The second tea I am sharing from the Malt Shop Collection from DAVIDsTEA is Strawberry Shake. If you missed Vanilla Swirl, check out the review here. DAVIDsTEA describes this as a creamy blend of green tea, strawberry and yogurt. The scent of the bag is exactly like a strawberry shake, or those kiddy pink strawberry yogurts that have no fruit bits in them.
DAVIDsTEA Strawberry Shake Ingredients & Steeping Instructions
Ingredients: Green tea, papaya, yogurt bits (partially hydrogenated vegetable oil, milk powder, sugar, lactose, whey powder, soy lecithin), candied strawberry (glucose syrup, strawberries, fructose, potato starch, sodium alginate), natural strawberry and yogurt flavouring.
Allergy Alerts: Milk & soy
Steeping Instructions: 1 perfect spoon of tea per 16oz hot (167℉ – 176℉ or 75℃ – 80℃) water. Steep for 3-5 minutes.
If you don’t have a variable rate tea kettle, did you know that most Keurig 2.0 machines boil to about 165-170℉ when a non insulated cup is used – the perfect temperature for green tea. It says it boils to 195℉ but I have never achieved that so I don’t use it for black teas but it makes the perfect cup of green tea. Sippable without burning your mouth after steeping time too.
DAVIDsTEA Strawberry Shake Tea Review
As the only tea of the Malt Shop Collection without stevia extract, I was hoping for great things from Strawberry Shake. I mean it cold make the perfect summer drink. Zero calories, green tea and strawberry with some added creaminess sounds great right?
Plenty of long leaf green tea in this one with visible candied fruit pieces and yogurt drops. Despite the long leaf, I still found some “crumbs” of tea in my cup after steeping in an infuser so you may want to give the infuser a shake before adding water.
I tried this in store when buying samples of all three of the collection and was not impressed. It just tasted really weak. You know when you get to the bottom of a drink and the ice is melting? Some flavour that you can tell what it is but missing the oompf. It tasted like that. The Tea Guide said they had brewed it for 2-3 minutes, a little less than recommended but the timing that I would usually steep a green tea for too.
Best Steeping Time For DAVIDsTEA Strawberry Shake?
At home, I took tried it for 3 minutes and got a fairy dark cup of tea, to the point I was worried that the green tea would become bitter and it still was not strong enough in flavour for me. I wish this was a rooibos (the whole collection could have been rooibos really). It just didn’t have the flavour I was looking for and the mix of green and strawberry is just a little weird for me.
So I took a risk and steeped it for 4.5 mins, tasting it every 20 seconds or so after 3 minutes. The strawberry flavour was more pronounced, but the green had started to get that dry aftertaste. So I made it into a latte instead and it was much better. I guess the creaminess helps make it more shake like but I would still like a little more strawberry flavour from it. If it was a rooibos or even black, you could steep it for longer to allow the flavours to mingle and fully bloom. As it was, at 170℉ the yogurt bits barely melted too.
I will certainly finish the bag of tea I bought, I don’t dislike Strawberry Shake, but I can’t see repurchasing this one. I might try cold steeping what I have left to see if that helps (the yogurt won’t dissolve but it isn’t that creamy anyway). Check back tomorrow for Mint Chip Sundae.
Disclosure: Avon Courage mug is a PR sample. A portion of the proceeds of this beautiful pink mug goes to Breast Cancer research and charities.