Blazing Strawberries

I love fresh strawberies, but I hate artificially flavored strawberry foods. I took a gamble when I orderd this tea. I’ve never sipped a strawberry tea that tasted remotely like the real thing…until today. This is a strawberry tea I can definatly recomend.

Bamboo leaves make for a mellow tea base, and the sweet strawberries are complimented by a firey kiss of pink peppercorns. The pink peppercorns with their slight citrus flavor add to the pleasing fruity flavor with a tiny bit of heat. I drank my first cup of this tea hot because it’s gloomy out today, but I bet it will taste even better iced.

Can’t believe I’ve never logged this one! It’s one of my favourites, and the tea that sparked my iced tea addiction last summer. I had a cup of it iced to go on a whim, and then went back to davids immidiately after finishing it to grab 100g. I know it has been said before, but shucks, is this tea ever light. I was given a full tin and a large bag full on the side.

Fast forward to this summer. I still have so much of this left! Even though I drank a ton of it last summer. I like it as an alternative to water – it’s really light and refreshing and there’s really no need to add sweetener. I like the comparison to slightly green strawberries – that’s pretty spot-on. I think it’s the bamboo that gives it that quality.

I bought myself a nice big pitcher the other day and decided to christen it with this tea. Plenty of leaf, some warm water, and some frozen strawberries in the strainer. I left them to get to know eachother for about an hour and then chilled. I’ve been really enjoying the concoction, adding the strawberries was definitely a good idea.

My only gripe about this tea is that if you are going to have ‘blazing’ in the name, there should at least be a little zing to it! I really don’t get any heat out of this one whatsoever.

This tastes like its name. It smells of candy strawberries and tastes like real, slightly green ones. It’s quite good. I’d recommend it to those who like flavored teas and tisanes.

First, I should probably mention I had this one hot. Maybe I’d like it better iced…
The tea looks pretty awesome in the bag, thanks to all these bamboo leaves! I was pretty excited to taste bamboo leaves and see what they taste like (then maybe I’d feel like a koala!). My excitement, however, stopped on my first sip. It wasn’t totally bad, but definitely not what I had expected. The strawberry taste takes the whole place, and this strawberry taste is precisely what I didn’t like… don’t get me wrong, I love strawberries, but to me, this doesn’t actually taste of strawberries. Strawberry candies? Yes, very much so. If what they were going for was the taste of Swedish berries (strawberry-flavoured chewy candy), then it’s spot on, and the flavour is even more intense than in candies. But to me, this sort of strawberry flavour tastes so artificial and chemical, I can’t find much of the joy of eating a fresh strawberry in there. It’s the kind of strawberry taste I would expect from a strawberry “juice” (read: cocktail) tin I’d buy for 25 cents at a corner store. As for the peppercorn, I couldn’t taste it at all – definitely no tingle on my tongue. However, I did improve my experience of this tea by adding some lemon juice to it, which added something I felt was missing to the taste and made it more enjoyable.

But I am still left wondering what bamboo leaves taste like…

Very weak tea, even if you use twice the amount. I couldn’t taste any strawberries or pepper-only bamboo leaves. I won’t be buying this again.

UPDATE: after many months of slowly using this tea up, I decided to throw the rest of it out because I kept finding brown chunks in among the leaves. I don’t kow what these chunks are-(maybe parts of the bamboo? rocks? clumps of dirt?) but none the less, these brown chunks don’t look like they belong, and it grossed me out.

I was so excited to try this, it smells fabulous & I love all things spicy. I was terribly dissapointed. I doubled the amount of leaves, as I do with all tea, good thing I did, because I would have been sipping hot water. There was very little strawberry flavour & although there was a slight peppery after taste, the “blazing” was definetly missing.

I know it has been discontinued for a while, but my local store still has some, so I figured what the heck, may as well pick it up and try it when I’m also getting 10 other to-be-discontinued teas :)

This is such an interesting-looking tea. Sharp green-grey leaf pieces with hints of colour from the strawberries and peppercorns. The smell is truly odd though – sweet, but I’m definitely getting a whiff reminiscent of Christmas tree shopping! Which would make sense if this tea had juniper in it… but it does not.

After 5 minutes of steeping, this tea is a rather light brownish-gold colour, with only a light scent that’s herbally and sweet. The first sip is very delicate and leafy, but not in a green tea-vegetal/leafy sort of way, more like… apple leafy? I suppose it’s the bamboo, but since I have never met a real, living bamboo leaf before, it’s hard to know! I’m not getting the Christmas tree notes I had been getting before, which is completely ok, as I do not care for things such as gin.

