Tea Information:
Leaf Type: White
Where to Buy: This tea is (thankfully) no longer available as SpecialTeas has joined forces with Teavana.
Product Description:
A High-grade China white tea flavored with strawberry. A treat for nose and palette.
Ingredients: White tea, strawberry bits, flavoring
Taster’s Review:
A couple of weeks ago on the Cups of Tea with Jackie blog, the author (Jackie) mentioned how you rarely come across a tea review that is negative. Well, Jackie… this one’s for you.
And it shall begin with a story of sorts. Once upon a time (and it was a bit longer than I care to mention), I tasted a Strawberry White Tea from SpecialTeas. It was actually quite fabulous. Tender white tea flavor and sweet, authentic strawberry notes. So, when I recently received more of this tea from my SororiTea Sister, I was happy to have it because my memory of the tea is fond.
I don’t know what has happened since that last time that I tried the Strawberry White from SpecialTeas. But… something went terribly wrong. Like: WRONG. Badly wrong.
The first couple of sips were ok. Just alright. I could taste the strawberry and the white tea. But, it didn’t taste like the tea I remember. It didn’t taste all that bad, but it did taste rather sad; especially when I reflected upon my memory of this tea having actually been good. That being said, I thought that maybe I could finish the cup. But as I continued to sip, the flavor did not improve (the way it often does with other teas); rather, it got worse.
Much worse.
Now, I am tasting SOAP. And a floral note that is bitter and tasting … off, like a fake, artificial kind of flavoring. It’s a very weird taste that is making me wish I hadn’t just taken a sip… like something my step-mother might have used to wash my mouth out with when I was being disobedient. (It might surprise you to know that I wasn’t the most well-behaved child)
I don’t taste white tea any longer, nor do I taste anything that tastes remotely like strawberry. I just taste this funky, thin soapy taste with a vague, fake berry-ish kind of flavor in the background. This is not good. This is not pleasant. Or, as Jackie would like me to say, this tastes like crap. (Although, I would like to state for the record that I don’t really know what crap tastes like. But, I am guessing that it might taste something like this tea.)
I steeped this the same way I would normally steep a white tea: Low water temperature for five minutes. And with just about every white tea I taste, this produces an acceptable cup… so I don’t feel it would be fair to blame my steeping on this horrible cup of tea.
There is a glimmer of silver lining to this tea though, and that would be that SpecialTeas is no longer actively selling tea (at least, not as SpecialTeas), and so this tea is no longer available for sale, and hopefully that last sip is truly my last of this tea.
There ya go, Jackie … How ya like me now?
Yes, yes – a no holds barred review. Thank you! While I certainly wouldn’t enjoy the tea you described, I loved reading your post. Great fun. Although I do feel sorry for you – the soapy taste cannot have been very pleasant. Any chance the tea you tasted was one the first ever batches, and hence a little old? Or could it have been mistakenly stored in the bathroom, right next to the hand soap? No, I didn’t think so. Well, I really don’t know why it tasted like this, but I’m glad I won’t have to give it a try now. You tasted for us and that’s quite good enough for me.
Soapy taste? This is really a no-go.