So let me see how “in a nutshell” I can make this before I wind up rambling on and on in this tasting note.
I bought this really because of my obsession with the “A Song of Ice and Fire” books, and the catch phrase of this tea is “fire and ice” so I decided to give it a shot. And I really love DT’s Bamboozled. I bought it to be an ice tea and really have no plans of trying it hot.
First of all, you get A LOT of tea for 50g. Like, one of DT’s tins was overflowing when I filled it up with this, usually 50g only takes up about a third of the tin. So it is a very spacious tea. I doubled the amount of tea suggested and doubled the steep time as well. Mixed in two teaspoons of rock sugar while it was still hot and let it cool to about room temperature before pouring it over ice. I used ice from my parents ice machine as opposed to ice cubes I made myself, so the flavor was a bit artificial but I really attribute that to a batch of fridge made ice that added that slight chemical note. Blah. Good to know for next time though.
Flavor-wise it was a bit.. strange. A warm feeling for sure, but a somewhat lack of flavor.. mid conversation with my mother about something, I reached into a candy jar on the table and ate a Dove Dark Chocolate, then proceeded to absent-mindedly take another sip of this iced Blazing Strawberry tea. And… BAM absolute total perfection. That is what this tea is lacking… chocolate!!! For some reason, the hint of dark chocolate really brings out the strawberry flavor and melts in nicely with the subtle sweet spice.
So… since then I have blended in a handful of dark chocolate chips to the rest of my 40g or so of tea and ever brew since then has been spectacular! Go figure!!
