Strawberry Pancake Green Tea

So after my last tea-mare, I really needed something light and refreshing. Well, this certainly did the trick!!
Thank you so much to Kristaleyn for the sample!
I really like this one. It’s so light that I didn’t get any nausea from the phenols at all, and the flavour is spot on! Strawberries! and pancakes! Yummmmmm.
With some raw agave syrup, everything really popped. This particular agave is very molasses like, so it worked perfectly to bring out the pancake note.
Again, the flavour is light all around, but I quite like it that way. Tasty!!
Thanks again Kristaleyn :)

I think I might just not be as fond of 52teas as everyone else is. I am getting strawberries, but it’s not the best or most pleasant strawberry flavor I have gotten. And I’m not tasting a ton of butteriness for some reason. I like buttery green teas but I’m not getting pancake flavor. It’s not bad but it’s not exciting either.

When I was little, my grandparents used to always take my brother and I to IHOP. My grandpa would get pancakes with strawberries, and would always convince me to look somewhere else then put one on my plate. That’s what this tea reminds me of.

I can taste every flavor in here, which is so cool. I wasn’t expecting this to work as well as I imagined it could be. But it’s all there, pancake, butter, syrup, strawberry. It even kind of tastes like the strawberry syrup the strawberries typically come soaked in so that your pancakes get even more of the flavor.

I do get a bit of that chapstick taste that Mercuryhime mentioned, but as it’s cooled it’s gone away. That’s kind of what it smelled like at first too, but after I took a sip I forgot about it.

I think with just a bit of something sweet, maybe even some real maple syrup, this could be really awesome. I’ll give it a try at home!

Thanks to Frank for letting me keep this little ‘oops’ in my order – I wanted Strawberry Pie Honeybush, but got this one instead! Now the honeybush is en route, and I get to enjoy an unexpected treat. Yay!

The dry tea and steeping liquor smell amazingly of strawberries. It’s not entirely authentic to me, but I admittedly like fakey strawberry flavours, so I really don’t care. As it has cooled some now, the aroma reminds me quite a bit of sugared strawberries like my mom makes in the summer for over ice cream (i.e. sliced strawberries mixed with white sugar to create a syrup). Makes me really hungry. My stomach is growling like crazy (I don’t think I’ve eaten very much today, oops.)

Mm, it definitely tastes fruity, not as fruity as I was expecting given the intensity of the aroma, but it’s nice. I can’t really taste the green tea, but I’m sure it’s lurking behind the strawberry, and I think I’m getting a hint of pancake at the end of the sip. Hmm, another few sips and I’ve changed my mind to tasting more green tea/buttery pancakey flavours at the beginning of the sip, and strawberry at the end.

I think it’s perhaps a stretch to call this a Strawberry Pancake tea, but it is quite a lovely strawberry green. I am definitely not going to have difficulties finishing off this package! I wonder what it’s like iced or cold brewed???

ETA: Second infusion has predictably less strawberry, but at three minutes, it does make a lovely lightly flavoured green tea! Oh man – I’m even getting the signature green tea flavour! Wonderful. Worthy of a second infusion simply because of that. Third infusion, however, is worthless. Fine by me, though! Makes my life easier :D (Ok, I shouldn’t say worthless. The flavour is just too much reduced for me. I think I’m getting some green tea flavour though, so would do this if I had no other tea around.)

First sip had a taste that reminded me of strawberry seeds. No, not strawberries. Strawberry seeds. I think it’s the slightly astringent quality. As I continue to sip on this, I am tasting chapstick. I use to have this berry flavored chapstick. This tastes just like it. It actually does smell remarkably like strawberries and maple syrup, but the taste is chapstick. I think I’ll wait for this to cool a bit and try again. My experience with 52teas has been that the cooler tea tastes more like the intended flavor than the hot tea.

Ok, I tried it after it cooled down. Much better. It’s not longer like chapstick. It tastes more like what it’s supposed to. I think I’m even tasting a bit of butter. mmm! Tea is a bit astringent though. I’m beginning to see that 52teas varies a lot in tastiness. I really want pancakes now. I don’t even like pancakes.

Thank you for the sample CHAroma!

Mmm late night strawberry pancakes. Thank you Kittenna for this sample.
The smell of the dry leaves is surely strawberry, and maybe a tiny bit of starchy something? If I stretch it.
The taste? Well.. Wow. I went to take a sip and I thought I was biting into a strawberry. The image of a big, juicy strawberry flashed in my mind. The taste is creamy buttermilkish/buttery something smothered in freshly made strawberry reduction. There is also a slight tartness to the strawberry.. which made me think of cranberry.
The green tea, from what I can somewhat taste.. is nice. Not a shoddy green tea (not that I am an expert).

