Since last time this tea seemed a bit weak on the fruit flavor, I decided to up my previous amount of 0.5 tsp of loose tea to 0.75 tsp for my 12 oz cup in hopes of more pieces of fruit being steeped with the tea. My plan however backfired and I only managed to get one piece of fruit this time around instead of three like in my previous effort.
The plan was to steep the tea like normal (for three minutes), then pick out and toss the fruit bits back into the tea while I drank it to see if it added more of the fruit flavor to the water, but yea. This one lone piece of fruit now has a lot of responsibilities on its shoulders. Interesting side note: The fruit floats. Not sure why this surprised me considering the tea in the infuser also floated, but my brain told me the fruit should sink, so yea…
Anyway, I made the tea slightly below boiling again since 90C was the suggested temperature, and to my happy surprise, the added 0.25 tsp of tea didn’t make it too bitter to drink—though it still is kind of bitter. I’ll admit I was slightly worried about adding more tea and thought that sugar might be needed this time around, so I’m happy to report I didn’t need to add any sugar!
Do think I’ll go back to my original 0.5 tsp for future cups though. Because the tea (especially as it cooled down) was a bit too strong for me. And that one lonely piece of fruit didn’t seem to have any effect on the flavor. Ended up refilling my cup with hot water after I drank half the tea to mellow it out a bit. Broke down and added some sugar in the end too.
Would I buy this tea again? Probably not. It’s drinkable, but “not my cup of tea” as they say, especially as it cools down and the flavor ramps up.
Updated cup count (12 oz) from 8g sampler size: 2. Still a bunch more tea in the sampler for future experimentation…
