Strawberries and Cream Tea – T2

It’s a lovely summer's afternoon with blue skies, the odd fluffy white cloud and a gentle breeze rustling through the trees and I am drinking Strawberries and Cream Tea by T2, the company with the funky orange boxes, (okay, so really it’s 30 odd degrees out there and absolutely bloody baking so I’m hiding indoors, but I can see the blue sky and clouds out of the window).

Ingredients: Apple, hibiscus, rosehip, strawberry granules (glucose syrup, strawberries, fructose, modified starch: E1414, thickener: E401), sweet blackberry leaves, yoghurt crispies (skimmed milk* yoghurt, sugar, maltodextrin, modified starch E1412, acidifier: E330), flavouring

*contains milk.

They describe it thus:

“Strawberry fields are forever with this beautiful red brew and sweet aroma.”

You may remember a while back when I went to afternoon tea at the Horseguards Hotel that I tried someone else’s Strawberries and Cream Tea and I quite liked it. Therefore, when I saw that T2 were selling a box (Fruity Booty) containing 5 of their fruit tisanes (fruit teas to the oldies amongst us), all of which sounded quite interesting, and one of which included Strawberries and Cream, I felt I had to buy it (obviously).

The flavour of this tea reminds me very much of the one served at Horseguards, although I assume that’s pretty standard as tisanes are generally going to contain similar ingredients, I would have thought.

It does have a lovely strawberry scent which hits you as soon as you open the packet. This is followed through in the pot and in the mug, and the tea itself is a beautiful pink colour, which made me very happy because I love it when a tea is a different colour from normal (remember the blue raspberry), in the same way that I love rainbows and glitter.

So, onto the flavour of the tea itself. I used 2 teaspoons of the tisane as one seemed a bit mean. At the 5-minute mark (they recommend 3-5 minutes) it really does taste of strawberries, albeit the slightly tart ones you get out of season from Spain. I probably could drink this without sugar as is suggested by T2, but you know what I’m like, and I honestly do think that a teaspoon or so of demerara brings out the real strawberry taste, turning it into an English summer strawberry (I’m now wondering what a dash of balsamic might do to it. It works wonders with fresh strawberries after all).

I’m afraid that despite the E numbers and the yoghurt crispies I didn’t really pick up the cream part, but that might change with the next pot — as with all blends you get a slightly different flavour each time you drink it, as each spoon of tea is different. Maybe next time I’ll get less apple (not really noticeable to my palate) and more crispies.

Obviously, this tisane contains no tea so it’s caffeine-free and I could, therefore, probably drink it all day and night if I wanted to. But as with everything, I think moderation is the key here and so a couple of mugs is more than sufficient for one afternoon otherwise it becomes overwhelming.

Being the rebel I am I decided to add some double cream to the tea because I had some going spare and wondered what it would taste like. It actually did a really strange thing. It didn’t curdle exactly but it didn’t mix with the tea either. Instead, it sort of sat on the top like a creamy layer which made for an interesting flavour as the tea came through it. It was definitely drinkable but in future, I will drink it without the cream.