redespresso

Whipped up a latte this morning. So easy!

2 “perfect teaspoons”
brewed in ingenuitea abt 2-3 min
added ~2tsp vanilla coconut milk creamer and a dash of cinnamon sugar.
served in bodum travel mug

Very nice latte to go; steamed/frothed milk and vanilla honey would be even better though.

Seems a bit odd to make a tasting note for this as if it’s a normal tea, since I always put it through a moka pot and then use it as a base for lattes.

My favoured drink at the moment is one shot of red espresso and two tablespoons Monin Maple Spice syrup, in hot, frothy milk, with a sprinkle of maple sugar to finish. Perfection.

Also made a good iced tea in the summer: just added to water and ice, then tossed in some peach syrup to taste.

I decided to do a little science experiment last night and it turned out pretty good! Very Sweet, but good…if I do say so myself!

I did a nice plump helping of this stuff loose with 3/4 mug full of water, 1/4 of milk, a healthy squirt of Agave Nectar, about an 1/8 of a tablespoon of sugar, and two shakes of cinnamon…

It was VERY sweet in every way but pretty smooth, considering. I ended up enjoying it quite a bit. A nice treat!

Thought I would do a Red Espresso with Chocolate Soy Milk – ONLY because I had some in the frig I had to use (it was a free sample from Silk in a lunch box size).

I added a squirt of Agave Nectar ‘just because’. I don’t think it’s as good as my first ‘specialty drink’ with red espresso…but it’s drinkable.

Oh yeah…and it’s iced.

I finally decided to order some of this stuff off Amazon, as my experiments using regular rooibos in my espresso machine were working pretty nicely. If you are skeptical, let me assure you: this is a significantly different rooibos than you are used to. It is powdery and sort of hay-like and nothing close to using traditional rooibos you’ve ground yourself in a food processor (I haven’t tried using a coffee or burr grinder, though).

Anyway, the taste is like extra, extra strength rooibos. I usually drink this tea at double strength anyway, but red espresso is even stronger than that. Suffice to say, it is perfect for making specialty drinks. So far I’ve had made some cappuccinos, lattes, and even a couple Fresh Red drinks (red espresso poured over fruit juice; in my case I used white grape, but they recommend apple), with excellent results.

Before trying red espresso, I was hoping that I wouldn’t notice too much of a difference between it and traditional rooibos. But unfortunately for my wallet and the space dedicated to my ever-growing tea collection, this stuff is its own beast. I will probably have to keep a both it and traditional rooibos on tap, ready to go when the situation demands it.

With soymilk and honey. Soy foams better than almond for sure, but I miss the sweetness of real milk. It seems to disagree with me lately though…