Strawberry Rhubarb Parfait

Wow.

This tea totally took me by surprise and bowled me over!
I’m getting sweet sugary strawberry, a bunch of tart rhubarb and buttery crumbly crust goodness.

It smells and tastes exactly like a strawberry rhubarb pie or crumble, and there is a hint of creaminess like a big scoop of ice cream is plopped on top and melting into a sweet gooey amazing delicious mess.

AMAZING herbal tea, I am taken aback!

Ok, so I was pretty skeptical of this tea. Mostly because bleh, hibiscus. But hey, it’s supposed to be Strawberry Rhubarb, so the tartness should be appropriate, and I like teas with the creaminess of yogurt, so all hope is not lost!

The dry tea smells, to me, exactly like a strawberry Campino candy! Delicious delicious DELICIOUS! I’m so excited! Although guaranteed it won’t taste quite like that since there is hibiscus, but if the strawberry and yogurt come through…!

Steeped, it smells a bit more like realistic strawberries and some tartness, but as it’s cold, there’s not a ton of aroma.

I was very conservative with the infusion time so as not to end up with a mouthful of blechy hibiscus (it worked earlier today for me – I had quite a lovely cup of Paradise Found, which I apparently neglected to log)… and I think I was successful! There are lots of little yogurty floaties, a consequence of the tea cooling, but I can deal with that. I am quite shocked at how well the hibiscus works here though! The tartness pairs perfectly with the very much realistic strawberry flavour, and with the creaminess, I can actually imagine myself to be eating, say, plain yogurt with a lightly sweetened topping of strawberries/rhubarb! Delicious! I imagine that this tea would be absolutely glorious sweetened, but I shan’t ruin it for myself by doing that.

Add another to the potential re-buy list… this one’s pretty good!

ETA: I’m impressed! I re-steeped this one in half the water, and paid no real attention to infusion time, and actually got quite a nice second cup! Surprising because of both the hibiscus and the fact that it’s a herbal! Again, it was a tart drink, but fresh strawberry tart, not hibiscus tart. Not as creamy, of course, but I’d make the effort to use these leaves a second time. Also, I’m kind of sad that pretty much all the new teas were misses for me, or at least, not teas that I’ll miss when the season’s out. Luckily, this one’s the TOTM and I think therefore staying on as permanent, which is awesome!

No tasting notes yet? Not even from DAVIDs? …Odd. I’m the first!

And this is my last $1 summer tea before Labour Day, so time to retire that rather leaky but money-saving mug. I’m pretty sure I got my money’s worth out of that mug, so I’m satisfied.

As my new manager would say…HOLY BALLS GUYS, this is amazing! It’s an herbal, and I’m trying to mostly stick to actual camellia sinensis for the most part these days…but what a winner of an herbal! If you don’t like this one, you are wrong. Yes, you are wrong!

Strawberry and rhubarb are maybe not two flavours I would think to put together, but that’s just more evidence that I shouldn’t be a tea blender, because they go perfectly together!

This tea is tart, naturally, because it contains both rhubarb and hibby. Actually, hibiscus is the second listed ingredient…which would have scared me if I had seen that before I bought it. But no, this is not a tartness which is badly blended and out of control. This is a perfectly balanced tartness! I am, as you know if you’ve read maybe two of my reviews, a freak for sugar, but I drank the unsweetened sample in the store and practically chugged it down! It was nice and refreshing and not too tart even without DT’s agave, so if you drink your tea without sweetener and are cringing at the listed ingredients – have no fear! It is perfectly drinkable without sweetener.

With agave though, I had a hard time rationing my mug on the way home (don’t want to run out of fluid when it’s still pretty hot out). Agave brought out the sweetness of the strawberry just that little bit more. Although I should note that it seems like a very natural strawberry flavour to me – sweet and tiny bit tart in and of itself. Any of you guys remember the cloying artificial flavour of the strawberries in Strawberry Shortcake? Well, it’s not here.

I’ve only had this iced so far, but I bet it would be amazing hot! Like strawberry rhubarb pie, or something.

The best herbal from DAVIDs since Tropicalia! Color me very impressed.

On another note (and this is a vent about my job, so skip it if you haven’t been reading that)…my local DT is finally, finally hiring.

DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW CHOKED I AM RIGHT NOW. Seriously, only a few weeks after I got a job at a different tea store? The universe hates me!

