Strawberry Lemonade Herbal Tea

A tea swap tea. Not as strong as I expected it would be, or would like it to be, but it’s really good. It’s so nice to drink an herbal tisane that isn’t totally tart from hibiscus. Might buy a bigger size of this; I have such a hard time finding caffeine free blends I like.

Thank you Fiddling for this sample. :)

Almost at the end of Season 2 of Sons of Anarchy thanks to my mad marathon day but still a couple of hours to go. It’s past midnight now so I’m trying to stray away from anything with caffeine and I remembered receiving this tea earlier this month as part of a swap.

The mixture looks like a large mixed dried fruit medley with strawberry and apple pieces being the most obvious. If you look close enough you can see a fair amount of hibiscus (eek!) and some other bits that I am not confident on identifying.

This large pieced blend smells sweet and fruity (no fruit in particular), rather citrus and a little sour.

Once steeped this tea is burnt yellow in colour and has a sour lemon scent with an undertone of apple. I thought it would be red/pink because of the hibiscus so the surprise is nice, maybe it’s not as hibiscus heavy as it looked.

The first few sips reveal a crisp apple and sour lemon combo. It has sweetness but at a personally nice level for me which is not too sweet but enough to say that I wouldn’t need to add any sweetener. The strength is medium but with enough flavour to still be pleasing.

I can’t taste any strawberry or any other berry like flavour which is a little disappointing so it’s more apple lemonade than strawberry lemonade. It’s still a nice refreshing fruity drink but not for those that really want something strong or strawberry flavoured. I also asked my husband what he could taste before telling him the name of the tea and he said citrus like orange or lemon and something sweet like apple. Then I told him the name of it and he also said he couldn’t taste any strawberry so the best we can fathom is that the sweetness is supposed to taste like artificial strawberry like that found in candy.

Overall it’s a nice fruity drink and would be suitable for a light flavoured ice tea but it wouldn’t be the sort of thing I would buy again.

Alright so this is a tasting note not just on the tea but on the brewing process. So first of all, I usually brew tea in my ‘Perfect Tea Maker’ infuser from Teavana, but since I found myself over at the boy’s house for the weekend and he didn’t HAVE an infuser, I had to improvise. Teavana and other tea places try and convince us that we NEED their extra fancy equipment to make a delicious cuppa, but I find that this isn’t true. So, since I was going to make this tea into a cold brew, first I decided how much to make. Since I wanted to share it and make use of it for a couple of days, I made a 12 cup batch. I boiled up 6 cups of water in his dinged up old kettle and when the water got to the 208 temp (I guessed. I’ve been brewing tea long enough to guesstamate the right heat level) I just took that bad boy off the heat, tossed in four tablespoons of tea and then let it brew.

The great thing about the kettle method is that while his kettle isn’t the newest or the fanciest, it keeps heat really well. Plus, it holds more than my 32 oz perfect tea maker, making life a bit easier in terms of brewing up a big pitcher.

Something I’ve had to learn by trial and error is the perfect concentration of tea and water when brewing a cold tea. I used to think it was silly to add two teaspoons or whatever the doubled amount was, but really…weak cold tea doesn’t taste as good as a strong iced brew. At least in my opinion.

Anyway, after that little beastie was all nice and steeped, I just held a hand strainer the pitcher and added 6 cups of icy cold water to the brew then stuck it in my fridge. I chose to sweeten it with white sugar but you could use any method you want for that. I also add my sugar while the tea is hot so that it dissolves easier.

This ended up making 12 cups of Strawberry Lemonade Tea and I am going to enjoy drinking it for the next few days instead of my usual black sweet tea blend!

Made a big pot to finish this off, since there wasn’t much left. Will have to pick up more the next time I’m at a Teavana (who knows when that will be).

On it’s own, this tisane is pretty average. Nice berry flavor with a nice zesty lemon twist. Not
much more to that, but combined with a rooibos or another tea (iced) it’s an absolute treasure and a must for summer tea drinkers! Blending with blueberry bliss also from teavana is excellent. So rating this tisane on it’s own is difficult because I think of the wonders it would be blended. On it’s own this tea is pretty boring and sticks to the same two flavor pattern the whole way through and is kinda boring but has a nice taste, very kid friendly. Overall I will try it again but absolutly iced and blended. Can’t imagine this one hot.

Another cuppa for tonight. Delish. 2nd infusion isn’t as strong (DUH) but the flavor reminiscent of summer is still there. I enjoy drinking this hot in the winter time to remind myself of summer days…

It’s good for what it is. It’s bright and citrusy and sweet. It tastes like summer, and it’s delicious iced. My problem with it comes in in terms of cost – it’s really only good for one strong steep, and it’s a weak tea so I brew it strongly. That being said, I can purchase the ingredients straight for much less money and blend it myself. I’m glad I bought it though, as it is delicious, just not worth the price.

Finished this one up as an iced tea.

Bye tea! Would probably get again, but not for a bit yet. More sip downs to do!

Got a little crazy this morning and mixed this up with Bigelow’s Perfect Peach, and a dash of Teavana’s Pineapple Kona Pop!. Made it into an iced, sweetened with german rock sugar, poured it into a clear pitcher and threw in some lemon slices. It looks beautiful and smells heavenly! We’ll see how my creation tastes later. It’s reached 112 degrees here in the midwest lately! In need of a refreshing fruity treat.

Edit.
Had a ice cold cuppa later yesterday, when I wasn’t feeling so hot. Turned out pretty darn good! The bf enjoyed it, too. He also came home later with beautiful smelling roses for no reason, so maybe I have concocted some sort of love potion.

My older brother and sister-in-law came by last night with a bag of this, wanting me to make a pitcher of iced tea for everyone. I haven’t tried this herbal tea before, but I am always excited to try new teas.

I mixed eight tablespoons of leaves with about two tablespoons of rock sugar, steeped for around ten minutes and left it in the fridge for a good four to five hours. Mind you, I’ve only made iced tea this way twice before, so there is a reason to my general approximations.

My first initial reaction was how surprisingly dark it is lukewarm, I would assume the sunflower petals and rosehip peels are to blame for that, but the sweet and fruity flavors quickly overwhelm, not so much overtake or suffocate, but at the very lease harmonize the overall taste.

It is an unusual color, a reddish blonde tone. And, because it is herbal, very cloudy.

My second helping, about twenty hours later, gives less a dark flavor and more a sweetly juicy body. The fruit really balance each other out. As well, the colder it is, the more delicious it gets.

I wish I made some of this near the end of summer. We’d probably be constantly making it, as the juicy flavor sure could quench a summer night’s thirst.