I am batting 1000 with this sampler set – so far all three teas have been ones I have not tried yet. I remember that I desperately wanted this one over the summer, so I’m prepping the whole sample and will have half iced and half hot to see which method I like better. If it ends up being iced – well, I may have to buy some for summer before it runs out. I’m a sucker for iced fruity teas.
About 3 tsp. (a little over that I think) to 750 ml. in the Breville at the below parameters. First, a word about the leaf – when I opened the pouch and sniffed I immediately was able to guess what blend it was – the strawberry and lemon scent is heavenly. The leaves were small and kind of broken up but that happens when you’re trying to stuff lots of packets into a box, I expect! The liquor, once steeped, is a lightish yellow, typical for a white tea. I was wondering if strawberry in the blend would lead to a reddish tinge but I can now unequivocally say that it does not.
When I poured the tea into the cup I got a whiff of the lemon – it wasn’t a tart lemonade-ish lemon – it actually reminded more of a lemon I would drink when I was sick, which is not the most pleasant smell memory. After it sat for a minute or two the scent of strawberry (very light) began to creep in. Still that lemon predominates. The taste on this is much like the smell – lemon with a touch of strawberry, with the strawberry coming out more as it cooled. I tried sweetening the tea while hot and mostly just got a lemon sweet drink – so I decided to refrigerate it and wait a bit to see what happened then.
When iced there is a much better balance between strawberry and lemon – it’s much more palatable this way! But, with that said, I don’t quite know that I love it….I wish there was more of a tartness to the lemon to make it seem more like the lemonade part of the name. Still, it’s good, and I’m glad I got to try it, in any case!