Part of me wants to up and quit Teavana on the spot and apply to DT, but…I won’t do it. I discussed this with one of the girls there (cute and very friendly and chatty with me, I was her first “big sale” if I remember correctly) and she told me that because the job is SO great (rub it in, right?) no one ever quits…which has the downside of actually meaning that so many people work there that no one ever gets really good hours, and full time is out of the question. I really need the money I can pull doing full time right now, so I guess it’s for the best. (And I was just getting the matcha smoothies down!)

Plus, now I know for coming years that the “tiny blip” of time when they hire is at the start of September. Did my paperwork from Teavana mention a grace period before working for a competitor? I think it did, so I’ll have to double-check.

My last day at Other Job was yesterday. They didn’t even try to keep me – practically kicked me out the door, in fact – even though, a) I have the highest seniority of any associate, am the most knowledgeable and competent person currently working there, know our complex POS machines like the back of my hand, and constantly bail out the management when they don’t know how to handle a situation, so I’m a horrible person to lose for the coming Christmas season, and b) they’ve begged every other recent quitter – including high school students – to stay. Now they don’t even have a cash desk supervisor (because, you know, that was me) and the one girl who could maybe do it is quitting.

An old friend who transferred away from Other Job’s location when we got new management warned me months ago to bail on Other Job because the new management is very politically conservative, and he felt that both he and I, as queer employees, were being used for our competence but otherwise treated like dirt out of their homophobia. I wasn’t sure then, but now I really have to wonder, because they are the only management of that store that has ever seemed to dislike me or think I was anything other than awesome.

Oh well. I’m angry, but it’s their loss and it’s done. Now I live in Tealand (as the staff calls it), for the time being and for better or worse!

Finally had some of this one over the holidays. I remember it being creamy and vaguely fruity but not identifiably strawberry or rhubarb. For once, the tart was really well balanced and worked well for the rhubarb impression. I’ll do a further note when I have t next. For now it’s generic and drinkable but nothing to write home about. It did ease the pain of having my new (to us) car be totalled when a guy on a cell phone rear ended us with enough force to pancake us into another vehicle. We had it for only three weeks and are still waiting to hear from the adjuster if they will even try repairing it. It’s a 2000 so we’re quite worried they won’t even though it WAS in excellent shape. Mostly we are just grateful to be okay. Happy holidays and best wishes for a better 2013 for all!

Thank you, darby!

I didn’t even realize I really wanted to try this until I was swapping with darby, then I saw everyone’s notes again and that confirmed I wanted to try this.

I decided to try it cold, since that’s how I usually drink fruit tisanes. But I think if I can get it to resteep, I’ll try it out hot.

Iced, it is amazing! It’s tart, but not too bad. It’s kind of more apple tasting than the actual two fruits in the name, but I do get berry and it’s pretty sweet. The yogurt adds a nice creaminess. I think it might actually be more appropriate to call it a tangy tea than just tart.
Something with this many tart type ingredients going on might just beg for sugar but this is so good, it’s not even needed.

I’m sad I finished the cup already, but I’ll go make some to try hot and I’m sure I’ll be sending my boyfriend to get me at least an ounce of this next month…or if there’s a good Black Friday sale I will be all over this and that Bubbly one. Sometimes it’s not helpful having a birthday that always falls around Black Friday.

Ok, hot time: it resteeped pretty well! It is a lot heavier on the yogurt though. Thankfully I don’t mind this because I’ve been craving froyo and not going because I’ll go to get in the car and be instantly cold and it will be a bad idea. So something that still has that taste, but is hot sounds like a winner.

There’s still notes of strawberry but it’s not quite the same. I am definitely going to get more of this though, and I’ll have to try it hot on a first steep.

Not really related to this tea, more lamentation about tea below

Sooo…I should probably look at joining the tea hiatus group lol. Mom came over for a visit and wanted to take me to DAVIDsTEA…hahaha, of course I can’t say no! So we went, and she stocked up on a crazy amount of tea, she actually paid the same as me for hers, but she got larger quantities of some favorites :D so that was good, and I got a bunch of tea..and an iced tea mug..and mom got me a pitcher, she wanted to get me a gongfu pot but I already have that haha. So yes, NO MORE BUYING TEA/TEA THINGS! /my verdant order(s) are at the post office as well haha.