I am still really intrigued by this tea! It makes me want to have fun with it, and try it in different ways! Not sure whether I like it enough to go buy out my location (haha), but have to make up my mind quickly… I don’t know exactly what March 6 is bringing about, whether teas will just disappear on that day, or whether they’ll keep them on hand until stock runs out (which I think would be better). The girl at DT recommended trying this iced, with twice the recommended amount of tea, so maybe I’ll try that out this evening/tomorrow. It’s different and pleasant enough – a nice change! Tentatively rating in the happy zone :D

Perhaps more notes as it cools… but I have another tea to get to as I sit here in my office, procrastinating from weighing out samples upstairs in the lab (yeah, I know, it’s Saturday evening… I’m so lame.)

ETA: Mmm, yes, liking it better as it cools. Definitely taste the strawberry now. Not really getting any spiciness from peppercorns though. This is really refreshing! Definitely icing it next.

ETAA: Second steep mostly tastes like leaves. Not bad, but much of the appeal is gone without the strawberries. Probably wouldn’t re-steep unless desperate (because it’s still better than hot water!)

I had this one on a day I was in DAVIDs and just looking (like that is ever possible) I think this one may have been under steeped (if that is possible). You can smell the strawberries, but their taste is far more understated than the title suggests.

I might get this one over ice to go today and give it at least one more try before I completely give up on it.

First off, this tea is just gorgeous. The sharply cut bamboo leaves and chunks of strawberry look so lovely. The strawberry scent is really strong, but if you smell it up close you can pick out the bamboo (which is a little strange).

I’m trying this hot and I’m not really finding it “blazing”. It’s more of a soft strawberry taste, which is really nice. I’m looking forward to trying this iced.

Also, I picked up a 50g back, but there seems like there’s a TON of it. Two tsp per cup, but this stuff is so light that it doesn’t even matter.

I don’t dislike this tea but I don’t like it either.

It taste good but I find it way too weak, I used 2 tbs and steeped it for about 8 minutes and it was still really light.

I wasn’t able to discerned all the flavor.. I don’t know maybe it wasn’t a good batch…Or maybe it was too old, it was a free sample I received like 2 months ago and totally forgot about it.

I would maybe like to try it again with a ’’fresher’’ sample.

In our household, this is definitely a summertime favourite. I like to brew a pot of extra strong Blazing Strawberries tea, and then I mix it with a diluted lemonade to make a delicious and refreshing drink. Great for hot summer days and cool summer evenings.

I wasn’t expecting much with this one, but, since it was the only Summer Collection 2011 tea that I hadn’t tried, I figured it was worth a shot. The taste isn’t too bad, actually. I have yet to try it iced though, so my rating of this tea may improve if it is better iced.

This, so far, is the only DAVIDsTEA I wanted to return after the first taste. Then I tried it 2 more times and felt the same way. I don’t even want to regift it. It’s got that cool hit of bamboo, then tingle of pepper heat… and tart strawberries. The cool and heat and tart was just a bad combination for me.

I’ll try it iced in the summer, months away from now for me to remember this was a “bleck” reaction for me.. maybe that will go better.

Love love love this tea!

Sweet summer strawberries and once you finish your sip you can feel a light burn on your tongue that makes you want to go for more.

this is a deliciously refreshing tea good job David’s Tea!

I received this as a sample with my purchase. I was uber excited because I have never had a tea with bamboo leaves. I was a bit disappointed. I had only one piece of strawberry and one red peppercorn. It was pretty weak. I guess I just did not get a good sample.

Not going to rate this one yet. I want to take my bag and open it and give it a shake and give this tea one more try. The attempt tonight resulted in a barely coloured water that had no strawberry flavour and just a hint of bamboo. I am sure it is that it all settled and all I mostly got was bamboo leaves in the strainer. I even left it to steep while I drank it.

The only thing that gave it some flavour was adding some Goji Pop. Hopefully attempt 2 will be better.

Find it light in flavor. Haven’t tried it iced yet but I hear it’s way better that way.

A dear friend of mine bought me this when she first found out about DavidsTea and wanted to get me a thank you gift.
I was really unsure how bamboo would taste in a tea, but it smelt SO good and it looked light and fresh, so I couldn’t wait to try it. This tea is so good! The first time I steeped it, I didn’t use enough tea leaves, so it was really weak. The second time was much better ‘cause I added more. I also like to add some freeze-dried strawberries that I bought from somewhere else and add it to the tea. It kicks up the strawberry flavour and makes it so delicious!
I have a bunch of this tea, so I know I’ll get to enjoy the strawberry loveliness all year around.

I am super sad that I only discovered this one at the end of the summer! I love Blazing Strawberries hot or iced, and usually straight up – but a little bit of agave helps when I’ve forgotten about it for a few hours and steeped it way too long. Definitely hope this one will be returning next summer!

Nice light strawberry taste. I need to try this iced.