Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Sunshine Cottage
Tea Description:
Plump, ripe, juicy strawberries with a cold, smooth cream – mmmmm! This is summer time heaven in a cup! A dash of half & half would enhance the flavor even more. Carefully blended and hand packaged, this tea will quickly become a favorite!
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Strawberries in fresh cream. . .anybody a fan? Anybody? I am!
This tea reminds me of crisp sweet strawberries in fresh cream. Just like a fancy restaurant used to offer that my parents took me to quite often. When my dad was ready to go out to eat, we went all out. This particular restaurant also served bananas ‘n cream. I would always get one or the other for dessert.
This is a black tea but one that is done with finesse. I loved how the black tea provided a richness in the background while the strawberries and cream flavor where allowed to play. I did get slight hints of astringency so this one I don’t think would be very forgiving if oversteeped. There is also a very subtle and quite hint of a malty finish, which provides a bit of complexity. The strawberries had such a beautiful fresh flavor while the cream had a lush silky feel. Seriously. This tea was good. I recommend all the teas at the Sunshine Cottage. I’ve tried several and only didn’t care for a few and that was probably my fault for oversteeping. I would love to try this one as a cold brew or as a latte.
Now, to find a tea that tastes like the bananas n’ cream the restaurant also offered. . . .
Smashberry Tisane from Piper & Leaf
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Herbal
Where to Buy: Piper & Leaf
Tea Description:
An Incredible Fruit & Herbal Infusion of Tart Apples, Sweet Strawberries, Rosehips, & Special Herbs
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
I enjoyed a fantastic day today with my parents, boyfriend, aunt, grandparents and kiddos. We celebrated Mother’s Day and just had a great time together. My dad was in a tea drinking mood and I was excited to share with him. We plowed thru the tea I brought and had fun doing it. We even received samples of herbs from Litehouse Foods for a fun addition to the tea. (A full spread on the amazing Litehouse Foods samples will be coming soon).
What better to pair with a Strawberry Herbal tea? Lemongrass and Mint from Litehouse Foods.
Threw my sample of this strawberry tisane into my tea pot and threw in a couple pinches of both the spices. These spices are so much fun. They actually expand with water and are freeze dried. I brought the water to boil in the ol whistling kettle and then let it steep for about 10 minutes. Grabbed two glasses out of the cupboard and dumped some ice in and served. I had wanted to garnish the cup with a strawberry but my mom had already cut them up for strawberry shortcake. At that point, I wasn’t going to complain. I had strawberry shortcake in my future.
Before I could even take my first sip, my dad had downed the cup. I asked him what he thought of it and he said it was good and that it felt good on his tummy. Crisp and fresh like. I agree. The tea had this fantastic strawberry flavor with a hint of lemon and mint. The apple flavor was very subtle and in the background. It reminded me of something you would serve to little girls while they are having a tea party. The chunks of fruit are huge in this tisane and nothing in this sample was crushed up. You can tell Piper & Leaf take time creating their teas. Each tea I have sampled from them so far has had giant chunks of fruit or herbs. The tea has tasted fresh and crisp. Definitely impressive so far.
I can’t say I would buy anymore of this particular tisane. It was good and adding the herbs was a lot of fun. Even though it was really good, I just can’t say it wowed me to the point of thinking I need more.
What I can see myself doing is picking up more of these herbs and seeing what I can come up with or what creative ways I can use them to freshen up tea that may need a simple tweak here and there.