I’m really surprised that so far only one person has mentioned the vanilla note in this. To me, it’s undeniable—so much so that when I first tasted it, my immediate thought was of a vanilla green tea made by Lipton that I used to drink sometimes. If anything, I’d call this a strawberry-vanilla green, but I would understand if someone thought that there was no strawberry at all and just a general fruity kind of lightness that’s a bit nondescript. It’s identifiable as strawberry if you know it’s a strawberry green tea, but otherwise, I think it may not be. Before you steep it, though, it’s very strawberry indeed. It smells exactly like strawberry candy or a strawberry lip balm. Upon steeping, that’s pretty much gone. You’ve got some light, fruity sweetness (this was brought out in mine with sweetener, but this is one of a small number of flavoured green teas I’ve tried that I’d say you could be satisfied with unsweetened), but to me, the vanilla note is what’s predominantly there with the green, which is a pretty subtle green. The strawberry taste does come out more when the tea is cool, though, so if you’re having this at room temperature, it may come across as more true to name.
Because vanilla’s pretty much my favourite thing ever, I didn’t have a problem with the fact that this wasn’t strongly berry-flavoured. Someone commented that the flavour may reflect that Kusmi’s claims of using natural flavours may be dubious, but if anything, I’d say that the kind of weak berry aspect could be a reflection of strong-tasting, artificial sweeteners not being used (I have to say, though, the smell before steeping does make it seem a bit fake [but the smell is here no indicator of the flavour]). I thought it was a pleasant tea, but it didn’t really feel original (though that means that it could be a crowd pleaser if you’re having a tea party or something [depending on the attendees, obviously—I wouldn’t serve it to my parents]). I’d probably buy it again, and it might have other uses (I used to blend up the Lipton vanilla tea with fruit and some other things for a smoothie, and that would work well with this, especially if you’re someone who wants something new to do with your tea).
