Tea Reviews | It's All About The Leaf

Posts Tagged ‘rooibos’

The dry smell is just like ice cream. How can this be? Let me assure you that this is the most delicious tea. I don’t know how Frank does it; he just seems to have a way with honeybush that leaves me coming back for more.

All three flavor profiles are present. The strawberry is represented by dried strawberry bits that impart the juiciness of a fresh picked ripe strawberry. The vanilla bean gives this blend the creamy aspect of ice cream. The chocolate was the most surprising to me, it is subtle, and a delicate cocoa that rounds out this threesome perfectly. Since my honeybush order arrived, I have had a hard time choosing other teas. I drink some kind of honeybush from 52 Teas most every night. Honeybush is sweeter and less woodsy in taste than rooibos and it is naturally caffeine free. Enjoy.

You can purchase the Neapolitan Honeybush directly from the 52teas website.

Wow, what a delicious medley of fruit scents that is being held in the dry leaf of this rooibos blend. Sweet and juicy notes mix together with a slightly tart undertone. Steeped, it remains fruity in smell, with some nutty scents mixed in. The liquor is bright and clear and light red in colour.

For all the intense smells, the taste of this tea is very much muted. Regardless, it has an all-around fruity flavour that is strong, but does not overwhelm the taste of the rooibos. This alone was a welcome change from many other rooibos fruit blends I have tried. The tea also manages to keep the tartness to a minimum (again, very much appreciated).

I quite enjoyed the fact that the ingredients were so well balanced. None of them seemed to overwhelm the complete flavour of the tea, leading to a pleasingly blended finish. This was a great drinking experience, for which I give this tea an 80/100. I am really glad I tried this tea.

You can purchase the Skala directly from the Da-u-de website.

One of the perks of being married 25 years come September is the marital right to stick just about anything under your spouse’s nose and say, “Smell that!” without getting clobbered. In the case of nice tea from India, the response was “Wow! There’s something clove-y going on, isn’t there?”

While neither of us have a professionally trained tea nose, we did pick up some nice spicy, fruity notes in the dark dry tea. I suspect it has something to do with the area in which Banaspaty tea is grown — evidently the perfect greenhouse environment for teas.

The fruity tones come through loud and clear when this tea is brewed. Because I prefer my Assams on the meatier side, I let it steep a full four minutes before a taste test. Assam Banaspaty has the nice thick heft you’d expect from an Assam tea, but was surprisingly mild in flavor. While I don’t think milk and sweetener would harm this gentle brew, it certainly doesn’t need to be toned down any.  This would be a good introductory selection for someone new to the world of fine loose leaf tea.

You can purchase the Assam Banaspaty Organic directly from the TeaFrog website.

This scent of the un-brewed tea is amazing. I almost want to eat it straight. Or pack my pillow full of it and smell it all night long as I sleep. It’s AMAZING. It’s full of sweetness and floral-ness and is just made of yum.

And while the flavor of the tea is good, it’s not as good as the smell. It’s got a very light, very floral flavor. I love roses and rosewater candy, and this tea reminds me a lot of rosewater candy. Another element I like is the green rooibos. This is the first time I’d had the chance to try green rooibos. And I think I like it a LOT. I have to admit, I’m not a fan of red rooibos. It tends to taste like dirt and sawdust to me. There are blends I like that contain it, but it’s mostly in their ability to cover the dirty-sawdustness of the rooibos flavor. But this tea has such a light flavor, trying to get it to cover any other flavors would be like trying to completely cover a Cadillac with a Kleenex. This green rooibos adds the sweetness and base notes without the sawdust flavor of the red. It really makes me want to try other green rooibos teas.

Overall, I like this tea; it has a lot of elements I very much appreciate. But I wanted more out of it, based on the aroma.

You can purchase the Xaouen directly from the 52teas website.

Today I’m reviewing to herbal teas from Mighty Leaf and I’m excited because they are one of the few companies I know of who offer high quality in sachets.  Perfect to have in a pinch if I’ve forgotten my finum because they tea pouches are large enough to let the tea infuse properly.

Opening the package and I can immediately tell that I’m going to love this tea.  The citrus smell is intoxicating.  It has Egyptian chamomile in it and the flowers are whole and appear to be really fresh.  There’s no dust in the pouch at all, just pretty bits of herbs and fruit.

Steeping it at 205 F for the full five minutes because I want to get every golden bit of the tisane infused.  The color was immediately a light yellow then finally went to a nice golden orange.  Love the way rosehip warms up the color of a brew.  Can smell all of the other herbs now and they are balancing out the citrus perfectly.

Yeah! It tastes as good as it looks and smells, I was right, this is a great blend.  I can feel my heart rate slowing, the days stress leaving me…  Would it be insane for me to let this tea pouch dry out and use it as a sachet in my lingerie drawer?  hmmm… yes, it smells that good.

Now on to the African Nectar.  Rooibos is a friend of mine, we go back a long way and she’s never let me down.  This tea pouch fine enough to contain the rooibos, helps that it’s a higher grade so the needles are longer.  Blends looks like it’s mostly rooibos, with bits of the other ingredients.  Can see the marigold in it, which is good (I have a ton of marigold at home and add it to most of my teas, just to up the health benefits of my teas).

This blend has so much of a citrus scent that I can barely smell the rooibos, expecting that will change when I stop analyzing the pouch and add water to it…

Steeping this one the same as I did the Chamomile Citrus, boiling water for five minutes.  The rooibos is darker wet so now I can see the other herbs as well as the stems.  Excellent leaf to stem ratio though, Mighty Leaf did not disappoint.  It’s infused to a nice dark, reddish brown and it smells divine.  The rose and hibiscus are now dominating the scent and the citrus smell is completely gone.

It tastes like rooibos but I think the rose is killing it, bit too flowery, almost perfumey.  Letting it cool.  The pouches are completely biodegradible and they literally look like the sachets that girls use to scent lingerie (do guys do that too?).  Tea has cooled now and it still has that rose taste, fantastic if you like flowers in your tea, not working for me though.  Still a really good quality tea though, impressive.

You can purchase the Chamomile Citrus and African Nectar directly from the Mighty Leaf Tea website.