Oct 25
Vanessa’s Teaview Snapshot
 | "When prepared correctly, the strawberry flavor is still the boss of the blend, but the tea becomes more light-bodied and the floral flavor of the oolong comes through more and more in each infusion."
|
8.5/10
Strawberry Oolong is the first tea that I am sampling from Naivetea, a U.S. company that specializes in traditional and fragrance infused oolong. After just a few sips of the strawberry oolong, I question whether “fragrance infused” is the correct term and think that perhaps the term “flavored”, would be more appropriate. Anyway, on to the review. I prepared my first cup of this tea using my standard oolong approach of near-boiling water and a three minute steep time. I was impressed with the aroma of the dry leaves as well as the brewed liquid. I was further impressed at the appearance of the leaves, which uncurled to large leaves and appeared to be of high quality. This cup of tea was extremely strong on the strawberry, and I am not entirely sure it was a natural strawberry flavor. It tasted very similar to the flavor of Bubbilicious strawberry gum. Unfortunately, I could not find any info on the ingredients on the Naivetea website, so I still couldn't say how natural the flavor is. Personally, I would have preferred a more natural strawberry flavor, but regardless, the flavor was tasty, intense, and had a lasting effect on the palate. The strawberry flavor almost completely masked the oolong tea, which I found to be a detriment. This tea, when prepared as I had made it, struck me as something that would appeal to children and, if served over ice, could substitute for Kool-Aid or any other sugar- and calorie-laden fruit-flavored beverage.After preparing my first cup, I decided to follow Naivetea’s recommended steeping method (as I am American, and that means I consult directions after I have completed the task at hand). As it turns out, Naivetea recommends using boiling water and a much shorter steep time of 20 seconds (!!!), and says that the leaves can be infused up to five times (again, !!!), adding 10-15 seconds for each subsequent infusion. So I followed the directions and made four infusions out of the remainder of my sample. Due to the shorter infusion time, the resulting infusions displayed a much better balance of strawberry flavor and oolong tea. The strawberry flavor was definitely still the boss of the blend, but the tea was slightly more light-bodied and the floral flavor of the oolong came through more and more in each infusion. By the fourth infusion, the flavor was much more floral and was well-matched with the strawberry. I could really taste the oolong and have to say that this was a good oolong. I can’t say I preferred any one of these four infusions over the others, as they all offered an interesting flavor profile, but I will say that this tea was much better and more tea-like when prepared following the recommended steeping directions (who knew following directions could be good for you?). In all, this is a really interesting blend and not one you’re likely to see offered from many other tea outfits out there. If you like strawberries or strawberry-flavored candy, then this should be on your must-try list. The tea is a little pricy side, costing $17.50 for 1.75oz, but the price is justified by the quality of the product, especially when considering that you can get up to five cups of tea from one serving of leaves.
— To purchase Naivetea Strawberry Oolong, or for more specific information on ingredients or the story behind this particular blend, click here to go directly to the manufacturer's web site.
 |
Vanessa Teaviews.com Reviewer » Read more about this reviewer on Vanessa's profile page. » Find a list of recent posts by Vanessa. |
Recent Comments