Strawberry Fields

Backlog.

A pretty tasty strawberry black, with loads more flavour than some that I’ve had, but the tea isn’t unique enough to keep me interested. It is certainly good, though, albeit a bit fakely-flavoured. Lasted for only one good infusion – the second is rather bland (despite smelling quite tasty) – except it suddenly has a bit of an amaretto flavour… which I don’t recall from the first infusion, and don’t think is from contamination (I haven’t had anything amaretto-flavoured lately). Might have to investigate. (Further research has led me to believe that the proximity of my ‘Cappuccino Black’ infuser may have imparted this flavour.)

I’m upping my rating on this one because I tried it iced and I liked it much better! Still not my favourite iced flavour (I’m finding lately that I like my black tea blends better hot), but I didn’t find any weird taste like I did before. The candy strawberry flavour works better as an iced tea, I think, so if I ever drink this again in the future, it will definitely be iced.

So, I brewed up a two cup pot of this tea this morning. This is not one I will re-order, but it’s not as bad for me as for some others. I don’t have a sense of smell, so I really can’t tell you exactly what it tastes like, I only feel like it’s “off” somehow. And it’s a tiny bit bitter at the end of the sip. I drank most of the first cup and then waited for the second cup to go cold. it was better cold, but this is really not something I would choose to drink again. The skinny tin it came in is cute though, and fits in the cabinet where the larger tin wouldn’t.

Ehh, it’s alright.

I was a little disappointed with this one because it smells so great. I imagined it would be somewhat similar to The Earl’s Garden, but without the bergamot and with a bit of added creaminess. Instead, it was incredibly sweet in a noticeably artificial way.

I’ve had worse, and I’ll probably finish the 30g that I bought, but I won’t be back for more of this one.

This is one of 2 teas in the Spring Collection I to try yesterday. I had already had a cup of White Nectarine to go right when it came out…but I decided to get more of that to play with, and some of this.

I have to say that it is very strawberry and cream smelling and tasting, though a bit artificial. Is it enough of a turnoff? I don’t know. I did love that I got some good strawberry pieces in my bag, and this brew. I made my cup today with milk and sugar to up the sweet and cream taste. I have heard that it is tasty as a cold brew, so I may reserve some of my small bag for that.

It’s not a terrible tea, and it does fill a certain void, but I am rather spoiled by Stacy’s/Butiki’s strawberry flavours now. I don’t know if I like this enough to restock, at the moment, given how much tea I presently have, but when the pouch runs out, maybe I’ll get another small one. I dunno yet.

This was the tea i was the most excited to try, as i love strawberries and needed a new morning tea in my cupboard.

I have also cold-steeped this tea, and when cold steeped, all you can taste is the delicious strawberry flavor with no black tea bitter flavor at all. Very, very rich.

Sipdown (116)!

Robyn just left, so time to log the teas we enjoyed while she was here! It was a really good visit; about nine hours in total of, essentially, non-stop Sims 4. That game can sure be addicting! Hopefully no one minds if the bulk of this tasting note details our Sims session. And if you do mind, well fuck you – this is my tasting note!

Our original family consisted of four sims; each based upon, and named after, a Stereotype. The oldest was “Thunderbeads Willis” – a Widower and ‘late in life gay’ getting to know the side of himself he’d been suppressing all his life. Then there were his three children; the youngest was “WhiteGirl Willis”, a stereotypical ‘Five minutes late with Starbucks’ teenager with a stick thin figure. Seriously; her thigh gap was probably as big as her disproportionately sized head. The other two children were “Hipster Willis”, an artsy young adult looking to get her big break in the music industry, and “Fuckboy Willis” who was a ‘Frat Boy/Bro’ type with a desire to be the worlds best bartender.

After building our house, the first thing we did was find Thunderbeads a hubby. Eventually, after vetting a few other seniors, we found a single guy named Emmett with some matching interests. Thankfully, the two hit it off and after a pinch of forced romance and cheating they were wedded! Emmett moved in, and hit it off with the rest of the family – except for WhiteGirl. No matter what we did, we couldn’t get them to get along.

