The most exciting thing happened to me this morning (Okay, exaggeration – an exciting thing happened, not the most). I’m at work, being a receptionist (one more week!) and I’m opening one of the magazines we carry – and with the magazine is free tea! Granted, it’s Tazo which I have trouble getting behind because I loathe Starbucks and most of what it stands for, but free tea is free tea.
Dry, the teabag smells of rooibos and something else – not vanilla though. Maybe peach? There is definitely “full leaf” in this bag – the rooibos is larger than I’ve ever seen it, and I’ve got a lot of rooibos teas. The little sticks actually happen to be poking through the mesh which I find frustrating, but it could be worse.
The steeped smell is similar to the dry – surprisingly powerful. Again, not of vanilla but of something else. Something sweet. Maybe fruity. Kind of artificial. I have no ingredients list, I’ll have to look it up later.
The liquor is fairly orange and there is a little (very little) dust at the bottom of my cup. To be expected with a finer ‘tea’ like rooibos.
First tastes: Rooibos, with that weird strong smell. Sweet, maybe fruity. Not vanilla. No vanilla involved. Maybe it’s like chicken broth – the vanilla walked through the tea, but it isn’t IN it. Something about it makes me grimace a little bit. Maybe sour? I don’t know what this is… Wandering off to find ingredients list on internet
AHA! There ARE peaches. That must be what I’m getting. Apples were in the ingredient list, but I’m not picking up on that. If this were named something else, it might get a higher rating, but a vanilla rooibos it is not. 10/100 for being vanilla, but somewhere in the 60 range for being a regular fruity tea. Would drink again but would most likely not purchase.
I do appreciate that this is as close to loose leaf in a pre-packaged bag as you can get though. Better than many of my PC bagged teas, but I just can’t support Starbucks, not even in tea ventures.