ANYWAYS..ONTO THE TEA…

I just had to try some of this. I recall seeing a whole bunch of notes on this a few months ago, and I was like hmm that looks good, but it somehow slipped my visits for quite a while. I saw it today though, and smelled it, and man is it ever strawberry and rhubarb! My mom even thought it smelled like a rhubarb pie, and she makes an EPIC rhubarb pie. So yes, I got apparently 18 g of this tea haha, and I might have to get more.

I steeped it for around 6 minutes with boiling water, and omggoodnesss, this creamy, delicious scent is wafting up. Even after it cools, it still smells just SO CREAMY. The flavor is excellent. A perfect balance of sweet and tart, and it does pretty good with the flavoring too, which I am surprised with. I think you could actually pretty closely discern the rhubarb not knowing what it is supposed to be!

Overall, I am super pleased that I finally remembered to try some of this. It is a lovely treat that smells super sweet, but actually is very nice. Yay for good tea, and caffeine free tea before bed too! :D

First, DaisyChubb is evil for introducing me to Drawception and giving me a new way to suddenly lose five hours of my life. (Seriously, I was up till 3am playing and reading games.)

But the tea, that’s why you’re all here. I first tried this in store and there found it lovely. It was light and lovely, with a hint of tartness and natural strawberry notes. The colour was a pale pink and while there was a sweetness to the cup, it was more along the lines of that in an actual strawberry. Really liking the sample, I got 20g and happily brought it home.

Like I always do in a first steep, I followed the “instructions” on the bag, doing a 5 min brew at about 96C. It gave me a cup of strawberry tartness, and was almost red in colour. I’m not sure if my cup perhaps had an over-abundance of hibiscus in my scoop or what, but next time I’m definitely doing a shorter steep. Brewer beware!

I had this yesterday, iced and it tasted apple~y to me I really didn’t get the strawberry… oh well at least I tried something new :D (if you like swampwater, or the watermelon one you should like this)

I LOVE this tea. I have never really liked rhubarb anything before. But this is amazing. You get the sweet strawberry taste then a little tartness from the rhubarb. I could drink this all day long.

received this in a swap from nwolf

if anyone could see me right now theyd think I was nuts, sitting here with my nose in the cupand my eyes closed… and yea my mouth is watering from the amazing smell.
this smells so much like strawberry rhubarb pie it’s freaky.
I can taste delicious tart rhubarb & sweet juicy strawberry. Not getting any parfait taste or pie taste, but pure pie filling. ermahgerd!! so freaking good.

I wonder what this would taste like mixed with Della Terra’s Oatmeal rasin cookie. that may give it the bakeyness needed to taste pie. maybe the next one.

Davids is definitely my new FAVORITE TEA SHOP!!!! I have not had one tea that I did not care for by them. Their flavored blacks have such a good quality leaf that they all turn out tasty.

SO…I decided to put this in my glass tumbler that I recently purchased from Mandala Tea. Filled with 208 degree water and just let it sit. Took it with me to go out and it sat for about 2 hours. Never went bitter.

The smell of this before brewing is a strong strawberry. The taste is a nice blend of strawberry and a tart rhubarb. The yogurt makes it all creamy and yummy! The nice thing is that the strawberry doesn’t taste artificial!

I would like a little more dept to this so I might try blending it with something else – maybe Red Velvet Cake. I’d really like to try the crumble one now. I do like having straight herbals on hand though so that I can just throw it in my glass tumbler and not worry about oversteeping.

Definite sweetness on the sip. I am generally quite sensitive to hibiscus aftertaste but the hibiscus in this one seems to be blended quite nicely and only gives a tart edge that you would normally to expect to accompany strawberries. I am detecting some earthiness from the beetroot and I don’t feel that it compliments the flavour profile very well.

As the tea cools, I am noticing an unpleasant blunt edge to the tartness which carries throughout the tea taste.

As I am able to take larger sips, I am starting to feel the hibiscus creeping through the flavour a bit more. There is a dairy-type taste present as well which I am guessing is the result of the yogurt bits in the brew.

Overall, a nice blend of flavours. The tartness mixes in nicely and is in no way overwhelming the blend. It gives me a bit of a “zinger” type sensation on the back of my tongue and creeping into my throat.

The second infusion was cold-steeped overnight. The hibiscus seems more prominent giving the brew a sour-bitter taste. I’m detecting some floral-type notes as well.

I did a good job choosing teas. Or you guys all do a fantastic job of reviewing them, so I know exactly what I’m ordering.

