strawberries with a hint of pepperiness. The flavor is slightly weird to me, and a bit difficult to suss out all the parts. There’s definitely some strawberry, which thankfully doesn’t taste like artificial strawberry flavoring. That seems to come out primarily at the tail of the sip, bright and sweet and fruity after a warm ginger/pepper note. It’s not distinctly gingery, per se, more just that pepperiness that ginger has, no doubt brought out by the peppercorns. I’m also thankfull though that it’s not super peppercorn-y; they don’t overwhelm the flavor like they did in the other tea I had that had peppercorns. There’s just a warmth to it. Overally I was pleasantly surprised by this tea; I didn’t expect to like it all that much, but I am enjoying it. Thanks again to Utopia for the sample!
