Strawberry Cream

Oh man, this is so good. I may have found a runner up for favorite flavored black tea right here! So my zen tea order came yesterday, and I had a cup of this yesterday, and it was AWESOME. I was too busy studying to log a note, so I made another cup today and I will log it now.

The dry smell is very nice and strawberry smelling, with a hint of creaminess. I steeped for 2 minutes yesterday and 3 today to see if there is any difference. The steeped smell is SO GOOD. Lots and lots of strawberries, a very sweet smelling strawberry, and a hint of cream. Might try shaking up my bag like yyz suggested to get a few more cream pieces, but it still smells heavenly!

As for taste, I think I prefer it brewed closer to 2 minutes than 3, at 3 there isn’t quite as much strawberry flavor, or cream. But it is still wonderfully delicious. The strawberry flavor is a bit more realistic in this cup than the one yesterday, that one was sweeter, this one is a little more tangy. I am so happy I went with a 50 g bag of this right off the bat, because I can see myself drinking this quite often, it’s cozy enough for rainy, cold days (like today) but fresh enough for summer sunshine. As it cools, it turns into more of a black tea taste, but the fresh strawberry is still at the back of the throat, must be the strawberry leaves that cause the authentic strawberry flavor in the aftertaste!

Overall, this is awesome! It actually reminds me of that strawberry cream tea I got at a local tea store, I will have to look into that one, it might even be the same as this one, since it’s in Canada! This one is giving Paris a run for it’s money for my favorite flavored black, and it’s not quite as sweet either! Yay for tea!

This has made it to my top 10 all time best strawberry teas!
It is SO creamy SO sweet SO YUM!!!!
Its a lot like 52Teas Strawberry Zabaglione.
When you want something to convert your non tea drinking friends, serve to the younger folk, or curb a serious sweet tooth – this is your tea!
NOM NOM NOM
Full review on http://sororiteasisters.com/ Nov 26th

I really like this tea. You get a nice black tea base, but you get this sweet creaminess. I love that you can actually taste the strawberry’s. It reminds me a lot of DT strawberry shortcake. This is very yummy :)

Oh mercy, this is good. This is a tea with no hidden agenda. You get a wonderful strawberry and cream flavor and a solid black tea to go with it. I added a touch of sugar to my cup and found that it was just enough to really bring out the strawberry. That said, this could be a delightful dessert tea with sugar and milk. And by delightful I’m thinking eye rollin’ good.

I’m so glad I added this one to my cart. It will most certainly be a pantry staple.

I just had to try this one. Some of my favorite teas are creamy! This is exactly as described. It’s a delicious black tea base with a definite sweet strawberry flavor. There is some creme, but I could have used more. I was a bit worried about the strawberry leaves, as I had one tea with blackberry leaves that tasted like medicinal pepto bismal, but I think here it was just another hint that you are drinking a strawberry tea. There was at least one chunk of strawberry that fell in my infuser. It tastes like a decadent dessert… or maybe just simple strawberry shortcake! I think I might have even enjoyed the second steep more, because I think the black tea base was more noticeable and delicious! I haven’t yet tried one I didn’t love from zentealife.com!

Office sipdown!
21 to go and I’m at 100 teas again!

Edit: Apparently this is the same as the one by Zen Tea, as Zen Tea seems to be zentealife.com. Just FYI.

O tea, are you the strawberry tea of my dreams?

So far, sniffing it in the bag and sniffing it as it brews, I’m hopeful but not 100% pleased. Of course, my ideal might never be achieved by a tea, so I will be happy with “really really close.”

This company has free shipping in BC (right now at least) so I ordered ~$20 of samples to see what they were like, and to increase the stock of random herbals in my cupboard. Their samples are 20-50g depending on the tea, and they also included 2 smaller samples in my order. Yay!

I used 1 tsp per 8 oz cup, and almost boiling water. I accidentally steeped closer to 3 minutes than 2.5, so my initial (sans additives) taste was a little astringent. I added a little soy creamer and a tiny pinch of sugar.

And… I over steeped it. Still drinkable, but 2-2.5 minutes would be infinitely preferable.

The base isn’t super strong, and the flavouring is a lot more understated than Della Terra. I do like the flavour, so I hope I can come up with the perfect steeping parameters!

Inspired by Azzrian’s post a few days ago, I’m trying to get to the last two samples of I have from Zen Tea. While it’s not my fault that they didn’t get here for 2 months, I still feel bad that I haven’t yet had a chance to finish off the reviews.

As soon as the water hit the tea I can smell the creaminess. Mmm this is really good. It’s smiliar to 52 teas strawberry zabaglione but different too. It’s more creamy than strawberry but delicious nonetheless. I’ll have to try this again sometime with a bit of milk :)

I just don’t think I’m a fan of strawberry teas, but as far as this tea went it was quite delicious. They really got both the strawberry flavour, and especially the cream flavour down. The black base added a nice touch – it wasn’t overpowering at all and balanced the flavours out well.

Thanks Cavovorax :)

So this is me right now – http://i.imgur.com/TmYTu.gif

Whatever they use as the black base is really nice, and then the creamy note with the strawberry…amazing! There are no artificial or bitter notes at all, which I was surprised about since Strawberry can be such a hard flavor to pin down right.

Definitely going on the shopping list. YUM!

Another Zen Tea sample. I broke into this as something I wanted for dessert. The last cup of tea for the night! When I opened it I got a burst of berry… chocolate? Definitely smelled like chocolate which is really off-putting for me because, call me crazy, I don’t care for chocolate that much.

When I went to pour the leaves into the infuser I was not impressed by the look of the leaves either, it didn’t do much to calm my nerves. I saw a lot of dark leaves, and the strawberries looked dark too. At this point I’m wondering if I should have gone with a different tea that I’m comfortable with and saved being adventurous for another day.

I followed the recommended instructions, put the boiling water to the leaves for 3 minutes, then added some sugar and milk when it got in my cup. It smells a lot more like strawberry cream now, which is good.

Took a sip and yeah, this is strawberry cream alright. Unfortunately though, something just feels missing to me. It’s a really subdued mild flavor when I guess I was wanting something a bit more tart. Less cream, more strawberry. Next time I try this I’ll hold off on the milk and sugar and see what I get. For now I’m just a bit underwhelmed.

I love how creamy and sweet this smells both dry and brewing, more like really good pastry that includes fresh strawberries (a summer tart, yum) than most blah grocery store berry tea. That said, I was a bit nervous as I tend not to like astringent fruity teas and alas there was some of that element I dislike in the cup. A little bit of milk helped some but didn’t erase that zingy now-the-inside-of-my-mouth-needs-scrubbing dimension I just don’t like. Alas. If it was my sort of thing I’d be all over this though; it’s extremely well done for the kind of tea it is. Guess I’ll send some of it to my tea buddy via post, and/or ice it (bet it’d be good that way!).

As others have already noted this is a really lovely flavoured tea where all the components, both tea and flavouring are allowed to shine through.

It is not heavily sweet, it has a nice creamy flavour and has the soft strawberry tones of a srawberry mousse or yogurt. This is not a tart fruit tea for those who prefer them. The introduction of strawberry leaves adds a touch of bitterness and adds some depth to the base. The tea underneath is fruity and not to heavy but has enough depth to take milk. A nice anytime tea or a light desert tea.

caveat: make sure you shake up the bag a little before taking a scoop out the pieces that create the creamy taste tend to settle to the bottom if the bag has been jostled around!