SBT: Rainbow Sherbet

Phew! How can life manage to be so busy and so dull at the same time? :P I’ve been swamped with school work in the final class of my online graduate certificate. It’s proven to be an astounding amount of work. Luckily, my full-time job is dependent upon the certificate, so they do allow me to complete assignments during work hours. Otherwise, I probably wouldn’t be able to do it.

It’s also been so hot, I can’t even imagine drinking hot tea. Well, I can imagine it, but it’s not appealing. Time to try another iced tea from 52teas’ spin-off brand, Southern Boy Teas!!

I love sherbet! Lime sherbet is probably my favorite. My mom always used to buy me some when I got strep throat. I hope this tea will be a healthier alternative! I brewed it up per the instructions on the packet, except I subtracted one cup of water so I could add ice without diluting it.

But just like with ice cream, I’m not sure sherbet translates into tea well. I believe this tea is lime, orange, and raspberry flavored. Honestly, that’s kind of a weird combination in my book. I’m not sure what to make of it.

The more I drink it, the more the flavors blend together to become a true sherbet taste. It’s good, and it’s definitely well made. It’s just not a favorite flavor combo of mine. I think it may take me a few days to finish off this pitcher. If you love these flavors, then you really can’t go wrong with this tea! I just prefer the strawberry, vanilla, chocolate combo in the Neapolitan Ice Cream tea.

Okay, so I had NO idea how to prepare this one. And the instructions I found, uh, a bit on the baffling side:

Steep one teabag in 16oz boiling water for 3 minutes, strain tea into 2-qt pitcher, fill with cool water, serve over ice.

Okay, from reading Frank’s comments about these bags making “two quarts” of iced tea, I figured the “2-qt” thing was two quarts, but that still leaves me with the following questions:

-If it makes two quarts, why not make that amount hot and then chill it? Why prepare 16oz first and then water it down? Is this basically instructions to make a concentrate with the idea that the added cool water will make it instantly ready-to-serve?
-If it’s in a teabag in the first place, why would I need to “strain” it?
-Dear goofy Americans and your goofy measurements, WHAT ON THIS GREEN-BUT-OZONE-DEPRIVED EARTH IS A QUART?!?

I had to consult several cookbooks (the internet machine was being used by my sister, unfortunately) to determine that this “quart” thingie is apparently a [baffling!] measurement of 1.89271 litres. (Okay, I actually figured out that it’s a bit under two litres, and the internet machine gave me the exact number just now. Shush.)

Which, I’m sorry to say, reminded me quite a bit of this: http://i49.tinypic.com/14v63rn.jpg

I’m sorry America, but why. WHY AMERICA.

Anyway. Unfortunately, I do not even own a “2 quart” pitcher. I have a 1.6L pitcher (that’s 1.6907 quarts, for those of you following along at home), and that’s the biggest pitcher that will still fit in my fridge. Okay, I figured, that’s okay – the tea will end up a bit concentrated, but it’s RAINBOW SHERBET flavoured, so how could that be a bad thing?!

In the end, I decided to follow the instructions as exactly as possible, Just. In. Case. I put some rock sugar at the bottom of my pitcher, filled my 16oz Tea Master up with just-boiled water to get the measurement right, dispensed it into my pitcher and dropped the tea bag in.

Then I was left with the problem of how to fish the bag OUT again. Since it doesn’t have a string attached to it. Or, I guess, a rope, really, since it’s a big tea bag. I guess maybe that’s why the directions say to strain it?

Well, no worries! I figured, I’ll just use kitchen tongs! …But then I discovered (as my timer ticked down) that I can’t get the handle of the tongs past the opening. Whoops. I finally ended up just rolling up my sleeve, reaching delicately into the pitcher and fishing the bag out by one corner. Good thing I have pathetic skinny chicken arms; if I had hammy man-arms, my poor tea would have been screwed. Although I guess I could have tried pouring it back into the Tea Master.

I didn’t add cold water right away, since those darn rock crystals, awesome-tasting though they are, really don’t like to dissolve well. I added some more hot water and stirred until they did…then I added cold to fill, and stuck the whole thing in the fridge to chill for several hours. Whew! A more involved process for a pitcher of iced tea than I’ve bothered with before, but I guess I’ve got the details hammered out now.

So, the tea:

Dry smell is AMAZING. It made my entire kitchen smell exactly like rainbow sherbet from the moment I opened the bag! The wet smell is pretty much precisely the same, so I excitedly let my mother sniff the already-steeped bag, and she said it smelled like department-store perfume. (Sigh. I need to stop letting my mother smell my tea, because she always smells something strange in the leaves. No matter how bang-on the scent actually is, she always comes out with something like, “perfume,” or “paint chips.” Seriously, Mum?!)

