Strawberry Zabaglione

So far I think this is really tasty. I’ve had 2 pours and like others before me I can say this is nice and strawberry flavored with creamy vanilla. No bitterness. It is best to add some sweetening and cream to make a good round rich desert. I’m not overwhelmingly blown away. I tried to enhance with some ground pink peppercorns but didn’t add enough. Will try again and get back with the results. I just think it needs some pop or punch. I like flavor that goes into more than 2 levels and this tea seems to stop at 2.

Quite enjoyed this elderly tea. Aand l’ve been kicking myself that l didn’t order the recent Honeyed Strawberry offering from 52teas.

Sipdown 50

I came across this packet during the great tea upheaval: the preparation for the cross border Discovery TTB as I hunted down Canadian teas for our American teafrens to try. And it’s not like I found all the Canadian teas that I wanted to share. Tea problems, tea problems.

This one is an ancient one of Anne’s creations yet still delicious. I brought it along for a brief trip out of town. Hence, the wifi and being able to post from this account which I can only use on my laptop which I have with me.

It is a super pain to not have wifi access at home and having to run out to cafes w a small tablet to check email and such. Such a limit on my online life. I do miss my hours on Steepster with my teafrens.

Oh well, I am hoping to get all that sorted at some point soon. Up to now, there have been for more urgencies than wifi to deal with. Soon, people, soon.

I used the full amount in the bestseller’s packet (5g?) and steeped 1 minute. Then, I added about 1/4 cup of soymilk. This is actually the best I’ve gotten a zabaglione tea so far. Lots of strawberry, custard, sweetness, and alcohol flavour (champagne? sherry?), it tastes a LOT like trifle.

Reposting this since I logged the wrong tea. Whoops.

This is what I was hoping Strawberry Fields (from DAVIDsTEA) would be. To my taste buds, this black tea blend is quite astringent (but not bitter). The strawberry flavor is wonderful and natural, not candied. The tea is a bit sweet and a bit creamy. I added the tiniest bit of stevia and that helped to bring out the custard notes. As suggested on the packaging, allowing the tea to cool really helps round out the flavors as well. Not to sound like a broken record but the black tea base is so smooth and isn’t overwhelmingly assertive (a good thing, in my book). I imagine it’d be just as tasty cold or iced.

Yet another of my older 52Teas blends! This was my reaction to Turtle Cheesecake, because I figured you can’t really go wrong with strawberry. I used 1 tsp of leaf for my cup, and gave it 3.5 minutes in boiling water. I added a splash of milk.

When I returned to the kitchen after leaving this one to brew, I could immediately smell artificial strawberry. My first thought was “uh-oh”, but it’s actually not so bad. The strawberry is far too candy-like to be realistic, that’s true, but it’s also part of its charm. It reminds me of the strawberry nesquik powder I had as a child. There’s also an underlying creamy flavour that reminds me a bit of custard – or custard powder, really. The value of this one, for me, is in it being such a nostalgic blend. It reminds me of my childhood, and even though milkshake and custard powder perhaps aren’t the best recreation of strawberry zabaglione, they’re not too far off the mark. It’s a sweet-tasting, very much dessert-like tea, and that’s all I was really looking for this morning. I’m going to call it a hit.

Sipping on a cup of this at the moment. This is a reblend crafted for the Fruity Sampler Add-On from the Kickstarter – the samplers will be shipping out Next Friday so for all of you who ordered one, you can start stalking your postal carrier after Next Friday! For the rest of you, this tea will be added to the website after the samplers are shipped out.

I really enjoyed the original version of this tea, and I’m hoping that I do the memories of this tea justice for the others out there who also loved this tea when it was first introduced. It’s got a really strong strawberry note – sweet & tart – and a smooth, rich custard-y note. Nice.

Pass the Stash TTB #3

I’ve had other 52teas blends to varying success. This one is better than middling, but not something I would have chosen for myself. I have a very mixed relationship with strawberries – I don’t like them. Fresh strawberries taste awful to me, and yes, I know this makes me strange; I’ve been told. But I love strawberry flavoring (because it doesn’t taste like strawberries!). I end up avoiding a lot of strawberry things because I’m not sure how they’d taste.

This tea had the strawberry flavoring with a undertone of cream. I had to add some sugar to really bring out the flavor. And it’s leaving an odd taste in my mouth. Not sure how I really feel about this.

I could see this being better chilled. Must ponder.

Pass the Stash

Yum, so far, this is my favorite tea from 52teas.. it is simply delicious! This tea is an explosion of strawberries and creamy goodness. The strawberry tastes fresh while the creaminess almost has a carmelly burnt flavor to it. I could see this being a perfect cup for breakfast. Mmm…just make sure not to oversteep this and it is so good. Highly recommend.

As the weather is considering a change to the warmer, I’ve been trying my hand at iced teas. Mostly cold brewed, and Hubby is enjoying most of the experiments right now since the weather is still not quite iced tea season for me… although I have tried a few. MissB was so gracious to share an iced tea blend of this and several others for me to experiment with. :)

Being my first iced tea blend from Southern Boy Teas (52teas), I thought I do the unmentionable and cut the bag in half and do a partial batch… Just in case I had a fail. Wanted to be sure I had a chance at redemption.

I first hot steeped the half bag to make a qt of tea, pouring that directly into a Mason jar full of ice when the steep was over. I then removed the bag, and the leaves that had escaped, into another Mason jar and cold steeped that overnight. The hot steeped version was almost bitter and although it smelled of strawberry, it was richer in the black base flavor than anything. I saved the hot steeped tea until the next day and combined the two into a 2qt pitcher … Eeks, is that allowed?!?! I’m thinking next time I may try to cold steep first and then hot steep later as MissB suggested, but I was so excited I forgot to double check which to do first if I wanted to try a double steep.

We enjoyed the tea with our dinner and it was a nice refreshing tea. It smelled much like a strawberry milkshake, but tasted better… Richer. A touch of sugar brought out the strawberry and made this a nice treat. My 8 yr old son tried it and said it was good, but not a favorite… I’m thinking when we try Monkey Fart he will go bananas over that one.. ;)

I’m not used to flavored iced teas in the summer… having grown up on Lipton w/loads of fresh mint, Gonna take a little getting used to added flavors in cold blends, but I think I’m going to really enjoy the variety. Hubby is really enjoying trying new things already and always comes home saying how much he liked whatever I had ready for him that day to take to work.. I’ve sent several and he’s only come home with one that was just ok. :) So much better than grabbing a soda… In so many ways! Love it!