Unfortunately I found this tea to be very tart. I could not taste the strawberries at all. I tried two different steeps, but found both to be disappointing since this tea seems to be very popular. I will be returning this for something else.
Comments
Wow, really? Huh, I adore this one. Is it very tart…can’t recall now! Curious to know your steeping time/temp for this?
With my kettle, I can’t control for temperature. The first steep was after boiling (I know a crime, but I was running late this morning) and I gave it five minutes (I like my tea strong). The second steep, the water was boiled, but I let it cool down to a manageable temperature and still let it steep five minutes.
Any thoughts to make it better?
Whoa, no wonder! Nooo to just boiled water. You probably shouldn’t steep a white at hotter than 80-85 degrees C. If you don’t have a tea thermometer, try putting some water in a pan on the stove. Take it off the heat JUST as you start to see bubbles forming – that should be about 80 degrees.
And 5 minutes is way too long for this one – I’d maybe start at 1.5 or 2.
Black teas I tend to like strong and I grew up leaving the bag in for 5 minutes or more. But I’ve found loose leaf – especially more delicate teas – to be stuff you need to experiment with. I remember now…when I first tried this one I started with too LOW a temp because I was concerned about scorching the leaves (68 degrees or so), so I let it sit in the water longer to compensate and make it “stronger.” It was naaaasty.
Thank you for the advice! I would have never thought about heating water in the pan.
Haha, I’m stuck doing nothing but since our kettle broke. It was a sad moment, but in the time since I’ve realized how many temps I was screwing up when my only two options were boiling (kettle) or 68 degrees (hot water dispenser).
Well at least some good tea will come out of it!