Ultimately, it’s not quite as sherbet-y tasting as I was expecting. I was a bit surprised by this (given the strength of the tea’s scent), but there is definitely a smooth black tea coming through first, with sherbet more towards the back of the sip. But it’s definitely there, orange and lime and raspberry and something else that makes it specifically sherbet-like (and not like ice cream). The more I drink it, the more I feel like it grows on me, and indeed, the more I can actually taste the sherbet, too! This, like DAVIDsTEA’s Tropicalia and Root Beer Float is one that I decided to add milk to, because the cream (or something like it) implied by the flavour is so enhanced with a bit of milk. It didn’t exactly knock me over, but it’s still delicious, and I am going to go cold-steep the bag now for another pitcher to see what I can get out of it.

I brewed this one hot, and then chilled it overnight. It’s really good hot-brewed, but, I am glad that I got two of this flavor to try cold-brewing it (when my new pitcher arrives which I hope it will soon!)

I don’t know if it is as good as the original Rainbow Sherbet that was released last year. I am not sure if I have any more of that tea… will have to search through my stash and see if it’s there, but I think the original was better. But this one is still really good.

Iced tea of the day……

I am so glad I decided to try a few of these. Iced tea is a necessity in the Summer, and what better way to get teenagers interested in good iced tea than Rainbow Sherbet flavor? It sounds so much more fun. I definitely get a creamy, citrusy, sherbety sweetness and the tea base does not compete with the flavor. Well done! While these fun flavors won’t completely replace my usual iced teas, I will be picking up a few more bags of this and trying a few more. How fun!

Usual iced tea method…one bag. I did add ice and water to close to 2 quarts. Definitely trying a resteep later.

Now this make some pretty droolworthy iced tea. I cold brewed it, which is what I usually do, and it’s bang-on on the rainbow sherbet smell and taste. I get more lime than anything else. I like this one a lot more than the Neapolitan Ice Cream because you get more of the flavours, since I found the Neapolitan to be a little too plain strong black tea in flavour.

Also, I didn’t bother adding anything to it because I like it the way it is. The rainbow sherbet makes it sweet enough. This hefty tea bag has brewed up one of the greatest iced teas ever. Merçi beaucoup, Frank!

Oh my. This one exceeded my expectations. I had the neopolitan ice cream SBT and enjoyed that but this one is even better. I mostly get lime and orange and there’s a definite creaminess to it, this is incredibly refreshing. I’ll definitely be buying more of this. As a side note, I’m finding that I’m getting better results with these SBT teas when I take the leaves out of the bag and cold brew like normal.

Right now, for my next experiment, I’ve got a jug of Blueberry Zabaglione cold-brewing in the fridge and I’m sure that’s gonna be great as well.

Edit: I just noticed it’s spelled “sherbet”. My whole life I thought it was “sherbert”… Haha

Cold brewed yesterday afternoon, had some this morning.

Just got off the phone with potential employer, some kind of pre-interview screening/chat thing. So nerve-racking! I hate that moment when you hang up and want to hit yourself in the head for all the things you messed up/should’ve said. Anyway, hopefully it’ll turn out well. Relocating soon and I need a job!

Oh yeah, the tea! This really does taste like sherbet! I added a little stevia to bring out the fruit flavors a bit more. That said, while I do like this and it tastes really great. I have some strange conflicted feelings about sherbet flavored tea, like it shouldn’t be possible. Who knows, maybe my brain is just addled from the call!

Prepared this one basically to the instructions on the bag.
It smelt like sherbet, but it also smelt highly of.black tea…. Erg
It definitely did taste like delicious rainbow sherbet, but tasted way to strongly of black tea for my liking. With several teaspoons of rock sugar I was able to kill the black tea taste enough to thoroughly enjoy the creamy rainbow sherbet goodness.

Thanks 52teas for sending a lovely sample of this! So yeah, it was kind of chilly for an iced tea… But Rainbow Sherbet? I’d drink it in a blizzard, it’s that good. The flavors are so tangy. I’m getting more lime than anything. But I’m not complaining :] This is the best iced tea I’ve had in a loooong time. I will definitely be ordering more!!

Love this awesome refreshing iced tea!!! I am about to go buy this one and a few others right now!

After reading other tasting notes I decided to cold brew this tea. Really couldn’t be easier. I filled up my pitcher to the 2 quart mark, put in the teabag and left it in the refrigerator overnight. I removed the bag after about 12 hours. I will try a resteep.

With the first taste I thought it wasn’t quite as good as hot steeping then icing the whole leaf version from last year. But today (it’s been in the refrigerator an additional day after removing the teabag) it’s perfect. Just delicious. So limey and creamy. No bitterness or astringency. Good tea flavor underneath. This is fantastic. It will definitely go on my reorder list.