With that settled, we moved on to finding someone for WhiteGirl to cheer her up. Eventually we found someone named J Huntington III – he was this rare cross between jock, prep, and ‘bro’. Sadly, he was a young adult and since WhiteGirl was a teenager they couldn’t be together. But, something unexpected happened – J hit it off with Fuckboy! Since they both shared the ‘bro’ trait they were fast friends, but one thing led to another and they started getting really, really close. Eventually they were sleeping together, but it was no big deal; just two bros helping one another out. Scratching that ‘itch’ for one another. Fuckboy invited J to move in together – but just as close friends, of course. And they shared a bed – it was the fiscally responsible move. But more on this later.

We moved on to Hipster. After finding several suitors (literally seven) she wasn’t making progress with any of them. Too much of a snob, I guess. I mean, I suppose it didn’t help when we gave her the ‘snob’ trait. So, to help her out a little we cheated and made her irresistible to men. The first guy she snagged was a Grecian God named Johnny Zest. After a whirlwind romance of five minutes they decided to get married, elope, and try for a baby. And just like that Hipster was pregnant! After an intense seven day pregnancy Hipster gave birth to a beautiful baby boy whom we named Lemon (making his full name Lemon Zest) who inherited all of his father’s amazing genetics, and who took after his father’s comedic personality.

Soon after, WhiteGirl aged up, and became a Young Adult – making her eligible to date! We tried pairing her with a few different people, but didn’t spend much time on it. Sadly, just hours later poor Johnny Zest drowned in a tragic, and not at all expected swimming accident. Lemon seemed totally un-phased by this, thankfully? However, it seemed to hit Hipster pretty hard, though did drive her to write some truly inspired songs which furthered her music career. She also wrote a beautiful message on his tombstone, which was thoughtfully left poolside. The message “Thanks for the sperm”.

And, as the Grim Reaper was collecting Johnny’s soul, who seized the opportunity? WhiteGirl – who had finally found a gentleman caller who caught her interest. The two hit it off splendidly! Grim was even invited to the surprise wedding between Fuckboy and J who, after aging from Young adults to regular adults, were finally able to admit to one another they were more than just ‘bros’ and, after Fuckboy and Emmett caught Thunderbeads and J flirting with one another, decided to solidify their relationship with an all out wedding ceremony.

Unfortunately, that’s where we stopped playing – just when the story was getting interesting!

Anyway; tea related – this was the Spring tea Robyn picked out to drink while she was here (though I gave her samples of the others we didn’t try out to take home) – so we each had a cup. I still didn’t like this one: it’s just really, really aritifical and the cream flavoring tasted really gnarly to me. Like milk right on the cusp of going bad. However, she loved it so I, without hesitation, passed on the rest of the 25g from the Spring sampler on to her.

One more bad tea out of my cupboard! And, at least it’s going to someone who’ll drink and enjoy it. It probably would’ve taken me a really long, drawn out time to finish it all or it would have been snuck into different swap packages.

After reading the initial reviews of this tea (I believe there were only four at the time), I decided to visit my local David’s to find out for myself if it would work for me. I had them make me a hot tea with 2% milk and a tiny amount of sweetener. Not bad, but the flavor in general wasn’t strong enough for me to decide. I took home an ounce. I wanted to try this iced, and decided to add more of the tea than I would normally to try to get more flavor. I also tried it hot the following day. My takeaway was this: if you are looking for a strawberry flavor that is reminiscent of a ripe, juicy, sweet fruit, then this is not going to work for you. The dry leaf aroma reminded me of strawberry chewing gum (like Bubblicious – do they even make that anymore or am I dating myself? – or maybe Frankenberry or Crunchberry cereal). Iced or hot, that fake strawberry still comes through if you give it enough leaf. I personally don’t mind it, if I know that’s what I’m getting into, but if I’m expecting a true fruit flavor and get this? Well, I can understand why some people would be put off. That being said, it’s DavidsTea, which usually has more fun, trendy flavors rather than serious, fine teas, so I get it. And I like this, although I don’t think I’ll be getting more of it.

This tea is growing on me – so much, in fact, that I purchased 100g – 1/2 to share with my SIL who is visiting from the Netherlands in a few months.

Today I started my day off with 3 cups of SF served hot with milk :)

Springlike temps in Boston today for the first time in a very, very long time. So I made it down to David’s Tea only to find that the teas of the day had no caffeine which I sorely need after springing ahead into daylight savings time. I decided to give Strawberry Fields a try because it smelled so good, and really, it is not as bad as everyone says. My cup did not have a particularly strong strawberry flavor, so that may be why it did not disgust me with its artificiality.