Welcome to summer this tea screams as it tumbles down your throat. . .
The hot weather sensations begin with the liquid. Clear rose in color with hints of a sunset orange.
This tea has hibiscus in it so one must be mindful of the steeping time. In order to full appreciate the summery strawberry flavors steep 2 – 2.5 minutes.
Sensations of fresh strawberries intertwine nicely with the crisp grassy green tea notes.
Once you hit the three minute mark the hibiscus takes over like Japanese beetles on a bean plant. . . . .so this tea is for those who love a tart strawberry tea with a grassy note. Definitely one that needs to be enjoyed in the summer or to brighten up ones palate since winter time is typically a heavy spiced tea season.
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: The Love Tea Company
Description
It’s hard to keep this one in stock, teens and tweens love it, and it’s so much better than soda. It’s a Brilliant Blend of herbal and fruit that evokes strawberry fields. It is an organic green tea that is a simple pleasure with complex ingredients – green tea, with papaya, apple, orange and strawberry pieces, rosehip, calendula petals and natural strawberry flavors. This blend is great hot or cold, but our preference is cold. Blend several pots, keep it refridgerated and serve over ice with a fresh strawberry on the side. The kids can take part in the mission on this one. Make sure they #sharethelove with their friends.
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
Louisa May Alcott from Simpson and Vail. . .
I was devastated to find out that I’d missed out on Starbucks’ Free Tea Friday. My body melted into the floor. I had to be picked out of the carpet and reassembled.
Then I remembered that I had some samples left. (YAAAASSS.) Lo and behold, this Simpson & Vail blend was batting its eyelashes at me.
“Hello,” Louisa May Alcott purred. “I am a light flowery green berry thing, and would probably be the bomb if you iced me.”
“You aren’t free,” I whispered, dabbing a tear from my eye.
“I am,” the tea said. “You get a lot of free samples from the SororiTea Sisters in exchange for reviews.”
“But… I have to, like, get the steeper, and make sure there’s ice,” I whined.
“Ugh, come on,” the tea said. “You don’t even need to boil the water. It comes out of your work’s water cooler’s hot side.”
I finally submitted to the tea’s taunts, and I’m very glad I did!
This tea does a lot of things very well that I’m often on the fence about:
1) Rose petals. Sometimes there are too many and the tea tastes like soap. These petals, on the other hand, are blended with a light hand.
2) A little bit of tartness. JUST A LITTLE. I need everything in my life to taste light and candylike. (My wines. My teas. Even my beers need to be light wheat-plus-fruit offerings.) The tartness here comes from the green tea, and it totally works.
3) Strawberries. This blend uses ACTUAL strawberries, not the fake mix-in stuff. This makes a big difference. It’s the difference between a juicy, authentic taste and a face-smack of Stevia.
4) Apples. They sweeten this blend up and go with its fruit-fiesta theme. Sometimes I wonder what apples are doing in a blend. They seem like a thing most tea-makers have in the cupboard and gleefully toss in there, crying, “WHY THE HECK NOT?”
My general thought here is: yum. This is a great iced tea. My sample is pretty big, so I think I’ll continue to give into its cajoling ways.
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: Simpson and Vail
Description
Early in Little Women, while visiting a sick Laurie, Jo says that her sister Meg’s blancmange is made “very nicely.” Later, her own attempt turns out “lumpy” and accompanied by strawberries that were “not as ripe as they looked.” Our blend follows Meg’s example and is almost, as Laurie says, “too pretty to [drink].” Combining almond and strawberry flavors, this blend brews to a delicious tea that is fruity and aromatic. It manages to be both sweet and light thanks to the Chunmee green tea base and the gentle floral notes added by the rose petals.
Ingredients: Green tea, apple pieces, flavoring, strawberry pieces and rose peta
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
Strawberry Rush from The Love Tea Company. . . .
So a little while back a couple of us sisters received a gift from the wonderful CuppaGeek. Super Starling said she received hers for her general awesomeness so if I got one too, does that mean I am awesome as she is? That’s quite the accomplishment I think because she is one awesome lady. So that means that this gift was not only a great present that made sure to tell me I was loved, but also an ego boost. Plus, as part of the Tea It Forward program, this also helped support a good cause since $1 from each box sold goes to The Flagg Foundation for Mental Wellness.
Today’s tea pick of the three options in the box is Strawberry Rush, a fruity green tea which I found quite surprising. The first surprise was the steeping temperature. 3 minutes at 195F seemed quite high for a green base to me. Nonetheless, I followed these recommended steeping parameters only to be surprised again when I removed the filter basket and found a deep fuchsia colored tea as opposed to the usual light yellow shade of a green tea. My guess is the hibiscus is the cause of this color so I was interested to see if that meant it would take over the flavor as well.
Well, hibiscus is definitely in the mug but far more tame than what I expected. There is a distant memory of strawberry here but if I am being honest, the base is extremely bitter and I am finding that to be incredibly distracting. My hope is that the high temperature water burnt the leaf since I don’t imagine this is its intended taste.
In order to give this a fair try, I actually dumped my first brew and steeped this up the way I would normally steep a green tea, using 75C water and steeping for a quick two minutes. The new mug is far less bitter which means I can actually enjoy this one. The hibiscus is imparting the same level of tartness as before but without all the burnt to cloud the mug, the memory of strawberry here is not so distant. However, even though I can taste a slightly underripe strawberry flavor, it is also muddled among the various other flavor components. In fact, the citrus of the orange is one of the more prominent flavors and to me it feels out of place. The papaya mellows things out but there is a divide between the sweet and sour and it creates a confused tea. If I didn’t know this was called Strawberry Rush, I would suspect this was a fruit punch tea more than anything else as at the end of the day this tastes like fruit. Not one specific fruit. Just fruit.
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Green Tea
Where to Buy: The Love Tea Company
Description
It’s hard to keep this one in stock, teens and tweens love it, and it’s so much better than soda. It’s a Brilliant Blend of herbal and fruit that evokes strawberry fields. It is an organic green tea that is a simple pleasure with complex ingredients – green tea, with papaya, apple, orange and strawberry pieces, rosehip, calendula petals and natural strawberry flavors. This blend is great hot or cold, but our preference is cold. Blend several pots, keep it refrigerated and serve over ice with a fresh strawberry on the side. The kids can take part in the mission on this one. Make sure they #sharethelove with their friends.
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
Strawberry TranquiliTEA from Cup of Love. . . . .
Strawberry TranquiliTEA is another lovely offering from Cup of Love. It contains green tea, REAL strawberries, and papaya pieces. 3 simple ingredients that really PROVE that LESS is MORE!
The green tea that is used is a light and smooth sencha. The strawberries I wouldn’t be surprised if Stavros at Cup of Love dried them himself! (I know he did with the watermelon in another of his flavors and it was AWESOME) And the Papaya chunks are plump and powerful. BOTH fruits present are deliciously mouthwatering!
It’s fragrant to the nose, juicy-sweet on the tongue, and comforting, relaxation, and shines a lingering JOY on my day!
This is as close to sunshine in a cup as you can get and I have to say I’m quite the fan! This is tasty hot, warm, cold, iced!
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Green Tea
Where to Buy: Cup of Love
Description
Pure liquid relaxation! A rich, elegant aroma and flavor that is both satisfying and enticing. Distilled from the finest Sencha Green Tea and perfectly blended with mouthwatering strawberries and papaya, this lovely blend will transport you to a place of sheer joy; peace and happiness.
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
