Tea Review: Red Leaf Tea Rooibos Africana

October 15th, 2009

Category of Tea: Herbal

Tea Company: Red Leaf Tea (website)

Ingredients: Rooibos, Cornflowers, and Blue Malva Flowers.

Vendor Suggested Preparation: Not Listed – try the standard 5 min, Boiling for Rooibos/Herbal.

Red Leaf Tea - Rooibos Africana

Africana is one of the Rooibos blends from Red Leaf Tea. It combines a rich red Rooibos leaf with bright blue malva flowers and purple cornflowers creating a very attractive loose tea that smells mildly of vanilla. The only ingredients listed for this blend are the Rooibos and the flowers that I mentioned but the description refers to “subtle touches of vanilla and orange” which I assume are added as flavoring.

I brewed a single cup of the Rooibos for 5 minutes; the tea was a nice mahogany color and had the typical sweet scent of Rooibos. The flavor as described was very subtle. A little too subtle in fact, if I hadn’t read the bag I would have thought this was a straight Rooibos. It wasn’t unpleasant; it had the nice sweet, nutty flavor that Rooibos is known for, but I couldn’t distinguish any of the vanilla or orange flavors that I was expecting.

I do enjoy plain Rooibos. There are so many flavor combinations available that it is sometimes hard to find a good Rooibos with nothing added to hide the natural taste. I started drinking Rooibos because it is naturally caffeine free and it made a nice cup of tea to relax with in the evening. For these reasons I did enjoy my cup of Rooibos Africana but I have to say that I was expecting a bit more from it.

Africana is priced a little high for a Rooibos, as are most of the loose leaf teas at Red Leaf Tea, but they have a Points and Rewards program and are currently offering free shipping which sweetens the deal considerably.

You can purchase Red Leaf Tea Rooibos Africana directly from their website.