Arthur Dove Tea Company – Strawberry Fields Forever
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The Beatles’ Strawberry Fields Forever was released in 1966 between their Revolver album and Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. It was an era-defining piece of music which marked a point where the Beatles made the transition into the psychedelic weird shit genre of 60s music, which they basically pioneered.
I love pretty much all of the Beatles’ music, but all my favourite songs definitely fall into the ‘psychedelic weird shit’ category. Strawberry Fields Forever’s swirly sounds and dream-like melody both captivated and confused its contemporary audience. The NME review reported bewilderment, delight and an inability to stop listening to it. The Daily Mail, on the other hand, said “What’s happening to the Beatles? They have become contemplative, secretive, exclusive and excluded – four mystics with moustaches”. Oh Daily Mail, you say that like it’s a bad thing.
The evolution of Beatles music was a swift as it was magical. They released thirteen albums in just seven years, before the band broke up in 1970.
I love Strawberry Fields Forever. It is, in my opinion one of the best and most important songs of the 20th century. So any tea which claims, not only to have been inspired by this song, but to also taste like it has got a hell of a lot to live up to.
Clearly, Arthur Dove likes a challenge, given that he has produced exactly such a tea. Arthur Dove’s Strawberry Fields Forever tea contains strawberries, apple, rosehips, hibiscus, lemon verbena, mallow flowers, safflower and lavender.
The puzzling thing about it is that, to me, it tasted like ginger. I can’t work out which of those ingredients would taste gingery. So unless it’s been snuck in, under the ‘natural flavourings’ umbrella, then it’s all a bit of a mystery.
It’s a rather tasty fruit tea as fruit teas go. There’s lots of nice big chunks of fruit in the mix, including freeze-dried strawberries, which also make a major contribution to the look of the thing.
Does it taste as good as Strawberry Fields Forever sounds? Of course not. And short of making a tea containing patchouli oil and LSD, it’s impossible to imagine how one could ever capture the birth of the psychedelic pop song in a hot beverage.
I love that Arthur Dove does this though. Creating tea blends inspired by songs is, well, inspired. It’s a pity that the first two teas I’ve tried from this teamonger were both fruity tea things which are never going to get me that excited. I’m curious to see what Arthur Dove does with some real tea.
I tried this tea and Club Tropicana first because I figured it would be easiest to review teas inspired by music with which I was already familiar. Arthur Dove also makes teas based on his own music. These will be the blends I try next. It will be quite a different experience to reviewing Beatles-themed tea, I reckon. I won’t be able to claim that ‘Lull‘ or ‘Hound on the Hunt‘ don’t taste like their respective songs when both were created by the same multitalented man.
Today’s featured book is The Strawberry Thief by Joanna Harris.
