93 Tasting Notes
This tea smells sooooooo wonderful! Very pleasantly lemony. When oversteeped it’s one of the worst teas I’ve tasted, but when steeped properly it is easily among my favorites.
The first time I brewed it, I followed H&S suggestion of steeping it for 3 minutes, but I may have lost track of time and let it go on for 3:30. To me it tasted way oversteeped and it was truly awful. I tried adding a bit of honey to tame the bitterness, but it didn’t help.
For the second steeping I let it go for just 1:15, which was perfect for me. It’s a very nice, bold gunpowder with a wonderful lemony smell and taste that’s strong but not overpowering.
Preparation
This was the first rooibos I purchased for myself when I started drinking tea. I have since moved on to primarily drinking loose tea, but I still come back to this tea.
When I first drank this tea, I was expecting something spicier considering the ingredients include cinnamon, allspice, cardamon, ginger, and cloves. The smell of the bags is mostly of cinnamon and cloves, but when brewed the spice falls into the background and the hibiscus is what I mostly smell and taste. This tea does not tend to get as bitter as most of other hibiscus-containing teas I’ve tried which is a definite plus.
I’m almost out of this tea, but I don’t plan on restocking it anytime soon. I have other rooibos blends that I enjoy more.
I received this tea as a gift. I don’t think I would have picked it out for myself, but I still enjoyed it.
The leaves have a very sweet smell, almost like bubblegum. I was a bit worried because I generally do not like to drink overly sweet teas.
After the first brewing, the tea had a sweet smell that was more fruity than bubblegum-like. The flavors I picked out most were vanilla and papaya, but the flavor of the tea does not really come through. I found the taste to be rather pleasant, but my boyfriend (who is also a tea-drinker) thought it tasted and smelled like cold medicine.
The second steeping smelled mostly of vanilla with a slight fruitiness that was unidentifiable. I could taste the tea a bit more this time around, but overall it was a bit too weak for my tastes. I don’t think I’ll steep it a third time without adding a little bit of fresh leaves.
When I run out of this tea, I will not be restocking it.
