Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Bluebird Tea
Tea Description:
Think vanilla sponge cake with a dollop of raspberry jam!
There is nothing better than a cuppa and cake (except perhaps a cake flavored cuppa!) and did you know it was our good old queenie Victoria who invented the Vicky Sponge? Guess the name gives it away a bit! She loved taking afternoon tea with her home girls but decided they needed some extra nourishment to last until dinner. Cake it is then! We like your thinking QV!
Ingredients: Ceylon black tea, Coconut, Strawberry granules, Freeze dried raspberries, Raspberry leaves.
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Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
I have been eyeing this tea for a while now. So when a few people expressed interest in a shared order, I didn’t hesitate. I used to belong to Bluebird Tea’s monthly plan, but with the shipping fees to the States being a bit high and my strong dislike of red rooibos, I thought it would be better to cancel. That was a couple years ago. Fast forward to a couple days ago when this box of Bluebird Tea arrived at the house. I squealed I was so excited.
I thought I would wait and share this one with my dad. He loves tea and mostly drinks bagged tea just for the sheer convenience of it. He also doesn’t take care of himself so I was hoping this might help him avoid the dessert table during our Mother’s Day festivities. It didn’t detour him from the table, but I did!
When I opened the tea packet and peeked inside, I couldn’t believe the huge freeze dried raspberries that were in this tea! They looked delicious just on their own. The mix is very attractive looking. I scooped a few tablespoons into a tea bag and poured fresh water into the tea kettle. Brought the water to a boil and threw in the tea. Steeped for 4 minutes and poured into two mugs.
This smelled just like raspberry jam. Tasted like it too. Every once in a while you would pick up the cake like flavor. But I was ok with that. I wished the cake flavor came out more, but this raspberry jam like taste was simply fantastic. I could barely pick up the black tea base. The Ceylon tea base was so very smooth.
My dad really enjoyed it and said that out of all the tea we had drank that day, this one he could drink every day -all day. So very good. I was able to get another infusion out of it, but the infusion was quite a bit weaker.
After doing a bit of research on Steepster, it looks like cold brewing is the way to go with this tea to get the cake like flavors to really pop. Tonight before I go to bed I am going to have to try this. It also looks like if you steep this longer, the cake flavors come out more.
Regardless, this tea is outstanding if you enjoy raspberry teas. And if those cake flavors do pop with cold brewing or maybe shaking up the bag more- then that is just an added bonus!
