Tea Series Challenge: Day 2

Hello and Welcome to Day 2 of the Tea Series Challenge!

Today’s tea is Strawberry Apple, an herbal tea that I let steep for probably a little over the suggested 5 minutes at a temperature of “fairly soon after it boiled in the kettle.”

This tea is everything I like about herbal teas.  It has a smoothness that doesn’t tend towards bitterness and a fruitiness that I really like (on cold mornings especially).  While yesterday I wanted fruity and green tea, today I just wanted fruity.  If I’m being honest it’s also likely I wanted a tea that wouldn’t be too beholden to a certain steep time.  

Like yesterday’s tea it’s really well-balanced in its flavor profile.  While I can smell the strawberry more than the apple, neither flavor really overwhelms the other one in terms of taste.

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I’m getting dangerously close to writing about my ratings for today so let’s just dive on in:

Appearance/Color

Today’s tea ws steeped in a green mug so it’s a bit hard to tell the exact color.  In the mug it looks like a mostly green color, not too strong.  The dry tea was sort of brown and orange?  I did look at them but those are the colors that jumped out at me and I didn’t look overly long or closely.

Aroma

Intriguingly, while I can mostly smell the strawberry of the brewed tea, the dry tea smelled more like apple.  Neither aroma is unpleasant, and both served to cause me to look forward to the drinking the tea.

Flavor

I’ve touched on this a bit already, but it definitely is fruity.  I can taste the strawberry and something else that is not unlike apple but, if I didn’t know it was apple, I’m not sure apple would be my guess.  The overall flavor is pleasant and it fits the flavor profile I had in mind when I made my choice of tea.

Body or Mouthfeel

This felt more smooth and a little less watery to me than yesterday’s tea.  Not that I didn’t like yesterday’s tea but today’s tea was noticeably smoother.

Astringency/Structure

The herbal tea was possibly a little more bright, but was also definitely less dry.

Aftertaste/Finish

Mostly I just notice a sweet, fruity aftertaste, which makes sense given that it’s a fruity herbal tea.  I definitely lingered on my tongue but not unpleasantly.  There was no sense of needing to eliminate the flavor from my mouth right away.  

Conclusion

While this was the tea I wanted this morning I think it would make for a nice midday or afternoon tea.  The kind I could kind of forget about and then sip as I remember it exists. 

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