Mango Lassi

This one confuses me – I like my flavoured rooibos well enough, but this is like drinking straight-up rooibos. It smells like rooibos in the bag, it smells like rooibos in the cup, and it tastes like rooibos in the cup. Any hint of anything else, mango or otherwise, is simply absent. I can’t really add anything else – it’s just rooibos.

Again, this might be a case of me not picking up Butiki’s more subtle flavourings, or just that I’ve taken my sweet time trying this tea. I keep everything in air-tight containers, but you never know – mangoes can be so devious.

(Insert link to working ‘Self-defense against fruit’ Monty Python clip here.)

[From my Butiki order to Santa Clara, October 2013.]

For whatever reason, I enjoyed this much more last night than I did the other night. Perhaps the lower water temperature?

Ahh everything loads just fine until I want to write a note today…figures.

I’ve been sipping on this all day after coldsteeping it for just about 24 hours. I still am kind of unsure how I feel about iced rooibos, but this is a step in the right direction. Definitely tastes like I’m sipping on a much lighter mango lassi!

My problem with iced rooibos is that it just gets too medicinal I think, I’m not sure if I’m right or completely confused by thinking that with this long of a steep it seemed less in-my-face than other ones. But, it might also just be how good this tea is. I can taste rooibos, but it mixes into the spicy tones of the cardamom. I didn’t add sugar because I wasn’t happy about having to leave before 8am this morning, but I still have half my bottle left and I’m curious to see how it tastes that way too, since it does seem like a little sweetener might bring out different flavors (of course obviously I read Stacy’s note on here too which is why I must try it).

My order from Butiki came! Yeah!
So, I’m getting ready to rush out the door to go play a gig at the St. Louis History Museum from 5:30 – 9:00. Then I’ll have 2 (much needed) days off from playing.

I’m not a big fan of flavored teas, but Nik gave this such a rave review, and I was placing an order anyway, so I figured, “Why not?”.
I’ve never actually had a real Mango Lassi, but it is quite tasty, & I’m definitely getting the Mango flavor (yum), & this was a good tea to try this afternoon, as I’m pretty wired from caffeine consumption at this point, & this is a rooibos blend.

Ah lub ewe nottea. Ah lub ewe sew mush.

Seriously though – Sometimes it’s 10 pm and I know I really really shouldn’t drink any more tea, and I DEFINITELY shouldn’t kill that pint of Ben and Jerry’s HalfBaked in the freezer, but I just might chew through a limb if I don’t have something awesome and snack-like to put in my face-hole pretty much immediately. Usually it is at these moments that my boyfriend hides under the covers with an ipad and Netflix. This is fair, as usually the first limb I decide to chew through is not attached to me. However, when I am reminded in a timely manner of the existence of honey, cream, and this tea, his appendages are saved for another day. Remember kiddies, zombievirus may not start at home, but it can end there.

(FYI: The plague will actually kick off someday in a major metropolitan area, on public transport. I know, I have ridden the DC metro.)

After going out for Indian food one night I decided to develop a rooibos that was similar to mango lassi. As I vegan, I don’t drink anything with dairy in it but I wanted to make a tea that I could enjoy that reminded me of one of my old favorite beverages.

The dry leaves of this rooibos are small and thin and are varying degrees of red and brown. Calendula and mango chunks are mixed in. The aroma is a wonderful spicy and fragrant creamy mango. The wet leaves of this rooibos are walnut colored, thin, and small. Chunks of mango and calendula are also present. The wet leaves have a spicy cardamom aroma that gives way to a creamy sweet mango scent. Mango Lassi produces a brilliant red liquor with great clarity and immediately smells of cardamom and mango followed by a sweet cream. Sipping this tea without sugar produces notes of citrus and mango with prominent cardamom notes that linger and become lightly creamy. With a little brown crystal sugar added, this rooibos becomes an intensely creamy with mango and cardamom notes. Each note compliments each other well.

The cup is full of ripe and unripe, peppery mangoes. It doesn’t always pull off the mango lassi in every sip, but when it does life is good. The cardamon is prevalent and compliments the bright and juicy mango. Something, possibly the calendula, adds a light salty element near the milky finish. Lingering aftertaste is peppery mango. The rooibos never takes over, although it is present.

Thank you for the sample, Stacy! I’m not typically a fan of rooibos blends but the solid mango notes put this one near the top for me. I’ll think about getting this again; I need more non-caffeinated beverages to drink at night.

My package from Krystaleyn came today. Yaaaay. This is the first tea I’m trying from that bunch and I am super happy about it! Even though this was way over steeped as I dealt with a cooking emergency, it did not develop that odd sour wood flavor some rooibos tend to. I get a lovely sweet mango flavor with a bit of spice. I don’t really taste anything that might indicate creaminess or yogurt though.

I think the base is excellent and the mango is very realistic. Very nice. And I was just lamenting my lack of fruity caffeine free teas until the package arrived. :D

I was so frenzied to order my butiki teas that I failed to notice this one is Rooibos. I was so taken with its name that I just ordered without reading. So … Errr… It’s pretty much sour woodchips to me. All Rooibos taste pretty much the same to me. I think there might be a handful I’ve tried that were different. Most of them just seem medicinal or something.

I only ordered 1 oz so not too bad. Maybe it will grow on me, at least that’s what I keep hoping about Rooibos in general. I don’t want to be missing out on good teas just because I stubbornly refuse to try them. I know someone — won’t name names :) — who thinks life is too short to be drinking/eating things you don’t like, but I say if you keep at it, you’ll like it in the end and your palate will evolve. Right? Right.

I got this as a sample from the ever cool Stacy. I’ve never had a mango lassi so I wasn’t sure what to expect. It’s Great! it reminds me a bit of her cantaloupe and cream. I think it’s the melony goodness.