Overall, this tea is pretty good. I enjoy the strawberry syrup taste that has slight creamy buttery notes.. though I am missing the really starchy pancake delightfulness that I was looking for. A delightful cup all the same =)

This is good… but it isn’t quite what I was expecting. The strawberry is pretty overwhelming, sweet and tart, but I am having a hard time tasting much else. The notes of pancake are there, in the background, but, they aren’t as profound as the strawberry. I think shall have to play around with this one a bit to get these flavors to better express themselves.

Until then, I shall not rate it.

Second tea in my second 52teas order! The novelty of being able to receive tea in Ecuador is far from wearing off. I love getting a call from the receptionist at my office letting me know that a package from the US has arrived for me! : )

I opened this tea immediately just to sniff it. Yum… Strawberryish! Very strawberry and little everything else. Not what I was expecting, but still yummy.

I brewed 2 tsp to 12oz of water. As it brewed I smelled something doughy and if I really thought about it, some lingering maple. All in all it the scent was very pleasant. The liquor was golden green and shimmered nicely in my glass teacup.

I sweetened it generously with brown sugar, as I mentioned in my other pancake tea review, pancakes and maple syrup have to be sweet. Delicious! The strawberry played in nicely with the dough taste and a slight maple flavor that was more of an aftertaste. I basically gulped down this entire cup. Next time I want to sip it slower… Hopefully I will be able to! : )

Steep Information:
Amount: 2 heaping tsp
Water: 500ml 175°F
Tool: Breville One-Touch Tea Maker BTM800XL
Steep Time: 2 minutes
Served: Hot

Tasting Notes:
Dry Leaf Smell: strawberries, vegetal
Steeped Tea Smell: strawberries and bread
Flavor: sweet strawberry, vegetal
Body: Medium
Aftertaste: bread, astringent
Liquor: translucent yellow-green

Delicious sweet green tea, slightly gritty mouthfeel. The pancake seems to be in the end / after the sip with the sweet strawberry upfront, and a strong vegetal flavor in the middle.

Rating: 3/4 leaves

Blog: http://amazonv.blogspot.com/2011/12/52teas-loose-leaf-green-tea-strawberry.html

I think this is the last tea I haven’t written a tasting note for that Momo sent me a loonngg time ago. thanks! I went for a 40 second steep with this one. I know sencha is buttery, so there is your buttery pancake flavor already (if 52Teas wants to cheat!) This is a very nice sencha, and that makes it worth while on its own. I could taste a bit of strawberry flavor. It reminds me of the strawberries they put on pancakes in restaurants — goopy rather than crisp and covered in a sugary sauce (well.. like the picture for the tea I guess). Otherwise, this isn’t too special. Maybe it has just been mingling with my other 52Teas samples for too long. I just wanted a sencha anyway.

Pro: high quality green tea, no bitterness. Con: flavoring isn’t very strong.

The dry leaf aroma is green tea and ultra sweet strawberries. The brewed tea aroma is green tea, strawberries, and that ultra sweet aroma from earlier has morphed into what I can recognize as maple.

Hmm, I’m not sure what to make of this one so far. The initial flavor as it hits my tongue is a little weird and off-putting. I think it’s the maple. I’m not sure I like maple and green tea as a combo. But it has a very pleasant aftertaste: clean sencha grassiness with authentic strawberry flavoring. No artificiality in 52teas blends!

Unfortunately, it doesn’t really taste like strawberry pancakes. I’m getting a light strawberry flavor with an added component that’s something akin to butter. But overall, the flavoring is quite light. I’d prefer it to be a lot stronger.

I’ll have to play around with the steeping parameters to see if I can make it stronger. I really want to love this! But right now it’s just like. Good, not great.

I got a sample of this from Charoma—also, backlogging from yesterday morning, since I was too lazy to write. I enjoyed this tea, the smell of it especially, as with all 52teas. The strawberry taste is rather lost to me on the drink, but it did seem to be a decent green tea base. I’m glad I had the opportunity to try something new!

My first “green” from 52teas and it hits high marks. It’s exactly what the description says. I really enjoy tasting all flavors here..the green tea, the clean strawberry flavor..and right at the end I taste some maple.
Nothing overpowers you here-you know you are drinking a green tea. I’ve had similar teas that included Sencha and strawberries, but this is an extra special treat.

It has a really strong strawberry smell before and after steeping. I’m content just holding it up to my nose and smelling it in. The taste was sweet and light and it didn’t have a bitter taste to it at all. Definitely one I want to keep stocked in my cabinet