YaYa Strawberry is a green tea with strawberries and papaya, inspired by Cuban-style smoothies. This tea is from Steep City Teas, a new online tea seller based in Miami.
I gotta say, I’ve never been to Florida. After watching lots of Burn Notice and Dexter, I wouldn’t mind going to see all the sights (and eat all the seafood). It’s pretty cool to see a tea seller inspired by something – with Steep City creating exotic, Miami inspired teas. I miss some of the references as I’m just a Canadian just figuring the culture here in California, but I enjoy seeing a new spin and passion with tea.
DRY LEAF: Tangy, super strawberry smell! It reminds me of tangy, chewy tart strawberry candies. Very intoxicating smell! Lovely big lumps of papaya and strawberry pieces!
STEEPED: Pouring this tea into my tea pot was WOW – so much fruity smell! It was like a giant strawberry smacking me around! Hint of tropical fruit smell as well. Nice gold green cup of tea. Can I just hang out and smell this tea?
I followed the recommended steep time of 2 minutes with 175F water.
TASTE: Very strawberry with a bit of papaya over green tea (I’m guessing a sencha here) with a slight creamyness. Very fresh and juicy tea! I’m getting a freaking amazing aftertaste of tangy strawberry fruityness. Wow, I never had such a fruity aftertaste – it’s like I swallowed a piece of candied strawberry and it’s stuck there, in a very painless way. The green tea is not bitter and there is a little tart, but it is very slight and participates in the flavor. I’d say a 1/10 on the Tart-o-meter. Actually, it’s more tang than tart, like the tang of a sugared gummy candy.
I admit, I’m iffy on papaya sometimes – but Yaya Strawberry does a great job with the papaya, tasting very lovely to me.
I added a little rock sugar to the rest of my pot of YaYa Strawberry, which I found mellowed out that tangy aftertaste, but made this tea come out a little more creamy and strawberry.
Annnd.. crap. I drank it all. I think I need another round with this tea… for you tea peeps out there! Yeah!
ICED: I steeped this double strength with rock sugar then poured it over ice and water. I threw in a bit of thinly sliced lemons from my backyard. Deliciously tangy, a little sweet, very strawberry and smooth with the lemon adding some freshness. The strawberry really pops in this tea when iced. OOOhh, if I had fresh strawberries I could of sliced into this iced tea, it would of looked and tasted even more amazing!
COMMENTS: YaYa Strawberry brightened my day – a Miami inspired tea lending some sunshine to a rainy Southern California day! The sweet, creamy and tangy strawberry tastes so indulgent to me, like I got into a bag of candy, but not as it’s just a tea! I’m tempted to turn this tea into a slushy or smoothie!
Price wise, this tea is very fair. Actually, I’ll probably order more once I try the other tea I got with my first order. I’ve had many fruity mix green teas, some too tart, bitter and dull – YaYa Strawberry is fresh, tangy with lots of interest of fruityness.
With that said, if you love very fruity, tangy green teas – show some love to Steep City Teas and check out YaYa Strawberry!
