I don’t like rooibos or banana, so I had a moment of fear when I got this as a free sample in my last order. But hey, a sample’s a sample, and I did want to try it out! The dry “leaves” smell really good, not at all banana-like or rooibos-y. It kind of smells like… apple pie, without the spice. I guess that’s because of the apple chunks!
Steeped it also smells really good. While I hate (and I mean HATE) fresh banana, this is like a baked banana taste. Like banana bread or banana oatmeal cookies! Sweet and creamy. The rooibos is surprisingly un-medicinal (though that might be because I got nervous and steeped it for a pretty short time), and it adds to the bakey-ness of the tea. And the apple chunks add some nice fruitiness. The chocolate, sadly, isn’t really that present—I would definitely like a little more chocolate oomph in my cup, given the name and all! And most surprisingly of all, the peppercorn adds a pretty big bite at the end (though there were like 5 in my cup). Sometimes they are just there for decorative purposes, but I feel like they do add some dimension to this.
This isn’t my favorite or something I’d dip into often since, well, I don’t like most of the ingredients, but surprisingly I did enjoy it and will definitely finish my sample off! I think banana fans will really love this one.
