Strawberry Zabaglione Green Tea

I don’t recall if I’ve ever had a Zabaglione. I grew up in and around NYC, and I’ve been to my share of Italian restaurants, bakeries, and cafés, but I always tended to order things like tiramisu and cannoli, or occasionally tartufo. But this tea was delicious. I’d really like it if the creamy custard flavors were more pronounced, but maybe it wouldn’t be as true to the taste of the dessert this was created to emulate. This would be a tea I’d gladly reorder.

Steep Information:
Amount: 4 tsp
Water: 1000ml at 175°F
Tool: Breville One-Touch Tea Maker BTM800XL
Steep Time: 2 minutes
Served: Hot

Tasting Notes:
Dry Leaf Smell: alcohol, strawberry, cream
Steeped Tea Smell: vegetal, strawberry
Flavor: sweet, vegetal, hints of berry
Body: Light
Aftertaste: tart, grassy
Liquor: translucent light orange green

Blog http://amazonv.blogspot.com/2014/01/52teas-loose-leaf-green-tea-strawberry.html

Thanks Marzipan for this one. I’m enjoying it. The weather is gross out and we are supposed to get rain (lots of rain) for the next 3 days. Strawberry cake/custard in a cup. Nice way to keep the 3 o’clock munchies way.

Day 11 in the 2014 12 Teas of Christmas sampler.

I had a second cup of this this afternoon to refresh my memory, as it’s been a couple of weeks since the last time I drank it. Inexplicably, something rather drastic has changed in those two weeks. It’s a good job I remember really enjoying this tea the first time round, or I would be rating it pretty low. I thought I had steeped it the same both times, so I’m not really sure what has caused the difference…

So the first time around, this tea was delicious. Even my little brother loved it. It was fresh strawberries, with vanilla and cakey flavours. It reminded me more of cake and ice cream than custard, but who’s going to complain about that? I was expecting more of the same when I brewed it up today. The scent of the dry leaf was how I remembered, but when I added the water I recoiled a bit. Almost straight away, there was a strong smoky odour which became more powerful than the strawberry smell. First sip confirmed that the smoke was also in the taste. Yuck. Who wants smoky strawberry? The creamy cakey flavours has disappeared, too, so I was left with a very disappointing cup. I still don’t understand why. At first I assumed the sample must have been contaminated, but that’s not possible – it’s in a sealed pouch, and was stored with the rest of the twelve teas sampler, none of which have been contaminated. I read through a few of the tasting notes from other steepsterites before writing up the note, and noticed that Kittena has noted a similar smokiness, which leads me to think it’s just a feature of the tea which I managed to avoid with my first cup. I will definitely have to experiment with steep times, amount of leaf and water temperature to try and coax out the deliciousness that I got first time around.

Thanks to beelicious for this sample as well. A strawberry green tea sounded like a good candidate for making iced tea with, but I wanted to try this one hot first to get a general idea. The dry blend smells like strawberries and cream, as well as having that indescribable “dark green tea” aroma that is creamy in its own way, and almost powdery (am I making any sense here? Maybe I associate it with matcha powder). In terms of taste, the strawberry flavor is very fresh and natural. The tea base has a lot of presence—it’s a little grassy, just a little bitter but in a way that is enjoyable for green teas, and definitely “dark green”. Even more so than the Long Island Strawberry green tea I tried recently from Banff Tea Co, this blend is one where the tea itself doesn’t try to play hide-and-seek. Given that quality, it might actually make a better hot brew than cold brew—I can imagine it being a little too heady for a summery iced tea. But it’s definitely tasty!

A few days ago I started my morning with this tea and have decided to do so again, only that this time it’s iced. I cold steeped some two days ago and have been drinking it since, it was a nice way to finish the last of this sample. This morning is the last glass full and I have to say that this went down better than I thought it would. Usually with sweet iced tea (particularly fruit sweet) it becomes too pop like and ends up tasting like pure sugar. This however, tastes refreshing and the sweetness is toned down behind a perfumed, grassy green tea flavour. If anything the sweet essence is an after taste that doesn’t last too long. I’m wondering if Frank intended this one to be iced.

Nice start to the day :)

52teas’ 12 Teas of Christmas Day 11! (Drank Dec. 11)
A green tea (not sencha!), with obvious strawberry bits… I don’t know what exactly this could be, but I’m hoping for good things. The aroma is a bit smoky and fruity, which actually seems to work; the flavour is accordingly smoky and fruity strawberry, which is actually pretty tasty. I am definitely a fan of 52teas blends using green bases other than sencha (e.g. Sun & Cloud Mist. Yums.)

Scratching off the label, this is apparently Strawberry Zabaglione Chun Mee. Interesting – I really don’t think it comes off as ‘zabaglione’ at all, but it’s certainly an interesting and fairly tasty tea. A good selection for the 12 Teas.

Backlog:

I loved the black tea version of 52Teas’ Strawberry Zabaglione, so I was pretty sure I’d love the lighter base of this green tea version. I think I might like it better, because I love the buttery notes that are enhanced because of the lightly buttery green tea. It really accentuates the custard-y notes well.

So good! The softer base allows these flavors to really develop. The strawberry is sweet and a little tart, the custard notes are sweet and creamy, and the green tea tastes fresh and soft. A yummy treat!

LOL I have to admit that when I opened this up and smelled something like coconut, I wanted to groan. Don’t get me wrong, I like coconut in teas and otherwise, it’s just that alot of teas seem to have coconut as a flavor and I don’t want to get tired of it. But I wasn’t in the mood to go hunting for another sample.

1st sip, I did taste a coconutty flavor, and a bare hint of strawberries.

You ever taste a tea and the 1st sip is exactly what the description is, but then the rest of the tea tastes somewhat bland? Yeah, that just happened.
I might be inclined to buy this as a Iced tea pack if it is still available this summer. But if it’s reblended in general….Probably won’t be interested.