This is another win. I love the tartness and sweetness, and the creaminess from the yogurt is amazing. It seriously tastes like I am drinking a big mug of strawberry rhubarb pie. I will enjoy the shit out of my 50g bag of this.

Can I say ‘shit’ on here? I tend to be somewhat inappropriate…

One of my good friends got me a pack of this for my birthday, and if it wasn’t for her, I probably would not try this one because I am very selective of herbal teas because they are not my favourite (except for Cocomint Cream <3). The smell of this tea is very nice, I definately get the strawberries. At first sip it is very tart, I actually had to sweeten this one. I normally do not sweeten my teas, especially not herbals! Once sweetened it is pretty descent. I actually prefer this one iced. Overall this is an alright tea but I probably will not repurchase this one, but I am glad I got to try it.

Another DT tea my sis snagged for me before visiting me. My husband loves rhubarb in baking. We were planning on having rhubarb pie at our wedding, but it was off season and no rhubarb to be found, fresh, frozen or canned – he was really bummed out and wanted to delay the wedding!

DRY: Super super juicy strawberry! Got me really pumped up!

STEEPED: Lightly juicy strawberry. Everyone in the house is impressed with the berry smell. Very pretty dark red.

TASTE: TARRRRRRRRTTTT! WAHHHHHHHHH! I should of read up on this tea on Steepster before steeping it. This was a hibiscus punch to the face with a rhubarb tart eye gouge thrown in for good effect. My tart o meter almost got knocked out!
I tried sweetening it to make it less angry, still pretty tart – good flavor past the tart, strawberry, rhubarb, bit of creamy. As it cools, less tart and good juicy strawberry flavor. Unless it is still really tart and it blew out my tongue.

COMMENTS: This is just way too tart for me, but this tea has loads of potential. I’m thinking shorter steep time? latte? Iced? more water? Another day.

EDIT: The tea hating husband took a sip and finished my cup! Said it tasted like a strawberry rhubarb cider and wanted more. Finally a tea he likes!

Got this one iced today, since I was downtown and had forgotten my little tea kit at home (I usually carry tea, bags or a mesh ball, and an empty mug!).

Ooh, this is good! Reminds me of the stewed rhubarb one of my grammas used to make, with tapioca and strawberry Jello. There’s a decent vanilla presence in this tea as well, which must be the yogurt creaminess they say is in here.

Once I sip down the new fruit teas I got today, I will probably get some of this one!

I thought I would love this when I smelled the dry leaf. It was sweet and bright and fruity scented, and strawberry rhubarb is one of my all time favourite combos. I also loved the strawberry rhubarb crumble white blend from a few years back, so this one seemed like a no brainer.

I had it iced, and felt pretty meh about the whole thing. The strawberry comes through nicely, and the hibiscus is well done as other people have said. But I don’t get a lot of rhubarb flavour and there’s this weird, sickly, almost sour dairy note that really hit me in the face on my first sip, which I can only imagine is the yogurt chips. I’ve never had a blend with them before so I can’t be positive they’re what’s causing it, but something is tasting seriously unpleasant.

The more I drank of it the less I noticed the weird taste, but it was still there lingering in the background. Too bad, I was looking forward to this. It was also much improved with some agave! I’m glad so many people are enjoying it, but I must just be the odd one out :P

Dry Leaf Nose: appealing and fruity with distinct strawberry and rhubarb aromas.

Liquor: gorgeous dark red and opaque.

Flavour: tart, sweet strawberry-rhubarb pie with an excellent fruity balance.

I got this as a sample with an order. A bit disappointing to be honest. A nice dose of hibiscus which acts as the tartness from the rhubarb, but not much else. Wasn’t getting anything berry or crumbly. For me the tartness would have been perfectly balanced if I’d had a stronger strawberry taste, but it was about all I got, so it was too strong. Was a bit sad to not be able to taste anything crumble-like, given my increasing fandom for DT’s cake teas.

Not for me, but thats fine, I have many other options!

While steeping, this one smells like a mixture of strawberry rhubard pie and strawberry ice cream! I let it steep for 7 minutes.

Hot this tea is amazing! A little tart, but not in a bad way. I could really taste the rhubarb and the strawberries added just the right amount of sweetness. The yogurt makes it nice and creamy too.

Cold, this tea stands out even more. It was quite strong and tasted exactly like a fresh piece of pie:)

This one will definitely be a regular in my cupboard!