My very generous Mum recently spent some time in the US, and knowing that I’m a tea-granny, she, bless-her-heart, bought me a whole tin of these blooming teas from Teavana. “Because it’s very fancy there, you know.” Well, we all have our own thoughts about Teavana and just how fancy it may or may not be, but who am I to turn down free tea?
First off, I’m not really an appreciator of blooming teas. I know they’re lovely to look at, but since I do the majority of my tea drinking alone, I kind of feel like the entertainment value a blooming tea provides is wasted on me. And plus, I almost never resteep them, because I’ve usually just consumed a whole pot of tea by myself. Also, I’ve never had one with a taste that’s comparable to a regular loose leaf tea.
This one is no different to me. I should also mention at this point that I quite like Davids Tea’s Strawberry White to fill the fruity/white tea niche in my tea cupboard. So this tea ball is facing some direct competition.
It smells of strawberry candy, which seems promising. It’s a little artificial for my taste, but fine.
I poured the water over the ball, as gently as I could, trying to avoid direct contact. It still fell apart a little, shedding some leaves into the pot.
After the suggested 4 mins, it had bloomed fully (Pretty! Flowers!), and the liquor was a light yellow colour. It was darker than I expected. The strawberry smell had mellowed out, and it was quite pleasant.
The flavour is pretty gentle, and it’s mostly strawberry candy. I don’t really get much white tea, but there is a bit of a floral quality that pokes through.
I don’t think I would have picked this one up on my own, and if I didn’t have a whole tin of them, I probably wouldn’t give it another shot. It might be nice to give as a gift, or to bring out when my Mum comes over, but most of the time, I’d rather drink Strawberry White, which tastes more like strawberries and white tea than this.
